To Karijini National Park, Western Australia.

Car all fixed, we were on the road again, this time heading to Karijni National Park. As it was over 300 km away along the Great Northern Highway, we had decided to stay somewhere before Karijini, visit for the day and then head to Tom Price.

We wanted to stay at the National Park, but all sites were booked for months. We try not to pre-book as it puts us on a strict timetable, and in the past we have missed other sites and attractions, just like missing some beautiful places in the Kimberley as we needed to get to Derby for our booked Horizontal Falls tour. Anyway, we tried to book about a week before but all campgrounds were full. The Pilbara is just as beautiful as the Kimberley, just different. Long straight roads flanked by high cliffs.

 

We passed a few free camps along the way, but kept going until we came to the last one, about 30 mins from Karijini. So glad we did. Just look at the view from our window!

It is a free camp called Albert Tognolini Rest Area, just off the main road and up a long dirt road to a lookout. There are many little nooks and crannys to camp in, and the road seems to dissappear and was replaced by a track that seems to go on for ever. We went a fair way along the road and decided to go back to a site we had passed. There were already a number of vans there, and the spot we chose had stunning views.

There are no facilities there so one must be totally self -sufficient, and there are a number of walks. The only thing that spoilt it was the three vans that came in after dark, parked way to close to other vans, lit a campfire - well away from their vans, and had noisy children riding bikes with bells in the dark in and around other vans. Lucky they quietly left early in the morning.

The rest area is named after the former Commissioner of Main Roads who was responsible for many improvements along sections of the highway. The actual lookout has information about Albert Tognolini. Born in 1927 at Armadale, Western Australia, Tognolini was fully involved in the planning, route selection and construction of the Newman to Port Hedland section of the Great Northern Highway.

Hindsight, we should have stayed another night just to take in the views, peace and quiet ..... and the most spectacular sunsets.

We had heard so many good reports about Karijini National Park, we were looking forward to spending the day there. It took about 30 minutes from the camp to the park. 

Our first stop was the park information centre. We needed to know if we should un-hitch the van at the info car park and tour around in the car, or if the van was able to be accommodated at the different car parks. It can. We had no trouble towing the van around the park.

The park is located on the traditional lands of the Banyjima, Kurrama and Innawonga people of the Pilbara. A number of gorges in the area were combined and renamed Hamersley National Park. In 1991 it was renamed to Karijini National Park in recognition of the Aboriginal history in the area. The park is about 627,444 hectares, and is the second largest National Park in Western Australia.

The information centre was very well done, with not only the history of the geology of the area, 

and the Aboriginal history, 

but also of the early European pioneers to the area.

Sadly, that was the highlight of the park. With the recent cyclone going through the area, many of the roads were still closed. This lead to planned maintenance being delayed and damages from the rains still needed to be repaired.

With many internal roads closed, including those to the gorges in the Hamersley area, we headed down to Dales Gorge first. The walkway down to the gorge was closed about 200m along the boardwalk. We next drove to the Fortescue Falls carpark, and again there was a lot of works going on to update the facilities. The walk was also closed. The falls could be seen from the end of where the walk was open, but it was a slight view. Peter has a bit of the falls on his YouTube channel - PetalliTravellers.

Disappointing yes, but a pleasant drive. Off to Tom Price and then back to the coast.