Gismo Queen and her King

Day 45 - King's Canyon to Uluru

The alarm clock went off very early this morning, which made it doubly hard to get up as it was quite cool. We had put the third doona on the bed in anticipation of no heating but we actually got warm at one point. I got up and made Greg a cup of tea in bed, my breakfast, packed my walking backpack and was ready for the 10km drive to King's Canyon with Paul and Harrison by 7:30am.

We were on the rim walk before 8am and knew the walk started with a steep ascent, which translated into 500 steps. Oh my goodness, how quickly that becomes difficult! Huffing and puffing our way to the top, with plenty of rest stops for 40+ year old legs (Harrison's much younger legs were coping better!) we were soon up amongst it. It was pretty amazing already, although the early morning shadows made photography somewhat difficult. A couple of kilometres into the 6km walk, we got to the first true part of the canyon edge.
It was absolutely amazing, but I certainly wasn't totally confident about sitting this close to a 100m drop. Paul stood here for his photo - it was as much as I could do to sit while looking at Harry and not downwards!

The walk continued, with several more close to the rim opportunities, a couple of lookouts, and a metal bridge across a crack forming a new canyon that was still many metres down and I couldn't look down as I walked across it!

We then descended some very steep stairs into the "Garden of Eden", complete with plant life, running water and well sheltered. It was quite picturesque too. Back onto the rim, and we arrived at possibly the best viewing spot of the canyon:

While sitting here taking it all in, our mouths dropped in amazement at the sheer stupidity of this girl on a school trip.

Greg, Lisa and Kobi had a relaxing morning in the caravan park, not getting up until it was warm enough outside. Kobi did some craft, Lisa and Greg had morning tea and we were back before they knew it. We all packed up our caravans and had toasted sandwiches for lunch before starting the 300km drive to Uluru. We did fill up with fuel before leaving the resort - at the exorbitant price of $2.33 per litre!!!

Shortly after turning back onto the Lasseter Highway and continuing westward, I was stunned to see a big red rock on the horizon. Convinced it was Uluru, I was quite excited......until Greg worked out it was actually Mount Connor! In hindsight, the sides were a bit straight! However, not much further along the road, the real "rock" revealed itself, followed shortly thereafter by the Olgas.

We arrived at the resort, set up, enjoyed power again - which also meant I could have real coffee for afternoon tea - and settled in. I cooked a stir fry for dinner and now, this very tired body is ready for sleep after a big day's activity.

posted by Tracey @ 10:17 pm