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Published: October 7th 2010
Kings Canyon
The path through the bottom of the canyonDay 87 Kings Canyon to Yalara (Tues 28th Sept)
We left before dawn today, for a quick drive out to King’s Canyon. We were there for 0700 so anyone who wanted could do the 3 hour walk around the top of the canyon. I elected to do the shorter walk along the bottom of the canyon instead, along with Ali, Jo, and Norma. It was a really nice walk and the place is beautiful. There was even a bit of water in the waterway running along the canyon.
We spent about 1.5 hours wandering along the Canyon and could see the people walking along the top. We even managed to recognise Tomas and Lynn when they went past. It was a long way up.
Just before 1100 we left the Canyon and our next stop for the day was Kings Creek Station. Some of the group went out on quad bikes, while the rest of us had a nice leisurely lunch. There was a little Jack Russell there with “Don’t feed me” painted on his back. He
was a little fat...
We made a short stop on the side of the road to collect a bit of
Kings Canyon 2
Where the others walked... firewood for tonight, and then another stop to walk up a sand hill for a view of Mt Connor. Its was a rock formation in the distance and at first everyone thought it was Uluru but then Wombat told us it was Mt Connor, also known as “fool-a-ru”, as it is a common misconception. The hill we went up had really fine red sand, finer than anything I’ve seen so far, it was really hard to walk in. On the other side of the hill was a salt lake, which was worth a look.
A quick fuel stop and then we were at the “Ayers Rock Resort”, Yalara. Our tents again are the permanent ones, this time with wooden bunks in them. I shared a tent with Helen and after dropping off our stuff we all piled back into the bus for a sunset view of Uluru. This is what we came all this way for.
We drove to the lookout point and most people were setting up to watch from the car park area so we went up the dunes a bit to a spot where we could see both Uluru and also Kata Tjuta behind us.
Mt Conner
Impressive in the distance The sun set next to Kata Tjuta, behind us as we watched Uluru in front. And of course we got champagne (well, sparkling wine...) to celebrate the occasion.
It was beautiful, and as soon as it was dark we went back to camp for a steak dinner. And of course, a beer by the fire.
In Yalara, you can’t leave alcohol in your home (or camp). We have to take the drinks esky with us every time we go anywhere. Its to prevent the unsavoury element from breaking into the homes/campsites to steal the alcohol. Interesting.
Day 88 Yalara
We were up at 0430 this morning to leave camp by 0515. This was so we could make it out to the Kata Tjuta sunrise lookout spot by 0600. We did make it and so were able to see the sun rise. This time we were looking at Kata Tjuta in front of us and Uluru was off to the right - and the sun rose beside Uluru. I’m not sure who chose the lookout points. I’d have thought it would have looked good to see the sun rise from
behind one of the
Uluru
AJ at Uluru at sunset. With a drink... rock formations, though it was still worth the early start to see.
Once the sun was up we drove right up to the Kata Tjuta formations and went walking through them. They have always had real important significance to the local aboriginal peoples, and so there are set pathways for people to walk on. In fact, Kata Tjuta has more significance for the people than Uluru does. It’s just that Uluru is far better known. For those who aren’t sure, Kata Tjuta is actually the aboriginal name for The Olga’s.
We walked for a while and a few people went up to the lookout spot but I elected to take the slow route back with Helen and Heather instead. We managed a nice walk, and a bit of verbal venting, before meeting up with the others for a quick drive back to the camp.
We had lunch at camp and then half the group drove right up to Uluru. The local aboriginal tribe request people not to climb the rock, although they don’t completely forbid it. None of our group was planning to anyway. And when I saw the route to go up, I
knew I’d made the right decision! I wouldn’t have made it 20 meters!!
We walked around a part of the base while Wombat explained the place to us. It was really interesting and we saw a few spaces that would have been used for sheltering. Then Stephen elected to run around the base, Matt got dropped half way to do the half walk around the base, and Helen, Lynn and I drove around with Wombat, stopping at a couple of interesting places.
After picking up the guys (it’s about 9km, I think, to go all the way around the rock), we went back to camp. On the way back Wombat hit the brakes rather hard and jumped out. We had no idea what he was going back for, but in a couple minutes, he was at the bus with a thorny devil. It just fit into his palm. I have no idea how he spotted it while driving! It was actually really cute, as long as you like reptiles...
We had dinner at camp again and a few beers around the fire. A couple of rangers who were friends of Wombat came out to join us and make the conversation more interesting. It was a good day. Long, but very good.
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