Australia’s ‘Dead Sea’: Adventure seekers are flocking to the Outback to float in a ‘surreal’ turquoise pool that’s so salty you can’t sink
- Australians are floating in a ‘secret’ salt swimming pool in the desert of WA
- The pool is a man-made gypsum pond built at Wave Rock, 336km east of Perth
- Thanks to its high salt content, swimmers feel totally weightless and never sink
- The pool is said to have therapeutic properties greater than the Dead Sea
Australians who have floated on the surface of a ‘secret’ swimming pool in the Outback are calling it the ‘best experience’ of their lives.
The pool is a man-made gypsum pond built at Wave Rock, a towering granite cliff over 2,700 million years in the making that stands 15 metres high in Hyden, four hours’ drive east of Perth, WA.
Created by local hero Denis Collins, the free-of-charge pool is six metres deep but thanks to its high salt content, swimmers feel totally weightless and never sink.
It is said to have therapeutic properties greater than the Dead Sea, one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth where humans can float thanks to the high concentration of dissolved mineral salts.
Australians who have floated on the surface of this ‘secret’ swimming pool in the desert are calling it the ‘best experience’ of their lives
The free-of-charge pool (pictured) is six metres deep but thanks to its high salt content, swimmers feel totally weightless and never sink
The pool is at Wave Rock in Hyden, 336km east of Perth, WA
At its surface, the Dead Sea, which borders Jordan to the east and Israel to the west, is five to nine times more saline than seawater.
The deeper you go, the saltier it becomes.
Visitors enthralled by the experience at Wave Rock have raved about it on Instagram, with one woman describing it as ‘the most insane feeling’.
‘You are so buoyant here, there is no need to tread water or swim and instead you can just roll around and relax on the surface completely weightless!’ she wrote.
The Australia pool (pictured) is said to have therapeutic properties greater than Dead Sea, one of the saltiest bodies of water on earth where humans can float thanks to the high concentration of dissolved mineral salts
‘It’s free to visit and is the most insane feeling!’
A second who is travelling the coast of Australia called it the ‘best experience’ on her trip so far.
‘Swimming in this salt spa is the coolest thing we’ve done! We felt like astronauts as we rolled around on top of the water,’ she added.
A man who visited in December urged others to go ‘sooner rather than later’ before it becomes a mainstream attraction.
The pool is built at Wave Rock (pictured), a towering granite cliff over 2,700 million years in the making that stands 15 metres high in Hyden, four hours’ drive east of Perth, WA
‘The water is so salty that you can float standing upright. Impossible to sink, the feeling of weightlessness is quite surreal,’ he said.
‘And it’s not well known, so you nearly have the place to yourself.’
The pool is almost guaranteed to welcome record numbers of visitors while Australia’s international borders remain shut, with any reopening beyond New Zealand’s trans-Tasman and other ‘safe’ travel bubbles now unlikely until mid-2022.