Daniel and Marysia around Australia: Karijini National Park, Western Australia

Percolated coffee at Karijini Eco Retreat...nice!

Today the weather was a tad overcast, but that was good for walking through the gorges. We set out after breakfast into town to post some postcards before hitting the highway to Karijini National Park. The drive was about 60 ks from base. The scenery was magnificent. Everywhere you looked the hills, mountains, ranges were amazing. I swear that the ranges looked like huge chunks of chocolate blocks broken away, laying layer upon layer or huge shards sitting aimlessly on each other speckled with splinters of peppermint through them...or they reminded me of chocolate cakes, muffins taken out of the oven and the big crack opens up on top. I couldn't help but think of the song 'MacArthur's Park', sung by Richard Harris. The greenery in the landscape reminded me of the green icing! I think the diet we're on is affecting our mental status! We're going without sweets until we get into Melbourne!

Nice table!

We visited the Eco Retreat, stopping for a real percolated long black coffee that we made ourselves in the plungers provided. We needed it for the long drives to stay awake. Further on
we came across Weona Gorge, Hancock Gorge, Oxley lookout. There were a couple of platforms here where the junction of the gorges met. The height dizzying, the layers of rock formation truly spectacular. A bite of lunch before we headed to Mt Bruce (the highest peak in WA) to view the open cut Iron Ore mine......from a distance though. Here the mine has 2 diesels engine trains at 9000 horsepower pulling a 2 kilometre length of train, nine times a day with 200,000tonnes a day.

Now my turn!

On our return we visited Mt Nameless (2nd highest peak in WA) this time it was 4WD track to the tip of the mountain which overlooked another open cut mine to one side and Tom Price town to the other. The drive was awesome, however it must be said that there was one point in the car that Daniel was criticising me so much that I had to hand the car over to him to take us to the top! Even after all that in a day we still went into town and played an hour of tennis under lights before heading back for barbecued whole fish in Thai green sauce! A big thankyou to Carol and Michael for suggesting we make this visit. One you just can't miss!