Kings Canyon

Two tasks for today. The first was to do what we could manage at Kings Canyon, and the next was to get to Yulara. Along the way we managed a few unexpected gems.

There are two main choices at Kings Canyon. After being informed more times than I cared to think about that certain people were not doing the rim walk, we walked into the gorge. That takes about 15 minutes, during which Elliot told me a similar number of times that he wanted to do the rim walk. So after a quick assembly of the entertainments committee, the boys went walking and the women, well, didn’t.

This holiday has been dominated by flat land with things plonked onto it, and Kings Canyon is no different, so the first task was to climb out of the bottom. This raises you up over 100m and through 400-odd million years of geological history. Two main sandstones dominate the geology. The top layer is Mereenie, which protects the Carmichael down below. Underneath all of that, unseen, is a layer of shale which serves to keep any water above retained in the sandstone.

The formations above are in many respects similar to the Bungle Bungles. The sandstone below in the gorge could be like Blackdown Tablelands or Carnarvon Gorge, but with a red dusting. The sandstone itself is actually a pure white, as it was originally laid down in a seaside environment. It is however, porous, so when damp, and dust or other contaminants stick to the surface.  The iron-rich dust of the area covers most things red, but there are also black algal deposits as well, and some other colours.

Recent rockfalls reveal the white base-rock. The last recorded rockfall of significance was in the 1930s. This has left some significant overhangs which makes for spectacular photographs, but was enough to make me wary whenever I stepped over a crevice near to the edge of the gorge. Where a big block has moved a little, it is only a matter of time before it moves a lot and I was not of a mood to ride it down. Suffice to say what made me wary was enough to scare the boys right off, staying a good distance back without any instruction on my part.

At the top of the gorge is a quiet haven called the Garden of Eden. The top layer of sandstone absorbs the meagre rainfall and it slowly soaks through over a period of many (perhaps thousands) of years. It can’t go through the shale and so emerges locally into the high perched waterhole which is a haven for birds and cycads.

After all of that spectacular detail, the remainder of the walk is less remarkable, but none-the-less interesting in its own right. We completed the loop in about 3 hours. It was then back into the car for the journey to Yulara.

We intended to have lunch at Kings River Roadhouse, but the signs outside the shop made it very clear we weren’t welcome as picnickers. Extrapolating from that that we weren’t particularly welcome as shoppers either, we chose to take our business elsewhere. Knowing there was nothing marked on the map, we eventually selected a tree in the middle of nowhere and were astounded when another car chose that exact point to turn off the road and disappear down a bush track we hadn’t even noticed. There was probably a gorge over around the creek that was on the map, but we chose not to investigate further.

A little further on we came upon some camels running wild. There was a shy black one, but this one was quite happy to pose for the camera. The warning signs and the huge piles of droppings suggested their presence, but this was the best look we had of them to date.

Curtin Springs was the nominated fuelling choice. They are all a bit paranoid about drive-offs in this part of the world so I was a little surprised when I was greeted almost before I was ready to fill. The paypoint was the bar and it was a destination in itself so I managed to get the others out of the car for a look. It provided some entertainment at the time, but continued to give for the remaining hour into Yulara.

Lynne has been waiting for days to play the Mt Connor joke, but it fell completely flat with the cynics in the back seat. What turned out to be funnier was that when Uluru finally came into view, it was dismissed as being not the real thing and took some convincing to get the camera out.

Tomorrow we stage the final attack for the focus of this holiday.