Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

Kings Canyon Rim Walk

Wednesday 3 August: Marg decided that she had seen the canyon from below yesterday and really enjoyed that, so she opted to forego the Rim Walk to catch up on her artwork.  This meant that I (Brian) headed off alone.

The Rim Walk is about 6 km and is graded as ‘Moderate to Hard’.  The start involves a walk straight up the side of the escarpment and looks seriously ‘Hard’ – so much so that many potential walkers decide that they’d rather do something else.  In fact, it’s not as hard as it looks – it is steep but it isn’t long.  I reached the top of the escarpment in about 20 minutes, and that included a couple of photo stops and another for a few mouthfuls of water.  Thereafter, the walk is not difficult.  It involves a bit of scrambling here and there and there are several steep ladders to negotiate, but nothing that anyone of average fitness couldn’t handle.

The time to complete the circuit is usually quoted as 3 and a half to 4 hours.  I managed it it in a little under 3 hours and I was certainly not rushing.

Here’s a few photos:

Self Portrait – Halfway up the starting slope

Garden of Eden

Kings Canyon to Alice Springs

Thursday 4 August:  We’re now starting our 3rd week away and this leg was fairly long – about 480 km.  It is possible to get to Alice from Kings by a couple of shorter routes but both are recommended for 4WD only.  So, for us it was back along the Luritja Road and the Lassiter Highway to Erldunda before turning north again towards Alice.

The sky was very hazy and dirty for much of the trip due to the controlled burning that was still being undertaken but, apart from that, the trip was fairly uneventful.  We stopped at the Finke River for lunch – surprisingly, it had a few water pools – and arrived in Alice Springs at about 3 PM.

Finke River

Posted from Alice Springs

Uluru to Kings Canyon

Monday 1 August:  On our last day at Uluru we decided that less strenuous activities were called for.  In the morning we opted for the ranger guided Mala Walk.  This short walk visits a number of sites along the base of Uluru, viewing important cultural areas, cave art and finishing at a waterhole at Kantju Gorge.  We enjoyed this so much that we returned in the afternoon when the lower angle of the sun made for better photography conditions.

Relaxing on one of the numerous benches apparently constructed in Darwin from trees that were levelled during Cyclone Tracey

Kantju Gorge – the dark marks are due to an ephemeral waterfall which removes the rusty coloration of the surface layer of rock

Cave art along the Mala Walk

An interesting part of the local vegetation (that we first noticed on our way in along the Lassiter Highway) is the Desert Oak landscape.  When we first came across this we thought we were looking at two completely different plant species – the mature Desert Oaks and lots of unusual poplar-shaped small trees.  In fact, they are the same plant.  The smaller trees only develop into the mature spreading form once their root system has penetrated far enough into the soil to reach a reliable water source.  Fascinating – well, we thought so, anyway….

Juvenile and mature forms of Desert Oak
(Allocasuarina decaisneana)

Tuesday 2 August:  The trip from Uluru to Kings Canyon is around 300 km so, by our standards for this trip, it wasn’t an especially long leg.  

We left Yulara around 10 AM heading back along the Lassiter Highway as far as the Luritja Road turnoff to Kings Canyon.  We passed by Mt Conner again but the view was much hazier than it had been on the way in.  We found the reason for this as we travelled along the Luritja Road – there was currently hazard reduction burning in progress.  As we got closer to Kings Canyon the George Gill Range came into view on our right – an imposing sight in this mainly flat landscape.

We reached Kings Canyon at about 1 PM and, after lunch took ourselves off to the Canyon for the Kings Creek walk along its base.  This is a short walk and the view of the canyon walls high above us glowing orange in the late afternoon light was impressive.

Tomorrow, the Canyon Rim walk beckons…

A pair of Spinifex Pigeons  (Petrophassa plumifera) posing near the start of the Kings Creek Walk

Along Kings Creek

Eucalypts cling to the Canyon Walls

Posted from Kings Canyon

Uluru and Kata Tjuta – 2

Sunday 31 July: Yesterday we came across Talinguru  Nyakunytjaku, a new area that had opened in 2009 to the south east of Uluru.  This area has a viewing platform that allows both Uluru with Kata Tjuta to be seen together.  Today we went back for another look.

