Let's continue our journey through the northwest of Australia. Officially we are still in Western Australia, but geographically I would rather allocate this part of the country to the North of Australia. But be it as it is - we don't really have to deal with such details, let's just enjoy what we find in front of our eyes. And that is often so fascinating and so breathtakingly beautiful.
After we made our way along the coast to Port Headland last time, now we don't continue on the direct way to our next bigger destination, Broom. We'll save that for a little longer, since we want to take a little detour first. A bit further south in the hinterland lies the Karijini National Park, and we were planning to have a closer look there.
Since almost everything in Australia is or seems oversized, we had to limit ourselves to only one part of the park. In this huge country you will rarely manage to discover everything of a certain place or landscape. Australia is simply too gigantic, and unfortunately I also didn't have the time to deal with every place as intensively and in detail as I wanted to. But that was not a problem, because in a few days I would already be somewhere else and there I could look around again and marvel at how wonderful our planet is.
But for today we take a walk through Karijini Park. Well then, let's go...
Karijini National Park is the second largest national park in Western Australia and it is located right in the heart of the Pilbara region. The park boasts several deep and extensive gorges, and since it was created around 2 billion years ago, it features some of the oldest rocks in the world.
Of course, red or reddish brown is often the dominant color here as well, especially the sandstone often shimmers in the most diverse shades of those two colors. The rock formations have been properly washed out in the course of history and now show up in the most diverse forms and appear in the most diverse shapes.
But Karijini Park has not only red rocks to offer. In the many gorges there is also a surprising amount of green vegetation, a sight you wouldn't really have expected while driving up here.
In the deep canyons there are several natural pools that seem to have water all year round. These small oases provide a very special and very pleasant atmosphere, and most importantly, some change from the otherwise always very dry, dusty and also hot landscape.
In some places, small watercourses also form small waterfalls, and the clear and cool water then forms various pools, which then invite the exhausted hiker to take a bath. Such as at Jubura, the fern pool, a gorgeous freshwater pool at the bottom of one of the deep gorges.
You really didn't expect so much green in this corner of Australia, in some parts of the park the vegetation is more than lush and you could easily forget that you are here in the north of the red continent. The sight down here in the canyons was a very welcome change from the otherwise so predominant red and brown of the scenery.
The park offers several hiking trails, from easy to challenging, and from several places you have a wonderful view into and over the canyons. From the top you can see the sharp contrast between the red rocks and the green vegetation, and also the waterfalls make a much bigger impression.
And from the edge of the gorge you also get a much better picture, if you look down along the steeply sloping rocks where one of the many water holes has formed. It's fascinating how our planet earth keeps reinventing itself in so many places and is able to always amaze us.
The water here is usually pretty cool and also very clear and clean, something you wouldn't necessarily expect in this hot country. But some visitors really appreciate it, and enjoy a little dip to refresh themselves.
We were not the only visitors here, the Karijini Park is a well known highlight here in the north of Australia. Unfortunately, we didn't see much of the animal world, which wisely stayed at a distance from us two-legged folks. But not only small lizards, like this one, also several species of kangaroos roam around in the park, and seem to appreciate these very special oases.
To get a little feeling for the size and vastness of this park, here is a picture of me. A little bit of calculated adventure is always part of fun.
Because of the depth of the canyons, the sun can't reach the ground all the time and heat up everywhere, an important reason that some vegetation could form and survive down there.
Emerging from the canyons again, we continued on the long and often lonely roads here in the northwest of the country. Up here, where the sun shines most of the year, it naturally doesn't grow and thrive quite as lushly as in the gorges of Karijini Park. But even this often so barren rocky landscape has its very own, no less enchanting charm and it also invites to dream and reflect.
Our earth is a wonderful and beautiful planet on which there is still so much for all of us to discover. I've had the great fortune to be able to visit some wonderful spots of this planet already, but I'm always yearning anew for the next adventure. I will be back soon with new pictures and impressions from my journey through the red continent, which has always surprised and impressed me.
I wish you all a wonderful day, let's dream together about the beauty of our world.
See you soon!
Please let us not forget, wherever
we travel, let us protect our
beautiful planet and let us only
leave footprints.
[//]:# (!pinmapple -22.910819 lat 118.290189 long A Green Oasis In Karijini National Park - d3scr)