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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“Did we just come across ancient ruins?” |
May 10: Uluru to Kings Canyon (Mileage: 8947 km)
After our hike around The Olgas, we drove on up to King's Canyon in the evening. Filled up with gas along the way, and ended up paying $1.77 / L! No one else complain about gas prices!
Managed to catch a sunset on one of the faces of KC itself. The rock colours were not quite as nice, but the colours of the sky were a little more reminiscent of what we had seen on the Stuart. Decent sunset overall. Stayed the night in an unpowered site right near the canyon, and came back in the morning to do the hike along the Rim of the Canyon.
Kings Canyon surprised us and is definitely my favourite hike of this leg of my trip. The rock formations, lush foliage in the middle, and the views en route were some of the best we had seen to this point, and it is a nice relaxing hike. Every corner that you turn gives you something new and amazing to look at.
We started with the 100m ascent to the top of the canyon, and were startled along the way by a huge kangaroo that bounded across the path about 15 feet behind Mary. Quite a cool start to the morning. The first part of the hike is very nice, but the best views started coming about a 1/3 of the way into the walk. Suddenly the rock formations pop up all around you, and there are all these domes of highly eroded sandstone, so numerous that it looks like the ruins of an ancient civilization.
In the rear part of the gorge, you come across the "Garden of Eden", which is a very green forest growing in the middle of the chasm, leading to a very still and reflective pool in the center of the gorge. It was a very nice place to stop and relax for a moment on the way around the canyon. A little too cold for a swim though, as we could tell both by touching the water and the mad screams of those who entered!
On the final leg of the walk, you cruise around the other side of the canyon, and get to see a rock face that collapsed like 60 years ago, leaving a brilliant red rock face with some traces of manganese and iron oxidation running down the side of it. As well, there are a couple of rock ledges hanging out over the area where the collapse occured, giving the sense of floating rock!
Definitely recommend this hike to anyone who ends up in the area. Don't skip it for Uluru alone!
previous travel blog entry
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