Kings Canyon 13th July
We took the dirt track from Ormiston Gorge to Kings Canyon and it turned out to be the most corrugated stretch of road of the trip so far. The 6 kid family from Vic had pretty much shaken their Jayco caravan apart on this road and he sent two days trying to patch it up. Pity it was 160ks long ! Most travellers were around the 60 k/hr mark with the odd eejit over 80 posing the real risk of throwing a stone through the window of any oncoming cars.
In the distance we watched a car and trailer overtake a saloon car that was going around 50k.When the saloon car got level then passed us we both looked at each other with our mouths open. The from of the car was a bit bashed in and the windscreen was gone . The driver was wearing a pair of oversized skiing goggles in a look more Mad Max than St Moritz .
The car must have been a foot deep in bull dust on the inside and whilst the goggles would do well against dust they are not renowned for stopping a flying stone hitting your forehead !
The following day Kate declined the offer of a walk as she was still recovering from the ascent of mighty mount Sonder.
However she was game enough to be up at dawn to drop me off at Katherine Springs so that i could walk the Giles track. This track joins together Katherine Springs, Lilla and Kings Canyon itself with a 22km ridge walk that takes in views of the escarpment which sits at around 800 metres and the desert plain below which spreads out in front of you and stretches for 800km.
I walked the route back to front from all the information sheets as i wanted to save the Kings Canyon element until the end.
The walk through the stone formations that are the result of millions of years of erosion was amazing. The structures took on all sorts of shapes and a night spent here would definitely require you bringing your comforter blanket in your swag to help deal with the imagined scenes outside.
Some of the sandstone around here is actually white but that devilish red bull dust ionically bonds itself to the stone giving it a red coating. Again i rest my case that bull dust is a product of beelzebub.
What a place to eat your sarnies though !
The walk took me just over 5 hours a far cry from the crazily conservative blurb on the fact sheets that suggests its a two day walk !
At sunset we drove away from the throngs of people on the manufactured “sunset platform “ and took in the sun setting on kings canyon on our own – special stuff.
We then went back to the pub and listened to an artist play a number of good songs but unfortunately he had only one style which was to start slow and end in a sort of shouting anthem with strong vamping on the guitar. In this manner he butchered most songs including Eric Bogles “And the band played waltzing Matilda” and then “Hallelujah “ which are contemplative slow songs not ones to try and march on Canberra to ! But fun nonetheless with a schooner of Great Northern in your hand.