“Come with me to this garden, Share with me this beautiful day”… this is the song playing on my iPod on the way to Karijini National Park. In this song Xavier Rudd describes exactly the way I feel and the way I have been feeling since I am in Australia. Every single day is beautiful for me and with a smile on my face we come closer to Karijini. And that smile stayed there the whole trip…

To begin with, we had an awesome guide on this Aussie Wanderer tour, Sarsha! She really did everything to make us feel comfortable and at home. She was very enthusiastic about everything and really got involved in the group. The group itself was the biggest group I’ve had so far (about 20 people) but everybody got along pretty well.

Karijini is Australia’s second largest national park and famous because of its beautiful gorges and waterfalls. The whole atmosphere of Karijini is enchanting and the rockformations are incredible. They consist of many different layers and have all different colors. In total we spent three days in Karijini and hiked to the most stunning (but freezing!) gorges. We did the spiderwalk (a narrow path between two rocks where you have to walk like a spider) and I jumped of a high cliff into the terribly cold water. At night we cooked food and drank wine with at least six layers of clothes on because it was absolutely freezing! In the daytime it is warm and nice but as soon as the sun goes down you freeze your butt off.

The second night half of the group went on an astronomy tour and watched the stars with really cool telescopes. You could even take pictures of the moon through the telescope. After another cold night we hiked to some more waterfalls and saw Circular Pool, the home of the serpent what the Aboriginals believe is the one that caused all the gorges through the whole park. There is something magical about that place…

Before lunch it was time to move on to Pardoo Roadhouse where we got to sleep in swags under the stars. We had a campfire and it was the last night together with the whole group, so time to watch some pictures and share stories.

The next day was a day on the road again, distances are so far in OZ… But the road shows the real Western Australia and so did Karijini. This was the rough Australia you always see in documentaries and I think not to miss when backpacking Down Under.

Watch all the photos on Flickr!

The music in my ears keeps playing: “Listen to the birds sing softly, Lay with me and drift away…” and with my never-ending happiness we arrive in Broome, where new adventures await =)

more about Western Australia at www.peterpans.com