van wyk journeys September 27th, 2019
Kings Canyon was the next stop on our tour. We made our way from Kata Tjuta and spent about 2 1/2 hours on the road ending up at Kings Canyon Resort just as the sun was setting. After dropping our bags, we headed out to get something to eat but restaurant selection was limited to just one, the Outback BBQ. We order food in the BBQ and then the drinks in the attached bar. Things are simple here, no cell service, no wifi so no internet. Selections of services don’t require much thought as it generally only one of each main service.
The next morning I did the rim walk which ended up being 7.8 km. To do this it means getting up at 5:15 a.m. to get breakfast and meet others from our group at the bus, then off to the canyon. But first I decide to take a look around the office. Inside there was a sign that provides the days’ forecast which is 35C. Nice, hot and no wind. It is about a 15 km drive to the canyon parking lot.
To get to the rim, the first thing that you have do is to go up the first hill from the parking lot and go up, straight up, about 300 to 400 meters in total length. This quickly separates the fit from those that think they are fit. Around 10% of our group turn back to do something less strenuous.
The rim itself is around 100 meters in height and was formed around 400 million years ago. There are no barriers anywhere except on the stairs and bridges, so it would be easy to fall into the canyon below. Several of the people in our group took selfies at the edges of the rim. Everything that is a rock is red. This is caused by iron oxides in the bedrock witch essentially “rust”. As there is little moisture, the oxides are not washed away.
Some of the interesting features were the beehive type domes that peppered the rim. I had seen these before at Lake Louise but they are much larger and not red. The mountains at Lake Louise are named Big and Little Beehive because they looked much like a real beehive. Other features are trilobite tracks in the sandstone rocks and an unusual ripple lined rock. An explanation of how this was formed is included in the slideshow below.
Now that the hike is done and the rest of the tour group is down from the rim, we join up with the other part of the group that got to sleep in and were on the lower canyon tour that leads back into the canyon. We have a deadline on the way back and that is for a bus transfer that happens at 3:00 p.m. exactly today at a specific waypoint on the way back. Along the way, we stop for lunch and tried a camel burger which was very good. After that, it’s another 4 hours to get back to Alice Springs.
We arrived back at the Crown Plaza and went to our assigned rooms, freshened up and had a refreshment and then off to dinner at the Juicy Rump while watching the national past time “footy” with the national title on the line. So what the heck is “footy”? Well, it’s Australian Rules Football which is a combination of rugby, US or Canadian football with absolutely no rules what so ever, or so it seems. This is played on a field that is shaped by an ellipse (oval) field and everyone runs over each other trying to get an odd-shaped ball through the upright posts on either end of the field. The fans are much like British football (soccer) clubs, totally nuts.
