Australia, Kings Canyon: Dramatic Ceremonial Red Chasm

Still feeling soggy from the previous day's trip to Kata Tjuta and Uluru, we were taken to the final destination of our 3-day tour in the Australia outback, Kings Canyon. Kings Canyon was situated in Watarrka National Park and has become an increasingly popular destination for people who make the trip to Uluru from Alice Springs; Kings Canyon is not too far out of the way when touring the region and its well-known for its dramatic scenery and importance for the Luritja people who have lived there for thousands of years.

It took a few hours to get to Kings Canyon from the campsite where we had stayed for the night in the Uluru region. After finishing lunch at the Uluru campsite, everyone packed up their gear and we boarded the bus, which our tour guide, Emma, drove to get us to Kings Canyon. Along the way, Emma stopped so she could have each of us collect some wood for our camp fire later that evening. As we were in a semi-arid region, there was no shortage of dead, dried out wood and we managed to find plenty in a short space of time. Of course, being on a camping trip with around 22 other people certainly helped speed up the process!

The sap from the plant was squeezed into the accused person's eyes and would cause temporary blindness for a few days

We had faced so much rain over the past 24 hours that we welcomed the sun and heat of the afternoon when Emma stopped for firewood collection. It hadn't rained in the area where she pulled the bus over; the land was completely dry and what we expected of the desert region. Seeing such a landscape cemented the fact that we witnessed a very unusual occurrence with the torrential downpour and waterfalls spilling over the sides of Uluru and Kata Tjuta the day before. Once we'd gathered enough firewood, Emma tied it all to the top of a trailer that was hitched to the back of our bus.

The best part of our firewood collecting activity was that the sun began to dry out our wet trainers (that's the same as tennis shoes for the Americans reading this). After being damp for over 24 hours, it was nice to know our feet would soon be dry again. Once we left the firewood collection area, Emma continued driving towards Kings Canyon, stopping a couple more times along the way. Our first stop was to overlook a huge ancient lake on the far side of an expansive red sand dune. Second, we stopped off for a drink at a roadside cafe and petrol station. There, Dan became really excited when he spotted a group of wild zebra finches hanging around a bush. Unfortunately, he was unable to take a photo because the tiny birds wouldn't keep still.

We finally made it to the Kings Canyon campground in the early evening. The camp was set up like the one we stayed in the previous evening near Uluru with several 2-person canvas tents in a circle around a fire pit. There were a few benches around the fire pit and to the side of the camp was a large covered cooking area and the bathrooms and showers. Once everyone had chosen tents for the evening, Emma asked if anyone wanted to sleep in a swag under the stars. There were no takers after the terrible weather that engulfed us the previous day and earlier that morning, so the swags remained under lock and key in a storage building.

After seeing what came next, we were happy to have chosen not to sleep in a swag. A French guy in our group found an enormous grey Huntsman spider in the tent he and his girlfriend had chosen. We took some close-up photos of the very scary looking arachnid! Could you imagine sleeping outside in a swag and having one those creatures crawl up over the side of the swag towards the hole where your face is peeking out, and then down inside the swag to "hide"? That wasn't anything we wanted to experience, and seeing one up close was enough excitement for us that evening.

It was time for dinner soon after arriving at the camp, and the people assigned to prepare the food were allocated tasks by Emma. Her system of getting everyone involved in preparing, cooking and cleaning the meals was a good way to share responsibilities. We managed to get out of cooking duties that evening because one of us was on a break for that meal and the other one of us was assigned to cooking duties, which were not necessary since Emma did all of the cooking that night. We can't remember which one of us was doing what so you'll have to just accept that previous sentence as it is.

There was time before dinner was ready so we both headed to the camp showers to wash the stink off our feet. Having worn damp shoes for the past couple of days enabled a prolific odour to be present at the area below our ankles, and it was time to sort that out. Our shoes were still not completely dry but we managed to hang our socks out to dry by the fire, where they soon dried off enough to wear with our semi-damp trainers and provide the illusion that our shoes were dry, too. Dinner was next and we sat down to eat with some other backpackers in our group; it was nice chatting with various people. It was comforting to see the fire blazing strongly, knowing that we had all contributed to the gathering of the wood!

Dinner on our last night of the trip was chicken cooked in a honey-based sauce with many different vegetables. The resulting meal turned into a kind of stew with pieces of chicken simmering inside large iron cooking pots on the campfire Emma had started. The food was excellent and we were again impressed with the quality of meals on our backpacking trip. As dinner was being cooked, the sun set and we took in breathtaking views of the dark red sky and beautiful, peaceful surroundings. A few of us climbed up to get a good view of the sunset and were content to just stare out across the landscape at the distant setting sun and changing colours of the sky.