Kata Tjuta viewed from Talinguru  Nyakunytjaku

On the way back to Uluru we came across Mutitjulu Waterhole almost by accident.  It would have been a shame to have missed this beautiful location near the base of Uluru on its southern side.  Near the waterhole is a small cave with wall paintings.

When we arrived, a Park Ranger was wading in the waterhole picking up objects from the bottom with a golf ball retriever.  On enquiring, he told us that he was collecting coins that had been thrown into the waterhole. The odd thing is that this ‘wishing well’ mentality of some visitors had only started in the past few months.  Very odd.

Cave art near Mutitjulu Waterhole

Mutitjulu Waterhole

Collecting coins at Mutitjulu Waterhole

Warning: Rant Mode on!!

One of the most frustrating things we came across at Uluru is the number of people who insist on climbing to the top.

Uluru is of great spiritual significance to the local indigenous people, the Anangu.  They never climb the rock and it is regarded as a great affront when visitors do so.  Those who climb can hardly plead ignorance – there are plenty of signs asking visitors not to climb, including a one at the start of the climb itself.  What’s worse is that many who climb get to the top, find there are no facilities there and, feeling the call of nature, relieve themselves.  I wonder how they would react if a group of Anangu went to Sydney and pissed on the altars at St Marys or St Andrews Cathedrals. 

The National Parks Service is pussyfooting around this.   Apparently only 17% of visitors climb; the remaining 83% come to Uluru to enjoy the environment and to learn about the significance of the area to the Anangu.  One of the rangers told us that the plan is to close the walk by 2019. Why the delay?  It’s just giving time for the noisy minority to kick up a fuss and get the right wing shock jocks to lobby gutless politicians to reverse the decision.  They should just close the climb without warning, remove all of the safety chains and ignore any protests. Then anyone stupid enough to attempt the climb can remove themselves from the global gene pool.

Rant Mode off!!

Climbers on Uluru

A Thorny Encounter

After lunch we took ourselves off to Kata Tjuta which is about 40 km from Yulara. On the way we noticed a small reptile sitting in the middle of the road, so, of course, we had to stop to take a look and found our first Thorny Devil.  This called for a photo but just as we reached for the camera a couple of tourist coaches appeared in the distance.  Our Thorny Devil was in imminent danger of becoming a Thornless Devil. 

What to do?  The thorns on these things took like they mean business but there wasn’t much choice.  Gingerly, it was picked up by the tail and moved to the side of the road.  After the coaches had passed we went looking for Thorny again but it had taken the opportunity to disappear into the spinifex.

So – no photo.  But for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t seen one of these curious creatures, here’s a photo we picked up on Wiki Media.

Thorny Devil (Moloch horridus)
Photo from Wikimedia Commons and reproduced under the GNU Free Documentation License

Continuing on to Kata Tjuta, we went on a couple of short walks – The Valley of the Winds and Walpa Gorge – before settling down for the mandatory sunset viewing.

Valley of the Winds

On the Valley of the Winds walk

Walpa Gorge

Kata Tjuta at sunset

Posted from Kings Canyon

Uluru and Kata Tjuta – 1

We’ve all seen the photos but they don’t really prepare you for the first sight of Uluru.

You’re driving along through the red sand dunes with their vegetation of Desert Oaks and Spinifex and suddenly, this great rock just looms up out of the landscape. Awe-inspiring is an over-used phrase but nothing else seems to be an apt description for Uluru.  A few kilometres further down the highway and there, off to the right, is Kata Tjuta looming up.  It’s further away but no less dramatic.  It’s not difficult to understand how these outcrops are so important to the local indigenous people, the Anangu.

