21.06. - 24.06.2017 Karijini National Park

We are really sorry that there have been no posts for such a long time, but that's about to change.... I've actually written this post a long long time ago, just totally forgot to upload it. That's why it's still very detailed😅.

Must-see highlights on the way down to Perth include the magnificent gorges of the Pilbara in Karijini National Park. They are highly recommended, so we couldn't miss out on this national park. As you have already read, the journey there was tough and difficult, but above all expensive 😂🙈.

About 1 hour before the national park (unsealed road), we noticed that we had a flat tire 😭😱. Best conditions, no one around, just landscape and red sand, of course no network... so we tried to assemble our jack and understand the English instructions. It's funny that our jack is so rusty that it didn't work at all ☹️ it's such an old thing that it's no longer available on the market 😂. So we could only hope that someone would pass by who had network to call the Australian ADAC. After a while, a car really came and stopped immediately. A sweet family with three kids. The man asked what was wrong and lo and behold, he immediately came with his jack. Another car stopped, another family with three kids, friends of the other family. Everyone was super nice, the two men changed the tire for us and pumped up the flat tire and tried to fix it. Unfortunately, our spare tire also lost air because it was so old and porous 😂😂😂. And now here's the thing... the hole in the flat tire was so big that it couldn't be fixed anymore 😱. Double luck or 😂. Since the spare tire was losing air slowly, they advised us to stop every 10 minutes and inflate it with our mini compressor until we reach the nearest town. That was the only option, we had no choice but to drive like this to Tom Price, a town near Karijini National Park. We were so touched by the helpfulness of these families. The men willingly lay down in the red sand and changed the tire for us. All clothes were dirty and of course the kids' clothes too, because everyone wanted to help. In addition, the time and effort for two strangers 🙈. A big thank you again to the helpful Aussies! 👍

After what felt like an eternity, we finally arrived at the mechanic in Tom Price with our method. Advantage of a small town: we had 2 new 4x4 tires in the next hour..... Disadvantage: a small town has no real competition.... The money monster struck 😂! 600 dollars for 2 tires! That hurts 💰☹️. Especially since we wanted to change all 4 tires in Perth, most likely for the same price as here for 2 😂. Well, for us it was over with bad roads from here on 🙈. Not really happy about how the day went, we looked for a caravan park, as it was already getting late to continue to the national park.

But the flat tire was of course not enough for one day, if things go wrong, then really... in the evening after dinner, the trunk door wouldn't open anymore... we tried to fix it, but it didn't work out. The door handle was loose and had no resistance, the screw was broken. Despite a new screw, which we replaced ourselves, it didn't work. We had no choice but to visit the mechanic the next morning ☹️. Feeling a bit down about the course of the day and with a crushed spirit, we went to bed.. in the morning we extended our stay in Tom Price for another night, as we had to go to the mechanic and it was school holidays. We knew that if we didn't get to the campground in the national park early enough, we wouldn't get a spot anymore. (School holidays are really awful!!!!! Everything booked out and 15-25% more expensive, even at the fast food places and restaurants 😱 not that we eat at restaurants 😂 but still annoying)

We first went to the mechanic who changed our tires. His assessment: everything needs to be dismantled blablabla about $300😱... totally shocked, we moved on and went to a small workshop to get another opinion. The mechanic was super nice and took a closer look at it, he said we just need a new door handle. That would have still been in our budget, but he didn't have anything, there would only be a store much further south that could help us. We were so relieved that it wasn't a big deal and tried our luck at the caravan park. And lo and behold, we were successful. We repositioned the screw and the door opened again! You really become a mechanic here 😅. Overjoyed not to have paid a cent for it, we had a very relaxed afternoon, watched movies in bed and ate nachos with sauce 😂. We really needed that to calm down.

Here I have to confess something to you. For the past 4 months, I haven't been able to open the trunk 🤦🏻‍♀️😅. We had to press against the door with one hand and then open the door in a special way. I've never been able to do it, so Tim had to open the trunk for the past 4 months 😂. Sometimes it was really annoying, because without him I was completely lost if I needed something from the back 😂. The worst was when I had my moments, was mad at him and had to ask him for help... girls, you know what I mean... 😂😂😂. But now that we've repaired the trunk, I can finally open the door on my own 💪😂! That was some good news. Please don't judge, it was really hard to open the door...🙇🏻‍♀️...(from Tim: Actually, it was really easy 😅)

Early in the morning, we headed to the national park to secure a spot at the campground. And we succeeded, despite the exceptional circumstances due to the holidays. Of the available 180 spots, not many were left, but we got lucky 🍀. We didn't hesitate and set off directly from the campground to the first track. The Dales George, a huge gorge with swimming opportunities. We spent a total of about 5 hours there, Tim even dared to go into the forever cold water. It looked absolutely dreamy, with the waterfalls and the clear water, but the water was just too cold for me. So I stayed on the shore and took some nice pics of Tim 😉😅.

Next day. We took on 3 gorges for this day, each with a difficulty level of 5, the highest in the area. We walked a total of 15 km. We waded through water, walked along rock walls, high above the ground on narrow paths, it was totally awesome 😍! Exhausting but super cool! What wasn't so cool was the drive to the individual gorges, gravel roads 😟... actually we wanted to avoid them, but we had to go through here again. But we arrived safely at the campground. We spent another night in the national park and then set off the next day towards Exmouth, to the Ningaloo Reef, where you can encounter manta rays and whale sharks in the water 😍.