18th June – Thursday
To be boring – another very cold night and beautiful clear, sunny day.
Today we decided to tackle the Kings Canyon rim walk which is supposedly only 6.5 km, much shorter than the 11.5 km around Ayers Rock. Unfortunately, the walk commences with 500 steps to climb the first 100 metres. These are just the natural sandstone, with a bit of help to make very natural steps. I also didn’t believe the ranger when she told me it was only 100 metres! It took 45 minutes, but we did get to the top. On the way we met a number of geology students from the University of Adelaide, on a field trip to look at the rocks, naturally.
Once at the top, after a number of rests for Cat, the walking was much easier. The sandstone was just the most amazing colour and formation. We took our time, and lots of photos to bore relations, stopping at all the lookouts, bar one (Cat thought it was a bit too high and scary).
More steps to the bottom of the Garden of Eden with its cycads, trees and waterholes. Of course, what goes down has to go up again, so along long climb up the wooden steps, this time. Cat became rather involved with the ranger on the way up, spending quite some time chatting her up. We continued upwards and found a nice spot near a waterhole to have lunch. No problem with sacred sites at Kings Canyon! More people arrived for Cat to talk to – we probably spent a good hour talking to people at various rest spots.
The descent back to the car park was more gradual than the initial ascent, and wound down around the side of the hill/cliff face. We came across a sign that said 1 km to the car park, but again, I think the measurements were way out. When we came to the final emergency radio, Cat was out of the pack and up the pole before we could stop him. We also discovered that most of the dinosaurs had disappeared from their packet as well!
Even though it took us five hours, this would have to have been the best walk we have done – personally, I think it leaves Ayers Rock for dead! The whole area is so beautiful, natural and peaceful, not at all commercialised. Just wonderful.
To be boring – another very cold night and beautiful clear, sunny day.
Today we decided to tackle the Kings Canyon rim walk which is supposedly only 6.5 km, much shorter than the 11.5 km around Ayers Rock. Unfortunately, the walk commences with 500 steps to climb the first 100 metres. These are just the natural sandstone, with a bit of help to make very natural steps. I also didn’t believe the ranger when she told me it was only 100 metres! It took 45 minutes, but we did get to the top. On the way we met a number of geology students from the University of Adelaide, on a field trip to look at the rocks, naturally.
Once at the top, after a number of rests for Cat, the walking was much easier. The sandstone was just the most amazing colour and formation. We took our time, and lots of photos to bore relations, stopping at all the lookouts, bar one (Cat thought it was a bit too high and scary).
More steps to the bottom of the Garden of Eden with its cycads, trees and waterholes. Of course, what goes down has to go up again, so along long climb up the wooden steps, this time. Cat became rather involved with the ranger on the way up, spending quite some time chatting her up. We continued upwards and found a nice spot near a waterhole to have lunch. No problem with sacred sites at Kings Canyon! More people arrived for Cat to talk to – we probably spent a good hour talking to people at various rest spots.
The descent back to the car park was more gradual than the initial ascent, and wound down around the side of the hill/cliff face. We came across a sign that said 1 km to the car park, but again, I think the measurements were way out. When we came to the final emergency radio, Cat was out of the pack and up the pole before we could stop him. We also discovered that most of the dinosaurs had disappeared from their packet as well!
Even though it took us five hours, this would have to have been the best walk we have done – personally, I think it leaves Ayers Rock for dead! The whole area is so beautiful, natural and peaceful, not at all commercialised. Just wonderful.
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