The drive from Marble Bar to Karijini involved an approximately 80km section of unsealed road along the Marble Bar-Hillsdale, and Hillsdale-Woodstock roads. We had tried to investigate the condition of the roads but could not get any definitive answers…. And anyway, everyone’s perspective on what a good road is always differs… We were certainly not going to go the extremely long way back to Port Hedland then down the highway…

so we ventured out along the road out of Marble Bar… past the Police Station…

and onto the road to Comet Mine…

It was not very long past Comet mine that we hit the dirt….

The road was actually pretty good – rough in some spots where sections had washed away after recent rain but not bad at all…

The area was pretty barren… the only roadkill were cattle… and there were some interesting sights along the way…. wrecked cars…

an RUOK blue monument….

A few mines are located along the way and so the area is frequented by road trains…

We crossed some dry creeks…. some with a few waterholes….

Eventually we got to the sealed section of Woodstock Road and Branch demanded a stop for van inspections after the corrugated journey…

He had a big cleanup in the Weiss Lotus with the freezer door having come off completely and the contents all over the van floor…

Only a toilet roll had unravelled in the Wells van, so Branch skipped past to the Hunter Lotus where the coffee machine had had a wonderful trip exploring the entire surface area of the floor of the van…. and the never-ending supply of construction shavings had made yet another appearance….

Back on the road and we met an increasing number of road trains….

There were quite a lot of rocky granite outcrops reminiscent of the Devil’s Marbles in the NT…

We were fortunate enough to miss the huge mining train that just finished going over the crossing – it was so long you could not see the end of it…the railway tracks were very neat and looked new…

Finally, we reached the highway and turned left toward Karijini…

The landscape was so changeable – one minute it looked like the surface of Mars – hot, red and stony with little or no vegetation….

The next minute it was grassy, green with wildflowers and trees…. Such opposites within a kilometre of each other!

The next stop was Auski Roadhouse for some much-needed fuel… the place was buzzing – busier than anything we had experienced for some time 😊

Road trains and mining vehicles everywhere – it was packed!

After leaving Auski the scenery became more mountainous with red rocky bluffs, tufts of green spinifex dotted all over them, and gums and mulga trees growing amongst the rocky outcrops…

Truly magnificent – you could see deep gorges carved out of the sides of the hills which would definitely have had waterfalls running if there had been recent rain in the area…

We drove into Karijini National Park, stopping at the visitor centre briefly to get some info… and Rose and Kerry picked up a couple of souvenirs…

As the road between the visitor centre and the west side of the park was closed for roadworks, we drove back to Karijini Drive, past Mt Bruce (second highest mountain in WA) and continued around to Karijini Eco Resort where we were booked in for 4 nights…

On arrival we set up camp and settled in…

We still had some daylight, so we walked from the campground to Joffre Gorge….

The area was really green due to recent rain and as we walked, we could see the edges of the gorge appear like a gash in the earth…

it is hard to describe the magnificence of the gorges in Karijini National Park… and pictures do not ever seem to do them justice…

God truly has created a beautiful planet for us to inhabit…. As you walk along the track it is hard to believe that in just a few metres more you will reach such an enormously deep ravine with water flowing in the bottom…

After taking in the views from the top of the gorge, we climbed down the steep staircases to the bottom…

it was a long descent but worth the effort – we got to the bottom and were the only ones there as it was quite late in the day… the pool was very tranquil – we took it all in then climbed back out and walked home…

Sunset over Karijini was spectacular with the gums silhouetted against glowing red and orange cloud banks….