Great rocks and a cool pool — Hey Jude Beyond

Feb 8

Feb 8 Great rocks and a cool pool

Hamersley Gorge is a famous landmark in Karijini National Park in Western Australia, and was therefore a must-see for Big-Trippers. It is a remarkable place.

A lady in the tourist information office in Tom Price had assured me the unsealed road to Hamersley Gorge was graded – the process of smoothing and levelling a dirt or gravel track using a bulldozer equipped with a wide heavy-duty blade. We’d endured a potholey horror-show the previous day from Paraburdoo to TP, and weren’t keen to repeat the experience. Readers who’ve been on outback trips with me in the past might remember one occasion years ago in New South Wales when the weather turned bad quickly and an exciting adventure became a bit of a nightmare for a few hours.

Aussie off-roaders as a rule are very good at reporting changed conditions and sharing their experiences in chat rooms, which I found useful for last-minute checks on whether tracks were open and usuable without risk. I picked up many tips and tricks by chatting to fellow travellers on garage forecourts, in truckstop shops or ‘at the pub’. ‘The pub’ in remote towns across Australia is usually a basic hotel, but often with reliably good food and a lively bar. Most of the road to Hamersley was exceptionally hard going, and we weren’t new to driving rough tracks. Only a final short stretch down to the bottom was bitumen.

Backlit spinifex and shade-loving saplings

Aussies are compelled to fling themselves into any waterhole – however small, rocky or overcrowded – whenever they can. As kids, they learn to jump in and swim without trepidation almost as soon as they can walk, if not before. As adults, they don’t mind being part of an excitable, shouty melée, whether on beach, riverbank, or by teeny-tiny pool.

If you’re visiting Hamersley for the photographic potential of a stunningly beautiful, peaceful place, be prepared to wait patiently for moments when no one’s splashing about: preferably, when everyone’s left. Waiting a while on a fine day means you’ll witness extraordinary rocks changing colour as the sun tracks across the sky, or pops behind an errant cloud.

I was disappointed to see many visitors in bathers walking purposefully down, towel folded under arm, with the express intention of ticking off another pool in another gorge. I overheard some of them comparing notes about which they’d ‘done’ in Karijini National Park. Hamersley is the most remote gorge in the Park, but maybe not remote enough!

The rock pool is natural, however much it may not look like it when filled with noisy bathers. And it wasn’t even the height of holiday season when we were there.

A rare no-people moment – complete with stegosaurus!

The rock is a sedimentary Banded Iron Formation, consisting of minerals deposited as fine mud in a deep ocean basin 2.5 billion years ago. These rocks are unusual in that they took a long time to be deposited – during 350 million years. The banding effect was created by some sediments being rich in iron and others not. The layers were later buckled and folded during the movement and collision of tectonic plates. You can’t always interpret natural wonders before you, so just go with the flow and admire the shapes and shades.

So, there’s a reason why Hamersley Gorge is famous: it is rock splendour at its finest. But now I’ve come over all First Dog on the Moon*, and feel the need to add; ‘But it’s horrible, don’t go there’!