King's Canyon

www.kanaloa55.com
David & Valerie Dobson
Sun 22 Jul 2007 01:55

 

24:12.26 S  132:13.63 E

 

Kings Canyon

16-17th July 2007-07-22

 

The 425 kms drive from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon gave us a good feel for driving out in the desert, thank goodness we had a sealed road for this part of the journey

 

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CIMG0018.JPGWe finally saw the Emu CIMG0020.JPG

At our first stop along Stuart  Highway at the Eridunda Roadhouse

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Its no wonder they are hard to see in the wild, look how they are blended into the ground colour with these Euro wallabies

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This roadside stop was our first experience of swatting the flies around our face whilst we had our

picnic lunch outside.  They had a lot of aboriginal art for sale inside, from the local settlement nearby,

The only form of income the villagers can hope for.

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This ariel view of the Kings Canyon range gives more of an idea of the country we were driving alongside

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These melons were prolific along the roadside, bush tucker a plenty!

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Kings Canyon was like a mini Bungle Bungle area.  The soft sandstone has been worn away by roaring

Waterfalls which sculpted all these wonderful forms and gorges 300 million years ago, now there are just a few pockets of water left, with the lush tropical vegetation which would have been windespread at the time.

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The ghost gum eucalyptus hangs on to the side of the rocks, sending its roots down into the crevices for water

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David is brave standing on this thin ledge at the edge of the canyon

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It seemed a tough climb up to the top of this ridge, but the mountain side had been cut away with easy steps – cheating for us the effort we thought we might need to get there!  The views from the top of course are worth the effort :

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A good soak in our spa bath after the climb back down was one of the best hotel (Kings Canyon Resort) experiences of the whole journey.

A couple of wild dingo dogs walked right past our window, searching for food in the nooks and crannies