A nice pleasant start to the day with the constant cold wind relenting a little. Easy pack up and a reasonable run into Kings Canyon about 9-30. Straight through the “resort” to the Canyon itself. The rim walk is 6km and 3-4 hours apparently so I fill the “camel pack” in my rucksack take some extra water and food and off I go. The track is only walked clockwise as there is quite a significant ascent in the first ½ km and they don’t want you coming down it when you are tired from the hike.
You can see from the height profile that it’s pretty straight up
Mind you that last descent is pretty steep as well but the track “stairs” are more regular and it’s a lot easier. Two things always amaze me on these walks, the first is the amount of work the rangers put into making these paths stable for the traffic. It all has to be carried in on foot and there is a lot of cement up there. The second is that now 90 year olds can race past me on the track with their Zimmer frames in high gear! I have to get one of those things or take up drinking Red Bull or something.
I have come to the conclusion that the only way people take decent photos of these places is to get authorization to hang over the edge with climbing gear or something. Mind you the German tourists that abound out here seem to think you can do it in socks and sandals. My whole body goes in to nerve spasms just watching them so I don’t. I figure they’ll yell on the way down and I can tell the ranger about it when I get back, that’s if they don’t land on him on the path below.
Still I took a few snaps to remind me . . .
The rim wall here is about 100metre high
[Update]
and all in one photo ...
[End Update]
Half way along the walk you cross over the canyon at “The Garden of Eden” using this bridge
Where there are lovely rock pools full of sub-zero water waiting to freeze your toes solid if you are crazy enough to try and cool off.
Which is all very lovely until I turn the corner and am confronted by
I find the easiest way to do this is to offer to help somebodys frail little grandma who passed me earlier then close my eyes and hold onto her hand while she leads me up the steps with my eyes closed after which I can dash of with great gusto into the distance until she fires up that damn Zimmer frame again . . . what? they fit turbos these days???
By now it’s lunchtime so I return to the resort to try and decide which direction to go next. I got into an interesting conversation with a couple ( m & f) of German tourists and a 22 year old guy from Queensland looking for the meaning of life on 650cc Yamaha dirt bikes with long range tanks and tons of gear. Two of the three would take lighter bikes next time. They all quiz me quite extensively about the road conditions around the Mereenie Loop for the next couple of hours and the Germans decide to stay in a motel for the night and head out the next morning while the young guy decides to head out to my previous overnight spot to camp the night.
I decide to stay over and have dinner in the café and head out tomorrow morning.
(I appologise for all the crazy spacing in these posts but I just can't get it to work properly!)
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