Karijini NP

The Pilbara is a landscape of flat, stony spinifexed plains and jagged, red ironstone hills and mountains, dotted with green and white gums.
Once inside Karijini NP you follow the roads and find that the flat plains just open up, like a huge gash is the land to reveal a spectacular gorge.
Dales gorge is only a couple of hundred meters across and maybe a kilometre long. The white snappy gums around its rim contract the red bedded rocks. These are old rocks, laid down in ocean sediment 2.7 billion years ago! The banding or coloured layers are a result of the change of oxygen levels and available iron in the oceans caused by volcanic activity and our friends the photosynthesising Stromatolites. Millions of years later these rocks were lifted upwards when two tectonic plates collided, giving us the bedded mountains and gorges of the Pilbara.
As you step down down into the gorge you are able to see layer after layer of rock, right down to the impressive steps of Fortescue Falls. They look like they have been cut out if the landscape. Following the path for another 10 minutes along a green vegetated path you emerge at Fern Pool. Yes there are ferns, fig trees and paper bark and the fruit bats squawk from the trees above. The pool is blue fresh water, too deep to stand, with small fish happy to eat the skin off your feet if you leave them hanging off the wooden platform for too long. Some of these pools are said to be so cold they'll give you hypothermia but not this one today. The aquifer is running a nice 25°C by my estimate.
We crossed many dry river beds on our way in, however, there is an abundance of water down here. And where's it all going?
We had a wonderful time in Dales Gorge. When we return I want to explore the other gorges but the kids are to little at the moment.