Rodney Campbell's Blog

Hancock Gorge is a challenging walk that is described as a ‘Journey to the centre of the earth’. You can see and feel the highly polished rocks on your way through Spider Walk and on down to Kermit’s Pool.

Hancock Gorge is for very experienced bushwalkers. A flat, Class 2 trail leads from the car park to the Hanock Gorge trail-head sign. This trail showcases gorge-top vegetation. From the large trail head sign, there is a Class 4 trail that leads to the edge of the gorge and the top of a vertical ladder. Class 4 finishes here. From the ladder down into the gorge is Class 5, and is suitable for very experienced bushwalkers only.

Waders Paradise

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 2.5 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Pro Tip: If you are coming to Karijini National Park and you can only go to one place then visiting the Weano Recreation Area is it. My two most highly recommended gorges would be Hancock Gorge (& Spider Walk & Kermits Pool) and Weono Gorge (& Handrail Pool). These are both spectacular and I’d be hard pressed to choose just one. However if you could only do one gorge walk then do Weano and make sure you go down the handrail to Handrail Pool.

Weano Recreation Area

Weano Recreation Area

Pro Tip: I’d recommend the best time to go down and shoot in Hancock Gorge would be early to mid morning. Depending on the time of the year it will require getting your feet wet and may require a little wading (in my case up to my thighs) if you’re not willing to spend ages trying to find a way to skirt around the sides of the gorges where the water gets deeper. I started down at around 7:45AM (about 70 minutes after sunrise) and I was the first and only person down here this morning. The first tourist to arrive at Kermit’s Pool (where I was at the time) was at 10AM (more than two hours later).

Before coming away on this trip I’d done my research on Karijini and spoke in detail with some friends who’d shot here before (Peter Eastway, Adam Williams) and Paul Pichugin.

One of the items I invested in and brought with me was a Dry Bag – in my case I got this backpack version from Overboard. This enabled me to put all my gear in the bag (Camera, Lenses, filters, remote, spare clothes, food, etc) and have my water bottle and tripod on the sides. It’s not absolutely necessary to have a dry bag for most of the gorges (even Hancock). What it does let you do however is not worry about your gear getting wet so you can happily wade through sections of the gorge which is much much quicker than trying to carefully inch your way around the sides worrying that you might drop your gear into the water. Frankly with limited time down there I’d rather spend twice as much time shooting.

The image up at the top is about 15 minutes walk in and is the first major area where you might wade. You “can” try skirting along the sides but it’s very narrow and slippery – chance of slipping and falling and getting hurt at 50%.

The stitched panorama below is just past the long wading section (on the left of this) and this shows the bend which leads into what is called the Spider Walk (to the right).

Now you may be thinking that we’ve slipped into an episode of Harry Potter and we’re about to walk through an area infested with Giant spiders… but you’d be wrong. It is son named because at some points, the walls get so close (less than one metre wide), that you can only pass it like a spider, with your legs and hands left and right and the water flowing beneath you. Frankly you “can” do this to avoid getting your feet wet but I ended up just walking along the bottom in the water because it was much easier and faster :).

Hancock Bend

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 4 sec at f/16, ISO 100 x 9 Frames

This is a stitch of nine (9) vertical frames taken at 8:15AM.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Junction Pool Lookout is inbetween the car park and Oxer Lookout – all three are literally just a few hundred metres apart so it’s a very quick and easy walk between them. I was coming back out on my way back to the car so I could drive over to where I’d be heading down into Hancock Gorge this morning.

On the way I stopped off at Junction Pool Lookout to take a look. As it’s name indicates Junction Pool Lookout offers spectacular views down to Junction Pool, 100 metres below.

This is the view from the lookout platform looking almost straight down to the junction of the gorges and water flows below. It is a breathtaking sight but not one for the faint of heart as the viewing platform sticks out over the cliff edge and I’m leaning out to setup the tripod and camera to look almost straight down. Hard to believe but the steep gorge walls ate 100m high!.

Junction Pool Lookout

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm, 1.3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Unfortunately I wouldn’t be going down to Junction Pool, instead just a little past Kermits Pool would be as far as I’d be able to go down Hancock Gorge today. Getting to Junction Pool requires heading beyond Kermits Pool to the Class 6 area. This requires ropes and abseiling gear and you must be with a guide (e.g. with West Oz Active).

Another look at those magnificent Karijini hills in the early morning light.

Rising Glow

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/15 sec at f/11, ISO 100

At 7:30AM I headed back to the car.

Today would be an insanely long and busy day in the Pilbara for me…

Oxer Pastels

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 2.5 sec at f/8, ISO 100

I was getting up before dawn to go on my first shoot in one of the three best (IMHO) gorges in Karijini (Hancock Gorge). Then I’d rush back to camp late morning to pick up my parents and drive for an hour to Tom Price. I’d pick up my daughter there (she went on a mine tour in the morning). We’d all have lunch in Tom Price before my daughter and I would make the long drive (an hour+) to another of the three best gorges in Karijini (Hamersley Gorge). We’d spend the afternoon there exploring and shooting till just after sunset. We’d climb out of that gorge and then would make the very long drive (90+min) on horrendous dirt roads in the dark back to the Eco Retreat before arriving there around 8PM.

Karijini National Park

Karijini National Park

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

Busy Busy Busy…

So let’s start at the beginning before the insanity starts…

I wake early, not too early – I’ve mentioned before that (unless we have nice clouds and a nice twilight) there’s probably little point shooting in the gorges before the sun is above the horizon and hitting the tops of the gorge walls and reflecting down into the gorges.

So I wasn’t planning to be at the gorge an hour before sunrise but I did want to get there a little before sunrise.

