Walkin' the Watarrka
Trip Start
Jul 27, 2009
1
14
48
Trip End
Nov 07, 2009
Where I stayed
Kings Creek Station
Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon), Northern Territory, Australia
Saturday, August 15, 2009
We helped push a bus which was stuck in the sand [feeling very smug because we had a shovel for such emergencies, rather than the broom the mini-bus' occupants were trying to use].
Then in the afternoon we completed the Kings Creek walk, which runs along the bed of the creek to near the head of Kings Canyon. It was a great appetiser for the Rim Walk the next day, about which Hilary writes:
Our next stop was Kings Canyon. We camped 33 kilometres from Kings Canyon [at Kings Creek Station – a great privately run camping ground]. The next day we went on a walk around the rim of the canyon. The surroundings looked like the moon. There were heaps of giant domes all over the place. They looked like giant bees' nests. The Aborigines called the big domes 'Kuniya Men’. In the middle of the walk there’s a little patch of forest also known as the ‘Garden of Eden’. It was a beautiful forest of palms, gum trees and other small scrubs. At the very end of the Garden of Eden there was a waterhole. You were allowed to swim in it but we didn’t. When we got back we were going to go camel riding but we decided not to because it wasn’t exactly an exciting trail.
Alec says:
We walked round the ring of Kings Canyon. I absolutely loved the walk. It was my favourite walk I’ve been on [everyone agreed on this]. I thought the landscape was very alien. It looked like Mars because of all the strange rock formations. It would have been a good place to make a movie of lost in space. I felt scared when Dad made me look over the edge of a cliff [the brute!] with no fences. I drew a picture of Kings Canyon. We can see the layers of the rock formations.
Dad took a video on his camera of a pigeon [a Spinifex Pigeon]. It was interesting because it was walking around the pond eating very little seeds and it was being greedy. I got very close to it – more like it got close to me!
What great day!
Comments
Hurrah!
for the Thornbury Travellers!
Lovely to hear from you! This is only my second blog EVER so I have really no idea where this will go and who else will see this. Hurrah again!
I too have been to King's Canyon, and yes, Alec, I agree with you: the landscape IS very alien. Don't you just love the red of the earth up there in the Territory?
Lake Mungo looks incredible. I'd love to go there some day.
If you go to Kakadu, you must go to Cooinda (its alternate name: 'Yellow Waters'). Beautiful wetlands with the most incredible birdlife. I worked at the 'resort' (I use the term loosely) for 2 months 10 years ago! Amazing experience.
Keep well my good folk, and I look forward to your next instalment.
All the best,
Susannah
Re: Hurrah!
Hi Susannah - glad you're reading us and glad to bring back happy memories as well as inspiring travel lust (just call us the pornographers of the road!)
Well well....
..... pornographers of the road indeed!
Thanks for also sending your reply to my email - an excellent precaution for those who have only dipped a toe in the 21st century!
Susannah