31st Aug to 1st September - King's Canyon

Denise and Cyril, we just gotta say that this road might have been fine when you travelled over (about 6 weeks ago) BUT it is crap now, probably 80+ percent bad corros, rocky road.  We have to stop 3 times for Darl to secure the exhaust pipe which keeps coming loose.   On a bright note this is a very scenic route, we see two burnt out cars, didn't quite make it!    Lots of poo on sides of road, like big piles, we really didn't think horses could poo so much!  As we see some wild horses, now we don't need to have any encounters with one of them, the roo damage is looking fine.  

Oh No! Not corros again - we are now well and truly cured, no more dirt roads for us.  Still this ain't as bad as the Cape, 3 hours to do 153kms.

My Darl tries to keep clean, but it's a bit hard when he has to keep hitting the dirt on back under car tying up the exhaust, not once, not twice, but 3 times.......on this journey.

We come across a yellow drum with the wording Puttum Foot Up.    Thought this was unusual till we got round the corner, here was the other drum, Puttum Back Down, clever!

We book into King's Canyon resort camping ground and do sunset.   We are pumped to do the Kings Canyon Rim walk tomorrow.   Everyone says it is a must do.   There is dingo warning signs throughout the camp and there is gates at the amenties blocks to be kept closed to keep the dingos out!

King's Canyon on sunset, we're going up there tomorrow!











At Ellery's big hole, there is two older couples travelling together with their new 4wds and Trackmaster 4wd vans, they snuck in late and left early and did not pay the camping fee.....sneaky we thought, anyway they turn up at Ormiston while we are there and left early same day we left for Kings Canyon.  Funny to note that after we arrived and set up camp at Kings, we notice they drive in, we give them a big wave and the looks could say it all, we don't think they could believe we were already there and we suspect that they come the long way round on the tar.   We couldn't work out why they would as they had all the gear for dirt tracks....maybe they just do it for looks, my Darl says they are wusses!

After the initial climb to the top, this is the beginning of the rim walk.











Up at sparrow's fart, first day of SPRING as we want to get an early start on the walk (3-4 hours long).  The ascent up to top is not as bad as Serpentine gorge.    All the walking we have done this week, hopefully is building us up for the big one, that's Uluru (we keep calling it Ayers Rock and people look at us funny).   This is just an amazing awesome place! 

My Darl likes living on the edge!










We met a lady along the track (as it happens they had had the same car trouble as us at Ti Tree, universal, and Mel ran into her husband at Budget Auto in Alice), her hubby opted not to do the walk and was waiting in the car park.  Anyway she told us about their stay at Hermansburg, they thought would be this quaint little historic german village, wrong!  As they got there late they had to stay in the van park which was gated, padlocked and surrounded by barb wire fencing.  The locals kept them entertained till about midnight, they were the only ones staying at the park.  One to put on your not to do list.  We were also told by Cyril and Denise that it is known as Hellsburg as tourists have had wheels stolen and cars broken in to.

 We crossed this little walkway over to Cotterill's Lookout.   I'll tell you more about the Cotterill story later..

We're standing on the edge of one side of the canyon the sheer wall is the other side, though it looks liks it's joined at this angle.  This place is amazing.








We met a lovely couple on the Rim walk Cathy and Garry from Geelong and we join them for the entertainment that night at the resort, The Roadies, they do a bit of comedy, country, rock'n roll and audience participation.   The Roadies spend 8 months a year out here and have every Friday night off.   Cathy and Garry next stop is Yulara as well to walk the big rock.   We're meeting some really nice people along the way.   We also meet Ian and Karen briefly at Kings Canyon resort, from WA, he is a Geographical engineer, Karen is a nurse - they are travelling back to WA over a 1000km (yes 1000km) dirt track from the Olgas, we reckon they can have that!

 This is taken at the point where you descend into the Garden of Eden, waterhole at the bottom of the canyon.  In the background the dome shape formations are known as the lost city.   Up close these domes just look like a brickie has come along and built them (or an army of brickies)

After we did the 4 hour rim walk we do the 1 hour creek walk.  This pic is looking up at where we have just been, right around the top!

Here also, though we didn't get to meet them is a young English couple travelling the world on a moto guzzi.   They have been through Russia, Mongolia, Cambodia, China, Japan, NZ, Australia - check out their rig!   Now that is an ADVENTURE!!  We might meet up with them later we hear they are heading same way we are.