Tour Day Seven

It rained off and on all morning. I did not sleep at the night before, except for a couple of hours after the other tour group sharing my tent left. The aforementioned lack of organization landed me in a tent alone with the other tour. After they left though, I had the whole tent to myself. I use the term "tent" loosely. It was a tent, but it rested on a permanent wood floor and could comfortably seat eight people.

The cyclone of the coast of Exmouth was sending a series of rain storms through Karajini. Many of the attractions of this gorgeous park revolved around hiking the into copious beautiful gorges and waterfalls. Rainstorms can flare up at a moments notice and cause deadly flash floods. There were a good number lookout above the gorges though.

All the roads were flooded, so we had to walk. The rain had been on an hour on, hour off schedule, so after one shower stopped, we all headed off on a hike. This is Australia. Except for in Melbourne, I've only seen this dry country have rain three times. Bringing a rain parka was by no means a priority; it should have been. Right after leaving, it started sprinkling. Within minutes, it was raining. Soon after that, it was pouring. There were no trees, no shelters, just pure, unhindered rain. When it seemed as if it couldn't rain any harder, it poured down more. Raindrops can not be used to describe rain of this magnitude; rainballs is a much better noun for the type of rain we experienced. At first, we all sung songs by Stephen Foster, or rather, Camptown Races by Stephen Foster. Despite the immense joy that Steven Foster's music as well as excessive dropping of Stephen Foster's name gives me, our morale was annihilated as quickly as our dryness. I did not become not-miserable until every single inch of my clothing, inside and out, was soaked. By then, I didn't care; I actually started having fun. There was no way I could get any wetter than that, barring submersion in a pool.
Then the sun came out as we neared the gorge. It was worth every drop of water in my water-proofed shoes. The rugged deep red edges, stretching down into the green scrub forest below was awe-inspiring. We saw two more great lookouts and none did not impress. It didn't rain once for the rest of the day.

I hit the sack early in the tent instead of staying up and sleeping under the stars; I needed sleep a little too much.

Thanks to Catherine and Mirte for the photos.