3/9/10 KINGS CANYON

We woke pretty early this morning to the sound of a few drops of water hitting the caravan. Last night was quite warm but that soon changed this morning. From about 6am we had


THUNDER

LIGHTNING

RAIN, RAIN, MORE RAIN

Trying to pack up everything in the rain was a bit of a challenge and it seemed to be getting colder as the morning wore on. We finally got it all sorted and headed off on the road again – this time to Kings Canyon.

We have booked into the Kings Creek Station for 3 nights and once set up went for a drive to Kings Canyon Resort which is about 38km from here. We had expected something like the Ayers Rock Resort but there was no comparison. We couldn’t find anywhere to buy a battery charger so I will have to keep using the iPhone until we might be able to buy a charger in Alice Springs.

We had a bit of a look around the entrance to the Kings Canyon Walk and we are psyching ourselves to do the Rim Walk tomorrow – 3.5 to 4 hours! The information states that the first part is pretty steep and our friendly backpackers from yesterday told us that as well. There is a much shorter, gentler walk but we have been told the Rim Walk is absolutely worth the effort.

What a spectacular looking place it is – and that is just at the entrance.

We went to a show put on by the Kings Creek Station tonight. The owner of the station addressed the audience (about 35 people) and told us about the history of Kings Creek Station, the plight of the Aborigine, the Conway Kids program (where the Conways – the owners of the Station – raise money and invest a lot of their own money in providing bush Aborigine children with the opportunity to be educated in Adelaide), camels, bush brumbies and cattle mustering. It was all really interesting but the bench seats were pretty uncomfortable and it was getting very cold. The show finished with freshly made damper, syrup and real honest-to-goodness homemade cream washed down with billy tea. All good stuff. Apparently this is the best rain this area has had in 150 years and this is also the reason why we haven’t seen much by way of wildlife. Because of the really good rainfall there is ample feed across the country and the wildlife doesn’t need to come near ‘civilisation’ (including the roads).

Kings Creek Station has a contract to catch and supply 12,000 camels and so far they have only caught 70 so they are still a long way behind. The good rains means the camels are more scattered across the country and this makes it much harder to find them and muster them. The contract is worth $200 per camel so they are desperate to fulfil it!

The rain appears to have eased and the sky is clear (probably why it is now so cold and we have had to turn the heater on for a while).