OUTBACK ODYSSEY - KINGS CANYON

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Day 12 - Glen Helen Gorge to Kings Canyon

Despite the fact that I hadn had much sleep (thanks to our all-singing, all-guitar playing neighbours and the fact that the overnight temp had descended to somewhere in the "brass monkeys" range), I still woke before the sun. Mind you, it was sensational watching the sun rise over the MacDonnell Range and light up Glen Helen Gorge. But the kids managed to sleep in so overall we had a slow start to the morning.

About 1 klm down the road from Glen Helen Gorge I remembered that we needed a permit for the road that we would be travelling today so we had to turn around and go back to the resort and pick up our Mereenie Loop permit which cost us $3. The road here is in the process of being sealed and is in fact sealed from Glen Helen resort to the bottom of the pass after Tylers Lookout, which was a blessing as our map showed this section as being unsealed. The unsealed section however was quite rough and corrugated for about 7 klms and then its mostly sealed until the start of the Mereenie Loop. Along the unsealed section, we had an unexpected surprise when we saw a couple of Port Lincoln parrots with their beautiful emerald plummage fly out of a bush near the road.

From the top of Tylers Pass, you can see Gnosses Bluff (also known as Tnorala), the leftovers of a meteorite crater. Several kilometres down the road is the turnoff where you can drive into Tnorala itself, but as its a sacred site, there are no walks and nothing to do. The road in is quite rutted out and Id suggest that it is for 4WD vehicles only, mainly because of the clearance needed. We didn stop here but pressed on to our next destination - Kings Canyon.

The road literally runs through part of Kings Canyon Resort. Theres a large petrol station / roadhouse with clean amenities and the usual souvenir shop and cafe. The turnoff to the canyon itself is not too far from the resort. Unfortunately, the day we were there it was in the high 30s even at 3.00 oclock in the afternoon. We did the walk up the floor of the canyon in the hope that the temperature might drop a little by the time we got back to the start of the canyon rim walk but it was still too hot so we gave it a miss. Besides, the steps at the start of the walk looked a little like the steps that lead into Mordor......😊

We camped at Kings Canyon Station which is another 20 mins or so down the road. There are some nice grassy sites and plenty of space in between campsites as well as camp kitchens and firepits. There are also a lot of amenities blocks so no lining up for the shower! Theres a pool, although it was absolutely freezing cold and a couple of souvenir shops. We had hoped to have camel rides but unfortunately the camel rides weren running that day.

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