After dinner, we sat with two German girls and played cards. A few other people joined us and the German girls offered us some of their wine, which we gladly accepted. There was dessert that evening, too - vanilla custard - but Dan didn't have any so Kyle ate two helpings. We played the card game S***head and had a lot of fun doing so. When Emma promised us another early start the next morning, we decided to call it a night and headed to our tent to go to sleep. Before lying down on our beds, though, we had to check for any Huntsmen spiders in case they decided to come out and wait for us!

In the morning, we were woken up at 5:30am and had breakfast in the dining area. There were no plans to return to camp after our hike along the rim of Kings Canyon so everyone packed up camp and made their way to the bus. The morning was overcast but we were both happy about that because the temperature was cooler than we anticipated, perfect for hiking! The morning's activities included a 5.5 km hike around the canyon rim to allow us to take in the beautiful views, and we were also meant to stop halfway at a large waterhole for people to swim and cool off from the heat of the sun.

The beginning of the hike was definitely the most difficult. We had to climb up a very tall and steep incline with many steps carved out of the stone wall of the canyon. It took about 20 minutes to make it to the top of the canyon rim from the base, where we had started that morning. The weather was still overcast and the temperature was fairly cool, and we were happy that the sun hadn't come out in full force yet. Somehow we found ourselves at the front of the group, leading a group of backpackers up the canyon wall, and therefore we kept a quicker pace than we normally would have done.

At the top, we stopped to catch our breath and wait for the slower members of the group to catch up. Emma commented on how quickly we managed to get to the top and we put it down to all of the walking and hiking we had done during our travels around the world that year. At the top of the canyon, the views were incredible with a 360-degree vista of the red desert landscape. The walk along the canyon rim was very easy and we were able to take our time, enjoying the scenery and Emma's commentary on the native plants and history of the region. The sun came out as we began our walk along the rim, and we were able to experience mild desert heat for the first time since arriving in the desert region a couple of days earlier.

The remarkable views of the desert and canyon stretched on and on. As we walked along the trail, Emma explained to our group how the rock formations came about and we learnt more than we knew we would about the archaeological history of the place. In addition to explaining how the rock formations came about, she told us about the plants and wildlife in the canyon area. One plant we saw, a rather large one, hadn't evolved in over hundreds of thousands of years (we think it was called the cycad). Another plant Emma told us about was used by the Aboriginal people when members of the tribe committed a crime; the sap from the plant was squeezed into the accused person's eyes and would cause temporary blindness for a few days. Surprisingly, the sap was also used as a plaster.

Halfway along the rim of the canyon, the sun really came out and the temperature rose dramatically to the point at which we were getting hot and sticky. It was how the desert should have been all the time, but looking back, we were happy with the cooler weather. Perhaps less rain would have been better, though. Another point of interest at the canyon was a large group of bee-hive domed rock formations that were formed through wind erosion. They were a very impressive sight and the red rock domes stretched as far as we could see. Emma also pointed out an area of rock with embedded ripples, signs of an ancient sea that used to exist where Kings Canyon currently sits today. Near that part of the canyon rim were several fossilised sea cucumbers and jellyfish.

The hike took just over 3 hours, but halfway through it, we stopped at the Garden of Eden to cool off in the shade. Some members of our group decided to swim in the large pool of water in that section of the national park. Not many others took the plunge, but we wished we had brought our swimming trunks because it had gotten really hot by that part of the morning. The water was really dark because it was shaded inside the canyon, which is why many people decided not to venture in the water. When we made it to the end of the canyon rim, before climbing down to its base, we took some fun photos with the group and on our own, hanging off the side of the cliff. You can check those out in the photo album for this journal entry.

The drive back to Alice Springs was long and we passed the time by playing several games of cards with some of the people on our bus. We played "S***ead" and "A**hole", two fun games that everyone enjoyed. The journey took several hours and we were glad to have passed the time with the games. In total, Emma drove us 1000 miles in three days and we were looking forward to not travelling so much for a few days- bring on Adelaide! On the way back to Alice Springs, we stopped off at a cafe where we had stopped before, and we had iced coffees whilst sharing some potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce... yum.

Back on the road again, Emma had to swerve the bus a couple of times to avoid hitting large sand goannas and other lizards darting across in front of us, and, unfortunately, one falcon did pay the price for standing in the road. We hit it full on because Emma was unable to swerve enough without crashing the bus. At that point, Emma pointed out the interesting fact that Central Australia has the highest concentration of lizards in the world. Around the halfway point back to Alice Springs from Kings Canyon, we stopped off at a roadside general store in the middle of nowhere, completely isolated from any town or village. There we made lunch, which was ham and cheese sandwiches with coleslaw. A little while after lunch, we were back in Alice Springs and at Alice's Secret Travellers Inn, where we showered the dust and desert camping grime off ourselves and changed into dry and clean clothes, feeling really happy for the decent shower and new threads. That night, we headed out to the main shopping area to eat at Overlander Steakhouse where we were destined to try some local meats.