RED CENTRE: King's Creek Station and King's Canyon

We were very fortunate to have had clear weather for our hike at Kata Tjuta. At the conclusion of our hike we were given a semblance of lunch. The meals were always served from a trailer at the back of the bus and were never really appetizing nor diverse - always bread, mayo, cold meats, beet root (like old-fashioned red preserved beets that Mennonites used to make!), pineapple, tomatoes and avocado. Considering that I don't eat beet root, don't care for cold meats particularly, and am allergic to pineapple, the options were minimalistic at best!

It is just amazing how widespread the distances between locations really are in central Australia, and we had a long bus trip down the Lasseter Highway still ahead of us before nightfall. As we travelled, we passed another mob of feral camels. We stopped en route at Curtin Springs, a cattle station roadhouse that offered us a real taste of the outback! Mount Conner, the third of the great monoliths, is located on the western fringe of the vast cattle station. The roadhouse had toilets for "shielas" and "blokes", and exhibited signs with crude sayings everywhere. Bushmen with missing front teeth sipped drinks at the counter, complaining how the feral camels had just crossed the highway, stopping all the traffic. The menu even offered camel steaks! It was a very interesting stopover indeed.

As we travelled along, it began to rain heavily again. We arrived at our place for night, King's Creek Station, another cattle ranch, after the sun had already set.

We had to pitch our tents in the dark. Luckily for us, by this time the rain had stopped, so we just had a dark freezing cold night, not a dark WET freezing cold night in the tent, as we had had at Uluru. Our tent this night did not even have a zipper to close out the elements! Of course the toilets were some distance away, so we trudged along the path not really knowing where we were walking. Imagine our surprise the next morning when we found our shoes caked in 3 inches of hardened red clay! We had really walked along rivers of red mud! After breakfast we danced around the water puddles to get everything loaded back onto the bus. To say the least, our accommodation conditions were a test of endurance! Are you getting an accurate picture by now? In the morning we discovered that the station was really a nice place with a view and even had a cafeteria where time seemed to go backwards!

It was later that we discovered that the station actually offered accommodation in dry permanent tents with cement floors, electricity and heat!! Had we known.....be that as it may, we did survive our experience in tents!

In the morning it was off to King's Canyon for yet another hike!

Of the three places we visited and hiked in central Australia, this turned out to be the most beautiful and the most spectacular. Mammoth and steep red-walled canyons surrounded us at every turn.

It was really quite treacherous, because none of the edges of the cliffs were roped off. There were only signs warning people not to venture too close to the edge and radios stationed periodically to call in case of an emergency!! From the main trail, you could hike off to other viewpoints. At one point we had to hike over a little creek bridge with beautiful ferns along its shores. It was a scene right out of prehistoric times! At another junction we could hike off to see a waterfall with a spectacular view of the cliffs from the opposite side.

One side hike led to the "Garden of Eden"with crystal clear reflections in the water pools.

Pictures simply cannot do justice to the depth and height and grandeur of the canyon, but they are our memento of an incredible experience, so please enjoy!

At the end of the hike, we celebrated that we had triumphed over such a phenomenal climb! Then it was on to more bus travel for the remainder of the day. Of course we found another interesting truck stop en route!

It was early evening when we finally arrived at Alice Springs.