As the adventure continued from Uluru, we once again made it back on the highway up north to our next destination, Kings Canyon. We camped in another excellent bushcamp rest area (starting to realise NT dominate in this market) where once again had unwanted neighbours drop in on us. All set up facing what we thought was the bush, a family decided to roll up late and camp about 5m right in front of us on the side of a track and ruined our privacy. While we were trying to eat our romantic dinner for two, one of the kids decided to shine his torch right in our faces which obviously the parents thought was fine! On a good note, we were able to use our shower tent and had the first battery powered shower for the trip!
The next day brought the exploration of Kings Canyon. In the morning, after ducking into Kathleen Springs for a stroll down the beautiful and historically rich valley to see the old stockade, we made a late arrival at Kings Canyon. Full spirited we began the 6.7km walk (not reccommended at this stage of the day!) up and along the rim of the Canyon. Absolutely spectacular. The walk took us up and along cliffs, down the valley, into the peaceful Garden of Eden (rainforest like waterhole), and back along the opposing side until we were lead back to the carpark. I don’t think we could of finished the last of the trip quick enough. As we were approaching 3:00pm we were buggered, smashing through the kms, guzzling as much water as we could and wiping the sweat off our brows. Even with a difficult conclusion, we conquered it with smiles and could only laugh at the end with recommendations to never start a walk that large, that late in the day.
Interesting Historic Fact..
The palm in this below picture is somewhere between 350-400 years old!! These Cycads were scientifically proven to be around back in the dinosaur age!
Once we had a few lolly snakes and recovered, we jumped in the car and made it to the servo before the Mereenie Loop (an unsealed road joining Kings Canyon, Hermannsburg and the MacDonnell Ranges). This is unfortunately a permit road as it is on Aboriginal Country. We decided the $5.50 for the permit was a lot cheaper than a $1000 fine if caught without one!! We ended up camping at Morris Pass Lookout which is situated on the Aboriginal section of the loop. As we arrived we were welcomed by a couple of friendly dingoes which happily wandered around the camp, sussing our kettle out during the night (see paw print on the table) and giving us the occasional howl. Now, the land here was phenomenal, so untouched as we sat with a 1.25L bottle of coke, some Bacardi and Jim Beam. Tough as it sounds we sat on a cliff, drinks in hand, and watched the sun set, with the all mighty Kings Canyon off in the distance..
