In Australia there are several stunning popular destinations that both tourists and locals visit year after a year. The Great Ocean Road, especially Twelve Apostles; The Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters rock formation; The Great Barrier Reef and of course, Uluru, are all iconic destinations that for many are the highlight of their time in Australia. And then there are places you haven’t even heard of. Places where the masses don’t travel to. Places that do not locate anywhere within a convenient distance from any major city. Getting to those places is not easy, let alone cheap. In order to reach them, you have to spend days sitting on a bus or driving a car, while the sun is burning from dawn to dusk, flies are everywhere and the dirtroad is so bumpy that it makes you feel sick. Once you finally get there, don’t expect a 5-star accommodation, free wifi, or even a phone signal (not even with Telstra). You have arrived to the true Australian outback.
And believe me, it is really worth all the effort.
Karijini national park is located in the northwestern part of Australia, some 1400 kilometres north of Perth. The park itself is massive covering some 600 000 hectares and some parts being almost impossible to access. The park is famous for its stunning gorges, numerous waterfalls, creeks and waterholes. Believe me, I’ve seen some really epic places in Australia but Karijini really stands out from everything I’ve ever seen before in my life.
During three days, we did several walks in the area, all of them very different based on the length and difficulty. The easiest walks were class 3 (1 being the easiest, 5 the most difficult) and the most difficult ones demanded relatively good balance and strenght, especially in your upper body. Sometimes we had to take our shoes off and walk across the water (the water reached my waistline), sometimes balance between two cliffs and do spider walk and sometimes climb up or decent just using whatever we could step on to or grab to. The best reward was to reach a waterhole and jump into the turquoise water or have a shower under a waterfall.
Karijini was definitely one of the best experiences I have done during my years in Australia, maybe even during my life. It had such an epic, varying landscape that I have never ever seen anything like it in anywhere. I was able to challenge my mind and body, climb just using my strength and not worrying about the heights or falling down, swim in several waterholes and spend nights sleeping in a swag under a clear sky with thousands of stars.
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