5 November 2011 - King’s Canyon Resort, King’s Canyon Resort, Watarrka National Park, Northern Territory.

Last night soon after we turned in, the wind came up and caused us to regret that we had only put one set of flapper straps on the awning. After a while it abated and the rain came and continued much of the night. We had set the alarm for 4.45 am this morning with the intention of rising and making our way to the canyon proper, in time for sunrise and making an early start on the planned hike. When it did go off, I mumbled to Chris that it was raining and there was no point in an extreme rising, however after ten minutes or so, we decided that since we were awake, we may as well get up and find out what the day really offered.

Minutes after six, we were breakfasted and had driven up to the car park ten kilometres from the resort. The sky had cleared and there seemed to be every possibility of acceptable weather. There were already three tour buses there, the last of which was disembarking keen walkers. We donned our walking boots and hats, and Chris hoisted on the pack with lunch cut last night and full water bottles, and we joined the throngs setting off on the King’s Canyon Rim Walk, the basic walk six kilometres, which would take us three to four hours.

The first part of the walk was straight up the very steep side of the Canyon, enough to put anyone off who was not up to the rest of the walk. The walk is graded moderate, but spells out the fact that the first part is quite difficult. Chris and I climbed it well and soon passed all three parties, setting out alone and ahead of these groups, two of which were German.

On the rocky plateau above the canyon

The Canyon itself is a mighty chasm that cleaves the earth to a depth of 270 metres. The sheer red rock face of the canyon soars over 100 metres above cycad gardens called the Gardens of Eden. The side trip to these and another to a lookout each add an additional 600 metres to the length of the walk. We took full advantage of these wonders and marvelled at every step of the way. Once on top of the canyon, the geological shapes and formations were like a completely separate fantasy world, and the views down over the sheer cliffs absolutely breath taking. I took hundreds of photos but none can clearly describe the wonder of this place. We were certainly glad we had set off early, because even by 8.30 am, it was starting to get hot, and we knew that soon the hot sun beating down on the red rock would become insufferable.

As we pressed on ahead of the others, we were able to look back across one chasm and see older people struggling to descend the steep ladder like steps and wondered how often tour guides had to utilise the radio stations along the way to have a helicopter take a tourist out; perhaps an overweight unfit wealthy American who preferred to fork out a thousand or so rather than subject themselves to picking their feet over these rock formations.

We made it back to the car park in two and three quarters of an hour, so were pretty pleased with our efforts. On the strength of that, we set off up the canyon floor following the river bed for the easy one hour walk, again encountering scores of people. We were back to the cruiser within forty minutes and soon back to the camp for coffee, a shower and the rest of the day just laxing out.

After an early dinner, we joined about fifty others, nearly all German and French tourists from the hotel part of the resort, at the sunset viewing spot; a red dirt corral surrounded in rope, with just one bench seat. We all stood with cameras at the ready and took another hundred photos of the landscape stretching out in front of us as far as the George Gill Range. It was just as interesting watching the motley lot of people as looking out for dingoes and the birds as they settled for the evening. Large dark clouds were gathering and no doubt will be true to the weather forecast with thunder storms later tonight.

We are just so glad we made the effort to come to King’s Canyon. It had been on our original to do list, until we realised the distances we would have to travel out of our way. It was only due to the encouragement of fellow travellers that we reconsidered the extra effort. Both Chris and I agreed that anyone making the effort to detour to Kings Canyon would be very remiss in not undertaking the rim walk as we had. In fact, while the canyon seen from the resort or from the river bed is quite lovely, that alone does not warrant the cost of travelling this far. Better to shoot straight through to Alice Springs and take in the wonders of the McDonnell Ranges. We were lucky or wise enough to do both that and this here.