Kings Canyon

We're still a long way from Alice Springs.  It can be hard to get our heads around just how big our wonderful country is.  Yulara/Uluru is about 450km from Alice Springs, Kings Canyon is about 300km from Yulara and 350km from Alice Springs.  It can take quite a long time to travel fairly short distances if the roads are unsealed.

We're definitely in WOW country at Kings Canyon.  The magnificent landform began life many millions of years ao as a hairline crack in the rock that allowed water to seep in to begin the erosion process.







We've had great weather - hot during the day and cool overnight.  At around 6C, some mornings have been cold before the sun starts to warm things up again.  Like Uluru and the Kata Tjuta, the red rocks of Kings Canyon simply glow at sunset and like many other tourists we took plenty of photos.

We're spending 2 nights here so have a whole day to explore.  We've decided to do a couple of walks in the cool of the morning.  The Kings Creek walk takes about an hour and we walked alongside the Kings Creek riverbed into the canyon.  There are plenty of birds around and we can hear plenty of them as we walk along.

Our next walk was to Kathleen Springs, a permanent water source.  The landscape here was quite different and we walked through a flat plain through the canyon neck to the spring.  There were yellow everlastings and yellow and white paper daisies everywhere.

The gall wasps have been busy and their ball-like galls hung from trees like dark brown christmas decorations.

In the evening we took some more sunset photos and also saw some Sturt's Desert Peas in flower - we didn't see any in South Australia, but have seen some here in the Northern Territory.  






We sat outside and dined with some neighbouring campers.  The local dingo population was busy roaming the campground stealing any unwatched food.  We were told that they will steal any shoes left outside as well.





We left the beauty of Kings Canyon and the Watarrka National Park to travel along the scenic loop road through the West MacDonnell Ranges to Alice Springs.  We bought our permit to travel through Aboriginal land at the Kings Canyon service station - cost $5.50 - and set off.





We stopped at Morris Pass Lookout and then we hit the unsealed road. This was probably the roughest road we have travelled on, and we were on it for about 150km.  At times we were travelling at about 10kph.

Eventually we were back on the bitumen and travel was a lot more comfortable.  We're planning to do at least one day trip back into this spectacular country over the next couple of weeks.  Now we're back into civilisation at Alice Springs with shops, phone coverage, WiFi, TV and radio.

Kata Tjuta - The Olgas

About 50km from Uluru is another impressive landform - Kata Tjuta or The Olgas.  These huge domes of rock are higher and cover a greater area that Uluru.  Kata Tjuta means "many heads" in Pitjantjatjara and it's an Anangu mens site.  Like other sites in the area everyone is welcome to visit.  It can be seen in the distance from Uluru and conversely Uluru can be seen from Kata Tjuta.

We've decided to take a picnic lunch and head off to Kata Tjuta to do some walks there.  We've turned our car fridge into a freezer so we've also packed some ice blocks to cool us down.

First stop is the Dune Sunset/Sunrise Viewing area.  A short walk to the lookout along the path where we saw lots of delicate flowering plants and plenty of animal tracks in the sand.  It's hard to fit the whole of Kata Tjuta into a single photo because it's just so big.

Next stop is the Sunset Viewing/Picnic area.  More flowers and more photos before proceeding the few kms to Walpa Gorge.  Here we did the Grade 3 2.6km walk into the gorge between almost vertical rock walls.  We passed some waterholes and listened to frogs and birds as we walked.  The dark green of the trees looked fantastic against the vivid redness of the rock.

Further around to the Valley of the Winds where there are several walks from 2.2km to 7.4km.  Robert walked to the first lookout (2.2km return) while Cherryl sat in the shade and waited for him.

We decided to have our picnic lunch at the Uluru Cultural Centre where there are plenty of well shaded picnic tables before heading back to Yulara.  We've been surprised at how green it is here in the Western Desert and how red the soil is and have been delighted by the number of flowering plants we've seen.  The colour of the rocks is constantly changing.

Yulara and Uluru

Yulara is the resort near Uluru.  There's no camping in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the Ayers Rock Resort provides a great range of accommodation alternatives, shopping, fuel and a number of paid and free activities.  We booked in for 3 nights which will fit in well with the 3 day pass we will buy for the national park ($25 per adult for 3 days).

We settled into our campsite and set off to the well stocked supermarket for some essentials (ice blocks).

In the afternoon we drove into the national park to explore the Uluru area.  We decided long ago that we would respect the wishes of the traditional owners and would not climb Uluru, although many tourists still undertake the difficult and hazardous climb.







You can't miss Uluru, it dominates the landscape due to its sheer size.  It's 348m high and 9.5km around the base.  We visited the Cultural Centre which was excellent and well worth the visit.  We continued our drive around Uluru, stopping off at some lookouts along the way.

As it was nearing sunset, we joined other tourists at one of the "Sunset Viewing" areas.  There's a reason that these are popular - they provide a great view.  We watched Uluru change from orange, through red, to purple as the sun went down.

After sunset we drove back to Yulara and our campsite.

Day 2 at Yulara we have taken advantage of some of the activities on offer.  Robert attended a painting workshop in the morning and produced a piece of art for the caravan.  In the afternoon we attended a free performance of the Mani-Mani Indigenous Theatre.  

Both activities were enjoyed, as was the walk across the sand dune to attend them.  There are many plants in bloom - there's plenty of life in the desert.

Tomorrow we're off to Kata Tjuta.