King's Canyon

I went camping this weekend with some new Aussie friends. We left on Saturday morning and headed out through Hermannsburg only to discover we couldn't get to King's Canyon on that route without a 4x4.  Stupid google directions. I should have known better. So we retraced back from Hermannburg (about 120kms each way) and headed down the sealed Stuart Highway, turning in on the Lassiter Highway, and then onto the last stretch to King's Canyon Resort Caravan Park. We set up camp - F. brought a swag, which is a canvas bed with covered foam mattress that you climb into and fold the flap over your head to keep dry in case of rain. I was offered one, but have a spider fear, so opted for a cheapo tent from Kmart, as did K. We all had the same sleeping bag, rated to -4C, which was more than enough. I bought an air mattress as well, as I can't do the hard ground. After setting up, we had a few cups of cider before heading to the "barbie" to cook our "tea". Turns out what they call a barbecue at the campgrounds in Australia are actually gas flat top grills, no open flame, no runged grill. I had bought a nice steak and was looking forward to throwing it on the bbq, but instead fried the hell out of it on this grill. The veggies turned out very well and the others had sausages. There were no picnic tables or bbq pits at the campsites, so we stood around the grill and ate by the light of a "torch" (flashlight).

From there we headed to the campground pub, called the Thirsty Dingo. We also had a dingo visit our campsite when we were sipping ciders. To me it just looked like a dog. We didn't have any babies for it to steal...the Thirsty Dingo was just an ordinary pub inside, with a nice garden outside. It had been raining on and off all day, which was annoying since we were in the dry outback desert climate, but it finally gave up and we saw the stars. After a number of glasses of draft beer, we headed back to crawl into our sleeping quarters for the night. I didn't sleep well, new surroundings and all, and heard something crawling up my tent walls. I flicked on my flashlight and saw a HUGE BLACK SPIDER crawling across the screen portion of my roof, beneath fly. It was the size of a friggin' tarantula...I nearly shit my sleeping bag...but didn't. I didn't even scream, as it was on the outside after all. I did however keep checking back to see that nothing came back up over. I heard climbing for a few hours, up and down the tent, like I was being stalked by a spider, heh heh. Thankfully I was not in a swag but my tightly zipped up tent. F. was less concerned about spiders and more concerned a dingo was going to eat her face off...not sure where that fear comes from.
The next morning we rose, had some breakfast and packed up the campsite, heading for King's Canyon. The hike was to be a 6km walk, so we packed lunches and water. The first bit of the hike was the hardest, straight up and up and up to the rim, and then it improved greatly after this. The scenery was just breathtaking, and I shot nearly 300 frames with my Rebel. I was initially disappointed that it was overcast, but hopeful that the clouds would break apart and the sun would shine in the azure blue sky again, which it DID! The landscape was almost like being on another planet, very surreal. The canyon had once been underwater, and the shape of it was from several million years of water carving out various parts of it. We saw many varieties of desert flowers, persistent trees despite the lack of water, and breathtaking cliffs. I managed to avoid tripping and falling over them. Phew...
We took a few marked detours for breathtaking views, and the hike overall was about 8 kms. I could have stayed all day, it was just amazing, and well worth the initial steep climb in which I thought my asthmatic lungs would explode. Thankfully I brought two puffers, as the first one ran out.
After the hike, we had a snack and hit the road for home. It was a much quicker drive without the unnecessary detour of the previous day.

King's Canyon rocked and so did we.