Friday 29 July: As we mentioned in the previous post, we took ourselves to the Sounds of Silence dinner this evening – a well organised indulgence.  We’ll probably need to live on toasted sandwiches for the rest of the trip to pay for it but it was worth it.  A coach picked us up from out hotel and took us to a dune looking back towards Uluru so that we could enjoy the sunset view on the rock while sampling some excellent Brut and canapés.  Then it was down to the dinner tables set up on the red sand where an excellent buffet dinner was served, together with some more than adequate wines.  One of us may have indulged a little more than necessary on these and managed to trip over a chair at the end of the night, skinning his shin….

We shared dinner with Chris and Murray from Adelaide and Chris and Melissa from Canada.  We certainly enjoyed their company – we hope they enjoyed ours.  After dinner, there was entertainment by  a Didgeridoo player and an astronomer who explained some of the features of the night sky.

Saturday 30 July:  Today we took ourselves off into the National Park (after doing a week’s worth of washing, which could be ignored no longer).  We spent the morning at the Cultural Centre which is maintained by the local Anangu people.  In the evening we did the sunset viewing and photographing of the rock, something that’s almost mandatory for tourists.  Several people came well prepared for this event, complete with picnic tables, champagne and snacks – pity we didn’t think of that!

Here are a few photos – more later.

Uluru – from the Sounds of Silence Dinner

At the Sounds of Silence
Chris, Melissa, Murray, Chris, Marg

Uluru – The most photographed view. Hundreds of thousands of photos have been taken from this spot.  Here’s one more!

…and the same view in late morning

Uluru – A closer view at sunset

Posted from Yulara

Coober Pedy to Uluru

Thursday 29 July and Friday 30 July:

The trip on Thursday to Erldunda was about 500 km and it proved to be the most tiring of the trip so far.  The landscape became a bit monotonous after an hour or so, which was a bit surprising as we normally find a lot to keep us interested. 

We crossed into the Northern Territory at about 3:15 PM and were relieved when Erldunda came into view about 4:30 PM.  Erldunda is at the turnoff to the Lassiter Highway (and Uluru) and it’s near the geographic centre of Australia

Erldunda has all necessary facilities including motel rooms which are reasonably priced and comfortable – except for the creaking floorboards. They also have strange messages that appear on the bottom of the TV screen – in the evening the message read “Activating certain areas of the brain“ while next morning it said “Himself a veteran actor with more than 40 years experience“.  No – we weren’t imaging the messages and no, we don’t know what hidden secrets were buried in them or who they were directed at.  It all seemed a bit “Twilight Zone” – do do do do; do do do do…..

The girl at the reception desk looked at us strangely when we mentioned the messages, but they were there.  Really they were….

Crossing into the Northern Territory

Typical spinifex vegetation at the geographic centre of Australia

Strange message from Erldunda….

Erldunda to Yulara is about 260 km so we weren’t in any real hurry to be on our way on Friday 29.  This stretch of road was much more interesting than on the previous leg so we were back to our typical meandering mode of travel.  An interesting sign (below) appeared near the turnoff to Kings Canyon, advising our Northern Hemisphere visitors that they needed to keep to the left.  Very helpful we’re sure, but it might have been more helpful if placed a bit closer to Alice Springs (some 300 km away) – perhaps some visitors do actually make it this far, driving on the right, without meeting a road train head on…..

Speaking of ‘head on’ – not far from the sign we came across two (yes two) dead camels on the side of the road.  We shudder to think what happened to the vehicle that hit them.

The major point of interest on the Lassiter Highway is Mt Connor.  It’s about the same height as Uluru and is much larger so it’s a landmark that’s impossible to miss.

Mt Connor

We arrived at Uluru just after 1 PM.  We were a bit early but our room at the Lost Camel hotel was ready so we moved in.  On Friday evening with clear skies we decided that a bit of indulgence was called for, in the form of the Sounds of Silence Dinner – basically dinner under the stars.  Superb!

Tomorrow – we start exploring Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

Posted from Yulara