Rodney Campbell's Blog

One of the gorges in Karajini National Park that I had not been to before was Kalamina Gorge

On my middle day at Dales I headed over here by myself to check it out

Angular Rush

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 30.5 mm, 1 sec at f/16, ISO 64

Unlike most of the other gorges which were either close to the Dales Campground end or the Eco Retreat end of the park. Kalamina is about half way between the two accommodation areas

Kalamina also requires you to drive a way on sketchy dirt roads. The 6km drive out to the gorge on Kalamina Road from Banjima drive is particularly rough

Fall

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 49 mm, 1/2 sec at f/11, ISO 64

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

Once there however you are treated to a lovely gorge for walking. Once you navigate down the rough stone steps at the start you have a relatively wide and flat walk along the base of this gorge

It’s probably once of the easiest gorges to walk in and best done in late afternoon to sunset like I did here

Kalamina is quite wide and open (unlike the gorges at Weano (near the ECO Retreat)). Which means it’s open to the sky so having late afternoon light bouncing down off the gorge walls rather than directly down into the gorge in the middle of the day is much better. Both for walking and especially for photography

Kalamina Shine

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 49 mm, 1.3 sec at f/16, ISO 64

Once it got dark enough (at the end of astro twilight) I went for a short walk up the campsite to one of these old large termite mounds. I wanted to use it as foreground interest in a vertical milky way panorama

Lining things up so it looks like the milky way is spilling out of the top of the mound 🙂

Might as well make a selfie version whilst I’m here too…

Spilling Ants

NIKON Z 7 + 14.0 mm f/2.4 @ 14 mm, 15 sec at f/2.4, ISO 4000 x 6 Frames

At sunset I went for a short drive around to the road leading into Dales Gorge and spun up the drone for a twilight view over the gorge area

Dales Gorge

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/160 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 x 21 Frames

In this 21 frame 180˚ panorama you can see Dales Gorge in the middle. Fern pool is at the closer end (probably around where the bend in the gorge is) with Fortescue Falls beyond that

Dales Campground is off in the distance on the left

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

Cracked

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 160

It’s pretty sparse up on top. The undulating cracked red dirt earth, the landscape dotted with ghost gums and a smattering of tough spinifex grass

Dales

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/30 sec at f/2.8, ISO 400

With the very handy new metal stairs leading down to the bottom of the gorge I had quick and ready access to the upper end of Dales Gorge this time around

I went for a late afternoon walk along this end of the base of the gorge to photograph those fantastic reflections and colours again

Dales Reflections

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 48 mm, 1/2 sec at f/8, ISO 64

Those deep red cliffs in Dales, full of iron ore once again reflect that beautiful colour down into the gorge as water flows and pools within

It’s so much cooler and pleasant down here. With all this water it’s also so much more lush and inviting

What a difference to the dry and dusty conditions just a few hundred metres up on top of the gorge

Golden Flows

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 40 mm, 1 sec at f/11, ISO 64

Roots

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 50 mm, 1/50 sec at f/8, ISO 1250

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

I was back in the magical location of Karijini National Park again

First stop was two nights at Dales Campground which is conveniently located within walking distance of Dales Gorge

Terraced

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 40 mm, 1.3 sec at f/9, ISO 64

This time around the new steel steps and walking path down to Fortescue Falls was open (it was being built last time we were here)

This now makes it sooo much easier to get down to the falls, to fern pool and this end of Dales Gorge

The terraced falls are both a photographers paradise and also a very popular swimming spot on these hot dry days

Coming back here at sunset however and most of the people have left

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

Fortescue Falls

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 43 mm, 1/2 sec at f/10, ISO 64

Fortescue Reflect

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/4 S @ 24 mm, 1.6 sec at f/10, ISO 64