For those that have followed my photography for a while, you’ll remember that I used to publish my pics at my tony.budge.com.au website. However, I stopped maintaining that site when I started up this blog and some time ago, when I move web hosting providers, I let the whole website die.
At present I have no intention, or time, to re-establish my old photography website, so I’m thinking that I will re-post some of my older pics, which pre-date the 2015 commencement date of this blog site, here as a series of ‘retrospective’ blog posts. These posts, as per below, will consist primarily of my photographs with minimal narrative about the trip. I hope you enjoy these pics!
I first visited Karijini National Park in 2006 with my mates, Rod and Paul and fell instantly in love with the place. Approximately 1300kms by road North of Perth, Karijini sits in the Hamersley Ranges within W.A.’s Pilbara region. The top 20 highest peaks in W.A. sit within the Hamersley Ranges, including W.A.’s highest peak of Mt Meharry at 1250m. The area is rich in minerals, many of which are mined, however, the Karijini National Park, which by the way is W.A.’s 2nd largest National Park, protects an amazing landscape of deeps gorges, amazing geology, flora and fauna.
Formed over the milenia, you’d be excused to wonder at what all the fuss is about as you drive into the park as aside from some pretty hills, there’s not a lot to see from the road in. However, only a short walk from the Dales Gorge carpark the terrain drops away to the beautiful and large Dales Gorge, one of many gorges in the park.
Each gorge is unique and whilst you could easily visit and hike them all in a couple of days, I believe you need to spend time in each to soak in and appreciate their different characteristics and beauty.
I’ve now been fortunate enough to visit Karijini four times, the last being in 2014 which is when I shot the following photographs. This particular trip was a photography focussed trip and I was up there with my photography mates Bushy (aka Dean) and Craig. I remember planning this trip and visualising in my head many of the pics I wanted to attempt as on my previous trips I was often disappointed with my results. Until you visit yourself you probably won’t appreciate this, but many of the gorges are vast, often very deep and sometimes narrow, and trying to photograph the landscape, combatting the often bright sunlit walls against the sections of the gorge which are deep in shadow is a photography challenge, but one which I loved taking on.
I don’t currently (2020) have any future plans to re-visit Karijini but I know that I will revisit it again sometime as it’s one of those very special places that demands your attention.
Do yourself a favour and plan your own trip to Karijini someday. FYI, I’ve heard and can verify that the March, April, May period following W.A.’s typical northern cyclone season, is a good time to visit as there’s plenty of water flowing, providing fantastic waterfalls and the daytime temperature is still warm enough to enjoy a swim in the many beautiful pools within the canyons and gorges.
