Figure Eight Pools, Natural rock pool formation in Royal National Park, Australia
The Figure Eight Pools are two connected circular basins carved into the coastal rock platform near Burning Palms Beach in New South Wales. Water from the Pacific flows into the pools at certain tides and gives them a lively turquoise color that contrasts with the dark rock.
Erosion from waves and wind has shaped the rock platform over millennia, carving out the two round basins. The Pacific still shapes the contours of the pools today and continues to deepen them slowly.
The name of the pools describes their shape, which resembles a horizontal eight filled by the rhythm of the tides. Photographers from around the world come here to capture the interaction between the dark rocks and the turquoise seawater.
Access is via a steep walking trail that starts about two hours from the nearest parking area, and the rocks are walkable at low tide. Check tide forecasts beforehand, as waves can wash over the platform at high tide and block the return route.
Only one of the many pools on the rock platform shows the shape of a perfect horizontal eight. This geometric precision arises from the angle at which the waves strike the rock and from the varying hardness of the rock zones.
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