Friday 18 July 2008

Kings Canyon



After we left Uluru we travelled to Kings Canyon which was a comfortable late lunch arrival at the park which we had booked into. As we drove in three brumbies ran out a little way ahead of us across the road which was certainly a new experience for us!
Kings Canyon is located in Watarrka National Park and again we are so pleased we came. After a while you run out of superlatives – it is all spectacular and so different.
We had the choice of three walks here and decided on the two easier ones as the Kings Canyon Rim Walk is strictly for the mountain goats, which we clearly are not!
We undertook the Kings Creek Walk on our first afternoon which was a distance of 2kms and ended at a viewing platform where we were able to enjoy stunning views of the sheer Canyon walls and watch the ‘mountain goats’ walking along the rim high above our heads. They were strictly in the ‘nose bleed’ section of the cinema! The walk was along a beautiful man made path which you can see in one of our photos. Everything is in harmony with the surroundings and you don’t feel as though you have intruded on the natural beauty too much. The walk is timed to take approximately 1 hour but we stopped to look at so much along the way an afternoon passed very quickly. You can see how the colours of the rocks change and the patterns they create in the Canyon walls. The foliage changes as you move into areas which would normally have some water and how resourceful plants and trees are in surviving and thriving in this harsh environment.
When we returned to the park we walked up to the Mobil Service Station (a servo – Dawn!) where ‘odour free’ Unleaded is $2.10 a litre, for milk ($1.95 for 600 ml) and passed several dingoes wandering through the camp. The warnings about dingoes here are not exaggerated. They appear quite confident and not at all nervous as they wander through the individual campsites. At the van next to ours they came right up to the family as they were cooking their dinner. This is one occasion I am very thankful for our own bathroom – no traipsing across to the amenities in the middle of the night for this little black duck! At the moment they have pups in tow so they are fairly busy and protective.
Today we took the Kathleen Springs Walk which is 2.6kms but takes longer than expected when you stop, look and listen. This area was used extensively in the pioneer cattle industry to utilise the beautiful springs. Structures from the cattle yards still remain and certainly illustrate the resourcefulness of the pioneers, although now it is all National Park. This is the first time we have been on a walk and ended sitting beside water so it was quite different. We would love to come back here when there has been rain as we’re sure it would be even more spectacular.
The birds are quite beautiful and last night at sunset we saw black cockatoos with their beautiful red tails and finches and so much more that we couldn’t identify.
We’re off again in the morning to Stuarts Well Roadhouse, home of Dinky the Singing Dingo so we hope he is at home! Last week we understand he was away one night --- perhaps performing elsewhere!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for the lovely birthday call, it was great to hear from you both.
I am really enjoying the blogs, (so is all of Roseville), and it seems that you are loving every bit of it.
Continue to enjoy, take care
Love Jan & girls