Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon from the bottom

bit of a long day

View of McDonnell Ranges from 2 Mile campsite

View of Kings Canyon from rim walk

Domes up the top of Kings Canyon

Thorny Devil on the road

Gosse Bluff Comet crater

Arriving into 2 mile campsite

Yesterday was a driving day between Uluru and Kings Canyon – again we were a bit late getting moving so didn’t arrive until the afternoon. We managed to fit in a little walk at Kings Canyon before arriving at the campsite at Kings Canyon Resort, there’s a short 2k walk through the floor of the canyon which was very nice, especially at that late time of day. It was a bit hazy as well from a fire in the distance – we have seen burning off almost everywhere we’ve gone so weren’t that surprised by it (it’s the season I guess), but Nick said that apparently he heard a ranger telling a guest that it wasn’t actually a planned burn but a small bush fire! Nothing they were worried about obviously but slightly unnerving when we drove past it today. We ended up staying in Kings Canyon Resort – hard to get free camps in national parks – and got up early-ish today and went back to the canyon to do the rim walk. It’s a lovely walk all the way along the top of the rim of the canyon, stopping at some lookouts and crossing some bridges to get through some bits. Stunning views all the way around, and some unnerving bits very close to the edge (with no fences!). There are lots of domes up there, sort of reminiscent of Purnululu, and apparently from the air you can see that they originated in a grid pattern but have eroded to now have domed shapes. One of the downsides of all of these major tourist places is the constant drone of helicopters or small planes taking people on joy rides to see the attraction from the air – although of course if money was no object we’d be doing it too! So many of the environmental tourist spots are on such a grand scale that it would be a great aspect to see them from.

After lunch there we drove up to the West McDonnell Ranges to the west of Alice Springs, which are absolutely beautiful. Our two major excitements were being the first to find a new geocache on the way, and spotting a thorny devil in the wild! Nick and I both saw it at the same time on the road as we drove by a screeched to a stop to take a photo. Because of where it was (trying to cross the road), I’m hoping it’s not now an ex-thorny devil…. When we first saw him crossing the road he was rocking back and forth very slowly (reminded me of a stick insect or praying mantis) but when we got up close he just froze with his tail in attack position trying to look as scary as possible (as much as you can for something 10cm long).

We’re camping at a spot next to a dry riverbed, which has quite soft sand as we discovered… Nick did very well getting us out by reversing quite a way back without jackknifing the trailer, but we almost had to use our exhaust jack for the first time!