Sleeping in a tent takes some getting used to, even a luxurious tent like the one we had for the night. I woke up after a few hours of sleep with rhot legs while my upper body and head were freezing. But breakfast was good and we were ready to start the day.
Things are different in the outback: The ECO Retreat has its own environmentally friendly wastewater plant turning wastewater into grey water that is being used to water the bushland around them. This system is occupied by frogs. So they inform you:
„If you find a frog in your toilet, you can safely flush it back down.“
Plan for the day was to head out to the furthest spot within Karijini National Park away from our accommodation- and that was Dales Gorge.
After going to the Karijini Visitor Centre (they have an excellent exhibition about aboriginal life and the building has a wonderful architecture) we started our hiking at the Fortescue waterfall.
From there you walk about fifteen minutes to the secluded Fern Pool, a water hole that is sacred to the aboriginal people. We went for a refreshing swim in the pool enjoying the gorge around us.
From Fern Pool we decided to hike the gorge all the way to the end- or at least as far as we were allowed to walk. The end of the gorge would be Circular Pool but this one is currently closed as they are afraid of falling rocks.
Then we made our way up to the rim of the gorge and had a last look down to Circular Pool before we walked back along the rim.
On the hike you see grayish blue layers of rock. This is natural blue asbestos that they warn you about at the entrance to the hike. It occurs naturally in this area.
Since we finished our hike quite early we still had some time left before we had to be back at the camp before dark, before driving becomes too dangerous. We therefore decided to take another swim at the beautiful Fern Pool. It is 287 steps on an iron ladder down to the pool (someone counted and marked the steps). But this site is so stunning that our tired legs were not hindering us from another visit.
A perfect close for the day was dinner at the ECO Retreat before retiring to our tent.
