Day 20 - 12/4/2011 KINGS CANYON

Day 20 – 12/4/2011 – Kings Canyon

Well the day started off fabulously, the weather was cool and the sky was clear – a great day for a walk around the Kings Canyon rim.  We headed out early and I must say rather eagerly although we had no idea what we had signed up to do we were keen.



We had to walk up this hill!!!



Well!! Were we in for a shock, the walk starts with a 100m or about 500 step climb straight up the hill that gets you to the top of the canyon!! Unreal even the children were exhausted halfway up.  But we persevered and at one stage I reminded the kids that Grandma did this walk and she was OK.  They also saw lots of other kids Grandma’s climbing above them and I think this helped to keep them going!!.  The view all the way up the mountain was amazing, and at some stages a little terrifying for those of us who are not good with heights!!  But when we got to the top it was well worth it …..until you realised that whilst this part of the walk took a while it was only a very small part of the 6 ½ km walk!!

On the way up we met up with a group of grey nomads, they asked us if we owned the children who were up ahead, tentatively I said “yes, was it two boys and a girl” they replied “yes, they suggested that we rest a lot because we are old!!”  I apologised for their boldness but luckily no one was offended in fact the laughed and said “it was true they needed to rest a lot!!”

We continued on and were treated to some of the most spectacular sights that we have had so far on the trip!! Kings Canyon is made of sandstone but during the walk you are treated to rugged ranges, rock holes, and spectacular gorges.   We saw the spectacular buttress domes and spent some time relaxing in the Garden of Eden.  The Garden of Eden is a sheltered valley with a permanent waterhole and very lush vegetation.  It was almost surreal sitting next to the waterhole surrounded by the vegetation when you thought about the fact that this was all situated in the centre of Australia in one of the most arid areas in the world.

At times we had to remind the kids not to get to close to the edge because there were not any safety barriers.  The kids once again walked really well, at times the going was tough and when the path headed down you just knew that it would go up again, they climbed the steps and scrabbled over rocks like troopers!!  The 6 ½ km’s took us about 4 hours and was a much harder walk than we had expected!!  We had certainly earned our swim in the pool and beer!!

We headed off again with Jim, Alison and Emily (the family we walked with) to the night time entertainment, The Roadies and a great night was had!! It has been fun hanging out with another family for a couple of days and the kids have certainly enjoyed Emily’s company.  The Roadies are a couple who came to Kings Canyon for 2 weeks 11 years ago!!  It is understandable because prior to living here they lived at Wilcannia!!!