Karijini National Park

Two and a half billion years of iron and silt, banded and folded and then split open. Karijini's gorges are narrow enough to walk with a hand on each wall, and deep enough that the sun reaches the floor for perhaps an hour.

When it does, the rock goes the colour of rust and embers and the pools underneath hold a green you would not believe from a photograph. The rest of the day it is cool, dim and quiet down there while the plateau above bakes.