Murchison River Gorge - Day 1
Hardabout Pool
The trip began with a
573-km-long drive from Perth. The group had brought two cars, with the first departing slightly earlier so as to be able to stop at various points along the route that were accessible by road. The whole point of this was to be able to leave food drops at hidden locations in the bush (that were then waypointed) so that they could be collected along the way. I chose to carry all my provisions for the entire hike as I personally felt that food drops made things a little too convenient.
The first two access points can be found at a branch off the Ajana-Kalbarri road that is located at
27°49'14.4"S 114°27'40.6"E. This road will bring you to another junction shortly after, with the right turning leading to Ross Graham lookout and the left to Hawk's Head Lookout. Further up the Ajana-Kalbarri road, you will come across another fork on the right (coming from the south) at
27°45'35.7"S 114°22'41.1"E that continues along for about 20 km (half the road is sealed and the other half is just gravel) before reaching the junction that branches off right to the Z-bend and left to the Loop (
Click here for the image of the turn-off). After leaving the other car at the Loop carpark, we made our way back down to the starting point just after Hardabout Pool.
By the time we left the car and began to walk, it was already 15:00. We made our way north-east and descended down to the river in the heat - it was Winter when we left Perth, but Kalbarri was so far north that Winter was but a distant memory. Once my body began to get used to the surprising warmth, my senses started to go into overdrive.
