You might wonder why we bothered to drive all day yesterday to King's Canyon when we only have a couple days in the red centre in total. It's a valid question -- we could easily have flown to Uluru directly and then spent 2-3 days there before flying off to Cairns. But I'd heard so much about the King's Canyon Rim Walk that we had to fit that in somehow. So, the plan today was to wake up as early as possible to tackle the hike before it got too hot. The forecast for the day called for highs of 31-32 degrees celsius -- doing the 8 kilometer walk with very little tree cover in that heat would NOT be pleasant. So we were out of the lodge by 8 and parked in the King's Canyon car park by 8:30. We armed ourselves with hats, sunblock, water, and cameras -- and we were off!
That hill behind me is called "heart attack hill" -- it's pretty much a non-stop climb for about 100 meters. It reminded us a bit of that climb up Machu Picchu -- at least this time we knew what we were getting ourselves into. At the top, there was a sign reminding visitors to stop and have a drink of water before continuing. They also put up some informational plaques -- basically an excuse for those too proud to admit that they NEED to rest -- "oh, I'm totally fine, but hey - what's this? Hmmm, so interesting!"
Soon though, the scenery itself was enough of an excuse to stop.
I'm sure there's a great scientific explanation for how King's Canyon came to be -- full of glaciers and land masses moving and sedimentary rock and what not…if you're really interested, I'm sure wikipedia could help you out. :) For now, you just get the pretty pictures.
We were actually surprised by how close you got to walk to the edges.
They had these "beware of the cliffs -- you may fall to your death" signs all over the place. Very comforting.
Turns out our fear of the sun was unwarranted. The strong winds meant that it actually got to be quite comfortable up high with the breezes. We both removed our somewhat-ridiculous -- I mean -- extremely fashionable -- hats before too long.
The hike wasn't so bad once you made it past the first section, but navigation was sometimes tricky. There weren't a ton of other people around, so you really had to hunt for those blue placards to find the right path. Following the wrong color could be very dangerous -- who knows where you might be side-tracking to!
Travel tip for those who might one day travel to King's Canyon. Do the lookouts. They're actually posted as short side-trips off of the main hike. You think it's not going to be much, but after you climb through a bit, you get some gorgeous views of the canyon walls. For example, this shot -- what I consider our best shot of the canyon -- would have been missed entirely if I hadn't decided to investigate one of the side lookouts.
Just be careful not to fall into any of the cracks!
The hike was supposed to take us 3-3.5 hours, but we somehow managed to whip it out in 2 and a half. The cool breeze really helped -- it definitely did not feel like 31 degrees. We wanted to stick around longer, but we ran into some folks from Queensland while walking who informed us that fires were a worry again with some lightning storms coming up. Definitely don't want to get stuck on the wrong side of the road closures if it comes to that, so it's back to the road for us. It was about a 3 hour drive to Uluru -- with a stop along the way for some very late lunch. They had a resident emu -- I'm pretty sure this was the first time I've seen an emu in person.
By mid-afternoon, we'd checked into our room. It was a bit of a throwback to our first big trip together -- that southeast asia backpacking trip after college. Why? Our accommodations for the night was a shared hostel room. With bunk beds and communal bathrooms and showers! Don't shortchange the room though -- it actually cost more than almost all of our previous accommodations. Alas, this is what happens when there is no competition! Ayers Rock only has a single resort complex, so they pretty much charge whatever they feel like. I didn't quite feel like shelling out $500 for a private hotel room, so hostels it was. Luckily, no one showed up to occupy the other beds in the room, so we had a private room after all.
We weren't planning on spending a ton of time in the rooms anyhow. After checking in, we headed on out to the Ayers Rock Sunset viewing lot -- this was, after all, the main attraction at the Rock -- the beautiful colors that appear on the sandstone as a result of the setting sun. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy…so cloudy that there wasn't much to see besides a dull grayish-red.
We still took a good dozen pictures though -- this WAS the Rock after all! We were determined to enjoy our sunset. Ian reminds me that my use of both Ayers Rock and Uluru may be confusing to readers. So brief detour here -- the rock had been known by all visitors as "Ayers Rock" until the 1990s, when the site was officially handed back to the Aboriginal people, who know it as "Uluru." Nowadays, it's officially a dual-named location. And now you know...We'll probably be learning a bit more about the Rock tomorrow when we go on the camel tour, but for now, we'll just enjoy our sunset.
We even brought along some wine, strawberries, chocolate, and cheese. Alcohol is banned on all of the Uluru areas -- EXCEPT for the sunset viewing spots. Oh the power of tourism? We weren't complaining though.
After the sun "set," we still had a good 2/3 bottle of wine left to polish off, so off we went to the Pioneer BBQ. You get to buy whatever meat you want (they specialize in Australian game produce) and then you grill it yourself. Ian thinks that it's a gimmick so that they can avoid the cost of hiring a cook -- but I thought it was kind of fun. Now if we get stuck in the outback and are forced to live off of the land, we'll know how many minutes we should grill our game.
We grilled up up some crocodile (we overcooked it), kangaroo (surprisingly tasty!), emu (not our cup of tea), and some steak (as a safety). Now fully sated with food and drink, we headed to bed. Another early morning tomorrow -- sunrise camel ride scheduled!
Kings canyon rim hike rules. Bucket list addition for me.
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