Alice Springs is a very depressed place and looked pretty down in the dumps, not helped by the fact that it was raining and it took the hotel over 2 hours to have a room ready for us. They have some major problems with drugs and alcohol, particularly with the indigenous population and crime rates are high. After a wander round and a visit to Anzac memorial hill we decided to stick to the hotel for the rest of the day, where the dinner was surprisingly good though the room was a bit shabby. Next morning we set off on the long drive to Kings Canyon. Distances are just so vast – Kings Canyon and Ayers Rock are nearby attractions for Alice Springs but both are actually 500km away, it’s hard to conceive of the scale of the country. We seemed to drive forever without encountering so much as a farm or a house, just red earth and bush trees on a journey that was longer than driving from Manchester to Leysdown. After a couple of stops for fuel and swapping drivers we arrived at Kings Canyon mid afternoon and checked into the ‘resort’. We had a nice little cabin in the bush, surrounded by trees and buzzing with creepy crawlies which we mainly managed to keep outside. Summer (November to March) is the off season here so it was quite quiet and most of the resort restaurants weren’t open. Presumably it gets too hot but the weather seemed perfect to us – lovely sunshine, a nice breeze and daytime temperatures of about 25 degrees. The flies, which central Australia is famous for were out in force though. We walked up to the sunset viewing area and managed to watch the sun setting over the red cliffs of the range without swallowing too many flies before a buffet dinner and an early night.
Next morning we were up early and off to do the canyon rim walk before the day got too hot. The walk started with an almost vertical climb up rock steps to the top of the hill – John was not keen on the height but we were assured that this was the worst bit and once about half way up, coming back down would be worse than continuing so you are pretty well committed! Once onto the canyon rim though it was amazing – a seaside landscape with red rock formations and sandy bottomed gullies, except that the sea disappeared about 400 million years ago. The canyon itself with sheer rust red walls and plunging cliffs was incredible as was the view across the bush with nothing but trees and sand for as far as the eye could see. It was quite a scramble but the excursions to the cliff edge were mainly optional apart from the descent into the ‘Garden of Eden’ at the canyon end but John managed really well and we were soon up and over the other side. After the canyon rim walk we did the shorter track into the canyon itself – hardly a soul in sight for this much easier trail whilst the mountain top was pretty crowded at times, clearly the macho route is more popular in Australia. We sat on the viewing platform and gazed up at the canyon walls, listening to the birds and insects. The area further in is sacred to the Aborigines so the walk stops about half way in. It was a beautiful and deeply inspiring place.
With sore legs we headed back to our cabin to chill out, get our laundry done and have a rewarding glass of beer. I’ve read the few books we took with us so I’ve had to embrace more technology and read a book using the Kindle software that we are testing on the laptop. It works very well, though, being a Luddite, a still prefer a solid book and it’s a pain waiting for the laptop to fire up and close down, as well as keeping the battery charged – probably easier on an actual Kindle!
The next morning we were up nice and early again for the next leg of our drive to Ayers Rock/Uluru, a mere 300 km down the road!
No comments:
Post a Comment