Today we set out to explore Dales Gorge from end to end, the start of the circuit was only 1km from our camp spot so we set off reasonably early as we also had to call into the camp hosts and pay our camp fees because they were shut when we came in last night.The walk starts with a steep descent into Fortescue Falls on some pretty rough steps and rocks but nothing we Tassie Bushwalkers couldn’t handle.

Fortescue Falls flows all year round and is just lovely and it’s more of a cascade than a waterfall. It flows over some amazing rocks that are all stepped and look a little like lego. There is a swimming hole at the bottom of the falls but we headed further on to the unmarked track that leads to Fern Pool. This is a sacred site to the local aboriginals and although they say you can swim in the pool you are asked to do it quietly and not to jump in, there was a ladder to get in and timber decking to just sit around and take in the vista.We decided not to swim here either as it was still quite early and it just didn’t seem the place to have a splash around so we backtracked and headed back pass Fortescue falls and along the floor of Dales Gorge to the other end at Circular Pool.The track was terrific with little ledges to climb around, lots of stepping stones over creeks and just generally a great walk. We were still bemused by the Class 4 level this walk has, Class 5 being the highest I suppose they have to be over cautious to make people aware but it definitely wasn’t hard!

Fortescue Falls from gorge rim.

Fern Pool

Fig tree roots on way to Fern Pool.

We arrived at Circular Pool in about 45mins to see yet another beautiful waterhole, as you can guess by it’s name it is a circular pool and has a trickle of falls flowing into it on the right hand side. There were quite a few people here but there was enough room for everyone. I had read that the water here is freezing because it doesn’t receive any sunlight so I was a little slow to get in (actually I was very slow to get in) Col of course just dived in but I can’t do it, I have to ease each body part in to acclimatise. The little trickles that were flowing in were up on a ledge that was incredibly slippery but the people up there were saying how warm the water was coming down so Col carefully climbed up and I eventually made it over to do the same…very nice!

Warm trickles into Circular Pool.

Warm shower.

Circular Pool from above.

A tour group came in so we walked back along the track a little and climbed up to the lookout at the top of the gorge which we hadn’t noticed from down below to have a look. We were so hot once we got up there that we walked back along the top of the gorge, climbed back down to Fortescue Falls and jumped back into the much warmer water. It was getting quite warm by now and we still had to walk the 1.5kms back to camp so we had one last swim and walked back dripping wet, which kept us cool and we were pretty much dried by the time we got back.

Col in Fortescue Falls.

After some discussion about staying a couple of extra nights Col took the camper off and we decided to go for a drive to get some phone reception to book a Tom Price mine tour. We were nearly in the town of Tom Price before we got coverage so kept driving and and did a bit of a grocery/grog top up and bought some takeaways for tea before heading back to camp. On the way back we passed the turnoff for Mt Bruce which you can walk up if you have a spare 6 hours or you can walk up about 250m to the Marandoo Mine lookout and as we could see the glow of the mine from the road we ducked in to have a look, but it was a little to far away to really see anything but lots of orange lights. Col suddenly realised on the way back that we had a phone card and could have rung to book the mine tour from the Karijini Visitors Centre pay phone 25mins from camp, not the 200 odd kms round trip we did…..Doh!