Kings Canyon

Australia 2013 Backblip #10

Awake at 3.15am, bus pickup at 4am after checking out from the hotel. We then drove all the way up to Kings Canyon in the dark. The driver insisted that everyone wear seat belts and after a while you could see why - at this time of day, kangaroos sit at the side of the road and bounce across infront of the bus, causing emergency breaking. We had a narrow miss with one kangaroo that just managed to make it across the road. All in all we saw about seven kangaroos, one cow and one probably dead unspecified bird that bounced off the bus with a bang.

Breakfast was at King's Creek Station at sunrise. We ordered breakfast in the shop at 7am then went through to a large room with benches where it was cooked for us. They offered camel and helicopter rides at the station, and one of the people serving us breakfast was the helicopter pilot. Once fed and watered we drove on to Kings Canyon this time passing a road train consisting of three tankers and we also saw some brumbies, wild horses.

At Kings Canyon we split into two groups - those doing the rim walk and those doing the cooler walk on the canyon floor. We opted for the latter, as it was again about 36 degrees - if it had been 38 degrees the rim walk would have been closed. Those doing the rim walk had to sign a disclaimer form (available in various languages) and carry with them at least three litres of water each. There were five of us in the group doing the canyon floor walk, but this soon increased to six when one of the rim walkers gave up on the initial climb.

During the walk we caught glimpses of a Euro - a small kangaroo and were also told details of how the canyon formed. After the walk we then went on to Kings Canyon Resort for drinks and lunch.

Pick up was 1pm, and we then went back to Kings Creek Station and changed buses for our trip up to Alice Springs. This journey gave us a good impression of the size of the country - we did about 500 miles worth of bus travel today, and the general landscape and plant life changed very little. It was interesting to see one side of the road burnt back to red sand with few trees, and the other side greener with grasses and larger trees. The road had stopped the fire from progressing. We saw a pair of wedge tailed eagles at the side of the road at one point, which is one of the largest birds of prey in the world and the largest in Australia. Wingspan was about 2 metres, and they stood a couple of feet of the ground. Big birds! 

On one 100 kilometer stretch of the Lassetter Highway between the Kings Canyon Road and the Stuart Highway, only fifteen vehicles passed us going in the opposite direction - not surprising really, there's not much out there! 

We watched a couple of DVDs on the bus. The first was a bit of comedy about catching wild camels to train for giving rides, and the second was a very interesting documentary about the first white man to cross Australia from Adelaide in the south through to the north coast. He was surveying for a telegraph line and it took him six attempts to make the journey succesfully. We stopped for a break at Erldunda before continuing on for another couple of hours to get to Alice Spring and the hotel.

Dinner in the hotel and then an early night beckoned!