After a "nice" full day of driving the day before we set out early in the morning again towards the Dale Campground in Karijini National Park as it is a busy time of year. Then we drove on further towards the Visitor Information Center and have been told that the gravel roads are really rough. As our Tankgirl is not a 4WD (four-wheel-drive) we have been advised to test a bit of the road first. And so we did.
We were afraid about the conditions of the tyres from the very beginning and everything in this van was rattling away as we drove just 200 meters or so on this road.
So we decided to turn around and drive 50km back towards Tom Price and climb Mount Bruce instead, the second highest peak of WA.
We arrived there at midday and therefore had some sandwiches before we took on the trail. This was the way at first. Laura still had a sore foot from her encounter with a sharp piece of shell from Coral Bay.
After about an hour we already had a nice view around the area and had a bit of rock climbing to do to get to this point. We adjusted our speed to the heat and got slower.
As we wouldn't finish the complete climb before sunset we decided to get to the first rim top. Laura waited in a bit of a shade for us while we took on some really steep and rocky climbing.
WE DID IT! Well, to that first rim anyway. We enjoyed the view around for a while before we descended again to not let Laura wait too long.
So here is Mount Bruce as seen from the main road. We started more far to the right and made it to that first rim on the right. That was about 3km into the walk or so. The summit is to the left and would have taken us probably another 2 hours to get there and then, well, all the way back. What a shame we didn't start that hike earlier in the day but anyhow. We had our exercise for the day.
We arrived back at the fully booked out campground at 4pm and made simple pasta with pesto for dinner. I was exhausted and very disappointed. Especially about our Tankgirl: the fuel-consumption, the poor state of the van and therefore the impossibility to get to any of the beautiful gorges of Karijini National Park. We would still see a few nice things the next day of Karijini but only the very accessible bits. Anyhow, we got to bed early and it was just freezing cold that night. Horrible.
Our next stop: Circular Pool and Fortescue Falls!
Yours mountain-climbing-attempting-and-disappointed Stefanie
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Have your say now! Would you do the same thing or would you do it differently? Do you have any travel tipps for me for my onwards travels? let me know!