Thankfully it’s just a short 15 minute drive from the Eco Retreat to Weano Recreation Area. I parked first at the car park right at the end (near Junction Pool Lookout) a good twenty minutes before the 6:30AM sunrise.

Weano Recreation Area

Weano Recreation Area

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

It was already quite light so I made the short (literally just a few minutes) walk out to the two lookouts (Junction Pool Lookout and then Oxer Lookout).

Oxer Lookout provides you with a view of the junction of Weano, Red, Hancock and Joffre gorges. Here, tiers of banded rock tower over deep pools at the bottom. Immediately to the north of the lookout is Weano Gorge, with Red Gorge more or less straight ahead, but slightly to the east. Joffre Gorge lies to the south of Red Gorge, and Hancock Gorge is on the south side.

Up top is the first shot of the day – it was beautiful and peaceful and even though there were no clouds to be seen the pastels had come out to play for just a few minutes. The shot was taken only a few minutes before sunrise looking left (towards Weano Gorge) from the Oxer Lookout platform.

Clinging for Life

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1.6 sec at f/8, ISO 100

This tree clinging for life dangling off the side of the magnificent column of hard red rocks has been made famous by the many classic shots of it. I did try to get a good shot of it but I just couldn’t get a framing or composition I was happy with. I wanted that look of just the tree highlighted by the rising sun with the rest of the background dipping into shadow. Perhaps it would work better with some clouds to soften the hard light.

Either way I was eager to get down into the gorge and make my way to Kermit’s Pool.

Time for just a couple more shots with the sun rising rapidly and highlighting the layers of the landscape.

This view is looking north from Oxer Lookout. Here we’re looking over the top of where Handrail Pool is with Weano Gorge snaking off past the top left corner.

Cracks

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 31 mm, 1/2 sec at f/16, ISO 100

Red Earth

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 62 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

This shot is looking south from Oxer Lookout over the top of Junction Pool and Joffre creek. These are classic Karijini with their magnificent gorge walls topped with layers of spinifex and ghost gums under a clear blue sky.

Sandwiched

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Time for a few quick shots at Junction Pool Lookout before heading off to the main event.

It was getting on in the day (just after 5PM) so it was time to head out of Joffre Gorge before it got dark. It’s hard not to be enticed by the vast grandness of the outback and the epic scale and wonder of these magnificent gorges. Your gut reaction is to shoot wide and try and get as much of this spectacular natural wonder in as you can. Sometimes however it’s worth taking note of the tiny details.

As was the case here when on the way back down the narrow channel as you leave the main amphitheatre surrounding Joffre Falls. I was looking down at the shimmering water at my feet and looking in wonder at the lovely coloured rocks and moss beneath the water. The way the water folds and shimmers as it flows across the small cracks and falls in the bedrock underneath.

Shimmer

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 5 sec at f/13, ISO 100

It was time to take some more selective micro landscapes of the patterns and colour at my feet. I setup my camera on the tripod to look straight down and set about looking for interesting compositions with the rocks and water.

This is one of those times where using a good circular polarising filter really does make a huge difference. Allowing you to cut through the reflections in the water to see the magnificent colours and patterns below. Not too much tho – as you still want to see the ripple and shimmer of the water in places. A careful adjustment of the CPL and we are there…

Tiger Eye

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm, 8 sec at f/13, ISO 100

Five minutes later I’d taken these few shots in a few different spots within a two metre stretch of the path. We’d arrived at the spot where we have to climb up out of the gorge so I was packing up my things into my camera backpack ready for the climb.

Scratches

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 42 mm, 6 sec at f/13, ISO 100

My daughter had just started along the first narrow ledge to climb out when with wet slippery feet she slipped and fell backwards into the pool below. The fall was just a metre but she got quite a shock falling into the cold water fully clothed. After paddling out of the water and collecting her stuff it was cuddle time before making a more careful second attempt with me holding onto her. No more incidents which was very fortunate and it was very lucky she didn’t fall from much higher up.

Hi my name is Rodney Campbell, I’ve been clean for over six months, it’s been 197 days since my last panosphere. I’ve been in denial about my addiction and I’d believed that I’d fully recovered from my last binge panosphere session more than six months ago.

Alas as with all addictions the underlying cravings are not far below the surface. When I saw a tiny planet creation by Deb Mooney from our morning session at the Sea Cliff Bridge at Coalcliff I knew I was in trouble :).

After putting my one stitched panorama from the morning through the usual convolutions and processing I just wasn’t feeling it. It just wasn’t working for me and I figured that would be it… perhaps I really was cured…

Unfortunately whilst I didn’t see a tiny planet in there, along the way one of the results of an intermediate step did trigger a different idea to spark in my puny mind. This is usually a dangerous thing and as a result this creation was born…

Round the Bend

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 25 sec at f/16, ISO 100

I was actually quite pleased with this result, tho the final view isn’t a typical representation of the scene at Sea Cliff Bridge it is perhaps what I might have wished for the path of the road on this bland morning :). So… I should have just stopped there, but…

Lest you think however that I wasn’t fully committed to my addiction… I bring you not one but two panospheres from the morning session. Alas Gerry – it is worse than we feared!…

Those sinuous curves of the sea cliff bridge arcing out over the Tasman Sea just lent themselves so well to further transformations.

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

The first in twilight tones and thirty (30) minutes before sunrise.

Ringworld Addictions

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm, 31 sec at f/8, ISO 100

The second is minutes after sunrise when the colour was for the briefest time at it’s peak before disappearing into the gloom.

Planet Mutt

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 25 sec at f/16, ISO 100

I’d like to say this is all Gerry’s fault… but nay, tis not :(…