The next day we got up early because we needed to pack everything back into the car. We'd taken it all out the day before so we wouldn't have to drive in Karijini with all our stuff. But now we'd eaten a lot of our food so packing was a bit easier and quicker. Not long after dawn we were back on the road into Karijini.
The morning worked out a lot like the day before. We parked up, checked out the view from the lookout at the top of the gorge, then headed down the waterfall into the gorge itself. It took us the best part of two hours to make our way along this one, mostly because I kept wanting to stop and take pictures. We lost the trail towards the end and had to clamber over some really big rocks, but thankfully we were already pretty much within earshot of the other people who were already at the pool. We popped out in front of them from completely the wrong place which raised a few eyebrows.
We also got to see my favourite place in Karijini, Fern Pool. We had it to ourselves it it was simply wonderful.
Back at the car and after a tin of ravioli (we were both famished) we left Karijini headed for Newman. Only a 2 hour run, but we wanted to be there before the tourist information centre closed because we wanted to book a tour of the mine. Tina slept most of the way.
When we got there we had an unpleasant surprise. The tour guide had had a death in the family and the funeral was the next day, which meant the tour would not be running. This was pretty disastrous! We really wanted to see the huge machines and vehicles they use in the mine - a specimen truck was parked up outside as a tourist attraction and we wanted to see them working. But it wasn't to be. There is absolutely nothing else in Newman and the thought of spending a whole day there waiting to go on the tour the following day didn't appeal a whole lot. Disappointed, we changed plan again. We'd stay in Newman overnight, get up early and drive home to Perth the next day.
We found a cabin at the caravan park, but ended up rather wishing we'd camped. There probably would have been fewer insects sharing our accommodation with us, although I did take a liking to the lizard who wandered in. After an evening trip up to the local lookout to see the surrounding area and mine, we got an early night. We had one hell of a drive the next day.