Thursday...
We got away from camp (packed up) by 0830. At Kings Canyon, Les, Jude and I opted for the 'Rim walk' which is a 6 km walk around the rim of the canyon. This one was pretty strenuous with a very steep climb at the start followed by reasonably rough terrain for the remainder. We were all a bit spent by the time we got back to the carpark. Barb did the 'Creek walk' which was a 1 km walk (return) along King Creek in the basement.
The rim walk took us around three and a half hours with lots of stoppages for photos.
Quite spectacular scenery here. It wouldn't be difficult to get lost around the top - it just goes and goes... Thanks to the markers, scattered along the track, we found our way home. The awesome spectacle of Kings Canyon gives back and out weighs the effort required to climb it.
Our initial intention was to hopefully get back to the Alice by night fall but because we were so tired, we pulled up stumps at Erldunda which is at the junction of the Lasseter and Stuart Highways about 190 km south of Alice Springs. It's a roadhouse with a caravan park attached out the back.
Nice little place for a rest stop.
Links:
Google Maps reference is -25 11.933, 133 11.917
See more images at... https://picasaweb.google.com/106361511620108780730/Day3409082012
Wednesday...
Well - cold morning this morning, 3.2 degrees. We got away at around 0930. The rock was open to climbers. Along with a thousand others, Les and Judy set out to challenge themselves. Judy stopped at about the first 5 metres up from where the chain starts and Les plugged on. He got to the top and back again in about an hour and a half. It's a fairly grueling climb. While we watched on, we saw one bloke set out bare foot and walked up it like it was flat ground. He didn't even touch the chain for assistance.
After that box was ticked, we set off for Kings Canyon, our next stop over.
Huge complex here for travelers. We chose an unpowered site so we had our pick of where we could set down. "Anywhere on the grassed area" the receptionist explained. I said, sorry, "you said grass"!!
Well this is the first place we actually got to camp on grass - and it's even green.
We treated ourselves to a bistro dinner tonight.
On the way to the bistro, we had to walk past the servo and yes the price here is even higher than at Yulara.
Diesel is $2.33 a litre. Handy little ploy going on here between the operators of both places - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised to find that both are owned by the same people. What a rip off!!! I'd speculate that most people go to Ayers Rock first and then head over to Kings Canyon. When you see the price at Yulara as outrageous, you put the bare minimum in, as I did, hoping that the price at Kings Canyon is same or better. Gotcha!!! You arrive at Kings Canyon running low and you've got no choice other than to fill up to get back to the Alice. So why not raise the price to whatever you like? The sky's the limit.
So it's about now that I'll use my jerry can that I've been carrying around since I left home.
We are here for one night and we'll pack up early in the morning and take in the sights here and move on back towards Alice Springs.
Links:
Google Maps reference is -24 14.95, 131 30.70
See more images at... https://picasaweb.google.com/106361511620108780730/Day3308082012
