Kings Canyon

Mount Conner

On our way to Kings Canyon, we stopped by a salt lake and had a better look at this rock that looks like Uluru to those who don’t know what from what and is nicknamed “Foolaroo”. Mount Conner is actually higher than Uluru but is not a solid piece of rock like it. Plus Mount Conner has a flat top. Just across the road from the lookout, we also went to take a look at a salt lake, remnant of the days where the Australian continent had an inner sea.

We finally made it to our Kings Canyon campground at sundown. Just as the night before, we decided to sleep in swags. However, just after we went to bed, it started raining. Some moved back to the structured tents that are part of the permanent campground while I was with those that moved the swags to sleep in the covered kitchen area. We had also been warned about the mice and the dingoes. Apparently the dingoes here (dingoes are related to wolves and dogs), as opposed to those on Fraser Island, are less aggressive as they don’t look to humans to feed them. I was nonetheless glad, to be in the kitchen surrounded by my “clan” when they howled in the middle of the night. As for the mouse, it apparently went over a couple of sleeping bags so I tried to make sure I was moving then so it wouldn’t come to visit my sleeping bag.

The next morning was another early start off to walk up Kings Canyon. It is named after and is a real canyon as it’s been created by the shift of rock formations. This is compared to a gorge which is created by water erosion, such as the Grand Canyon. The Grand Gorge wouldn’t sound as catchy. Our guide Jane, also pointed out where part of the movie Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was filmed. I only have a vague recollection of the movie, guess I’ll have to watch it again. We went down in what is called the Garden of Eden where it was greener. There is a water hole but it’s stagnant water so none of us went for a dip. And other than the initial hill, which is nicknamed heart attack hill, it was a pretty easy walk with stunning views.

Look for the bug

Garden of Eden

Now the view from the other side.

A lonely tree that got a few hugs

After our hike, we had lunch and then made our way back to the Stuart Highway that runs between Darwin & Port Augusta where the 11 who were just doing the 3 day tour hoped on another bus that would take them back to Alice. And then there was six of us : Boel & Isak from Sweden, Gosia from Poland, Rachelle from the UK, Tobias from Switzerland and myself as well as Jane, our guide.