Nothing but red dust and rocks until we went over the small crest and there in front of us was the legendary ruined track.

Painful thorn-covered bushes, color-streaked rocks and visible geological strata, small dry-looking trees strung out miles into the distance with an occasional rolling hill always studded with rocky lookout points.

A little later we saw suddenly next to us, as if a canyon revealed only at the last moment, the pool. A natural oasis of blue-green pure water, a social center for mountain lions.

The long way home.