Kings Canyon - Day 17

by Marianne
(Sydney, Australia)

On this day, we explored King’s Canyon. We began the walk quite early to avoid walking in the heat of the day. This seemed to be the intention of many others – including a few bus loads of people.

In fact, we thought this was the most popular walk we had been on. One pamphlet we read said it would be good to walk in an anti-clockwise direction, but we’re glad we followed the clockwise course as indicated by the signs because it would be difficult to pass the crowds on small pathways close to the precipice. Even when we finished the walk at around 11.00, the car park was full and many were beginning their walk. However, I would recommend doing all the walks in Central Australia in the morning. We enjoyed these morning walks far better – not only did we had more energy but we weren’t fighting the flies or the beating sun at the beginning of the day.

The first part of the walk was quite steep rising to the top of the canyon and after that the walk continued up and over sometimes going quite close to the edge of the canyon.

I think I still had the jitters from Uluru and found it difficult to watch and allow my children to run up ahead climbing on the sides of the canyon. Every climb they took worried me which if you know me is not characteristic of me and my belief that boys need to climb, explore and enjoy feats of bravery. Nevertheless, I stopped them from scrambling the rocks and going too close to the edge. In actual fact, I believe it was quite dangerous at some spots and was relieved when a sign backed up my concerns (Beware! Do not go close to the edge! Etc).

We crossed bridges and saw spectacular sights of the canyon. There are many canyons in the region, but King’s Canyon is said to be the most spectacular and it certainly was. The canyon walls were steep, and the top of the canyon walk was pleasant. It was interesting to see water marks in the rock layers which was an indication of the presence of an inland sea.

We followed the Garden of Eden sign and came to a waterhole. This is where we had some morning tea and touched the icy cold water. Ben took the lead and dived into the waterhole. After that Talitha and Micah followed.

They didn’t last that long for the water was very cold, and as soon as they exited the water, they raced to the top of the canyon to warm up and dry off.

Gerald and I followed their wet footprints and soon met them at the top.

For the rest of the day, we sat and read books.

That night we went to see the Roadies once again at King’s Canyon Outback BBQ. The kids came on stage again and although she said she’d leave the parents alone, I was asked once again to come up, and put on one of the colourful wigs and sing “do, dum, diddy, diddy, dum, diddy, do...” with some others. It was a good show they put on night after night involving the crowd whether they feel like it or not. It was interesting to be part of the show for the second night – watching those who really were putting on their disinterested, “don’t pick me” face, to be chosen to be “Stephen Spielberg” or a “Talent Scout” ..

The dingoes howled that night and early in the morning we heard more – it sounded like a family of dingoes - young dingoes joining in.