Blogs from Kings Canyon, Northern Territory, Australia, Oceania

Today’s plan is to hike around Kings Canyon. Issy’s opted for a rest day so it looks like I’m on my own. But first I need to survive breakfast. Elderly bus people are packed in here again, and chaos reigns supreme. As was the case last night I struggle to find anywhere to sit, and the queue for the eggs is almost out the door. I wouldn’t have thought it was that hard to operate one of those hotel type conveyor belt toasters, but these guys certainly seem to be struggling. There’s half a loaf worth of slices backed up in there and no one seems quite sure how to extract them. I hope someone figures it out before the whole place catches fire. Eighty-five something lady from Florida doesn't look overly happy about the long ... read more

The vast distances in the outback again came into play with our four hour drive to Kings Canyon, where we booked into the Discovery Park Caravan Park. The creek was named by the explorer Ernest Giles in 1872. He wrote in his book Geographic Travels in Central Australia from 1872 to 1874: "I called King's Creek after Mr. Fielder King... an old and kind friend of mine". After setting up our caravan, we drove to Kings Canyon, also known as Watarrka, and completed the 3 km Kings Creek walk, which follows the creek along the canyon floor. At the end of the walk is a platform, with views of the canyon walls above. On the way back to our vehicle, we passed the steep ascent of the Kings Canyon Rim walk, which we were proposing to ... read more

Geo: -24.2676, 131.545Today we have decided to do an early guided tour of Uluru at the Mala Walk. We were originally going to do a very expensive helicopter flight until we discovered that the flight path has been restricted to a wide birth around the rock due to the fact that the noise disturbs the peace.There are about 30 people waiting for the Park Ranger (guide) who has been contracted by the Aboriginal owners to tell their story 365 days of the year. The guide is very informative but is taking forever to move between viewing points, so Deb an I decide to continue by ourselves. The walk was very impressive, somewhat spiritual and took as about 45 minutes to complete.We head back to our hotel leaving Uluru in the distance knowing we may never return. ... read more

Up bright and early to set off for the Kings Canyon Rim Walk. The resort is only a few kilometres away from the starting point of the walks. Firstly, there is an endless (hundreds anyway) number of steps to be climbed as you ascend from the creek floor to the top of the gorge. From there you meander around the top visiting lookouts and other points of interest until you get to the back of the gorge where the Garden of Eden is located. It's a hard slog but worth the effort as this is one of the top walks in Australia. We drank lots of water and ran out with about a kilometre of the 6 km walk to complete. At this point, Georgi took a trip / stumble and both she and the camera ... read more

After a very full day walking at Kata Tutja (The Olgas), the previous day, we decided a leisurely bike ride around Uluru would see the end of our time here and we would head off to Kings Canyon to explore that area. The wind remained stubbornly strong. Luckily, it was from ESE and was relatively coolish. We unloaded the bikes at Mala (a walk and facility site at Uluru) and headed out on the 10.6 km loop of the big red rock. Some times you can ride right next to the rock and you are so close you can lean on it. Other times you are detoured hundreds of metres away (so that you may not easily see the secret mens sites). There is a lot of variation that you can see when you are close; ... read more