Friday May 23, 2014

Another early morning  (5:00 am) After breakfast we packed our gear and swag and headed out to Kings Canyon. This morning the group was fairly quiet, the ones that had slept outside had a very late night.  They had seen several shooting stars and stayed awake well past 2:00 a.m. Five o\’clock came early for them !

James told us about our route and that we had to stick together and stay away from the cliff edges.  If we didn’t listen to him, he would turn the group around and take us back to the bus.  He was very serious about the safety aspect of this walk and also the amount of water we all should take with us.  We were going to walk 6 kms.  The first kilometer was up a steep hill, nicknamed heart attack hill.

It was a good walk, primarily with steps created from rocks so not too difficult.  The young Asians struggled.  The second kilometer was over and around the rim of the canyon.  It was incredibly beautiful.

As we progressed towards the “Garden of Eden” we had to cross a wooden tressel bridge, down some stairs and over the gorge on a wooden bridge and then back up the other side, again on wooden stairs.

There was one young girl who was absolutely petrified.  She was shaking and sweating profusely.  I spoke to the and persuaded her to take my hand and we negotiated the stairs and bridge together.  We waited until the bridge was clear of people and then quickly crossed it.  I told her my sister was scared of bridges too.

James at this point has lost interest in the group, he had stopped giving any commentary about the flora and fauna or route.  After we had crossed the bridges he told us to carry on towards the “Garden of Eden”, but didn’t follow us.  The group stopped short of going down another flight of wooden stairs to the waterhole, waiting for James.

Joyce one of the women from Hong Kong told me that the water hole was in a film that all the Asians knew and that is why they loved this area.

I went back to find him but he wasn’t at the point we last saw him and the second group from the other Emu bus was catching up with us.  I told the group to carry on.  I was really annoyed with James that he hadn’t followed us or gave us any information about the water hole or the flora and fauna or history or stories associated with the area.  When he eventually rejoined the group with some cookies and crackers, I told him that it was his responsibility to keep the group together and moving not mine.

Ralf had joined the other group for a short time so that he could go to another lookout.

After we left the waterhole, James stopped us a couple of times to show us a fossil and tell us about the large palms tht were growing there – a remnant of the rainforest due to the high water table.

After that it was a route march to the bus, we were so stretched out it was ridiculous.  Although we did manage to get together for a group photo.

Although James was not a good guide on this particular walk, it was an amazing walk – the canyon was awesome.

Ralf and I would watch the group pose for their photos.  They are so funny.

We got back to the cattle station for lunch of burgers  and salad then it was the long drive back to Alice Springs.  However Ralf had spotted a Golden Orb spider.  He was taking some photos of it and showing the group the colours of the web.  I, of course, being absolutely petrified of spiders stayed well away from it.  The spider is poisonous but not deadly.  It will make you feel quite sick for a few days.  I would not normally put a spider photo on this blog, but Ralf has asked me to do it.

WARNING PICTURE OF SPIDER TO FOLLOW !!!

As we were driving back we had a couple of stops.  A lookout at Mount Connor, which looks remarkably like Uluru.

We also stopped on the Stewart Highway and viewed Lake Amadeus, climbing over these sand dunes.

 

The Stewart Highway runs from Adelaide to Darwin and is incredibly straight.  May be we will come back and cycle it.

When we arrived at the hostel we discovered we were sharing a room with another person.  He was a nice young fella from England who had just got a job in Alice.  Ralf and I went for a pizza, and got back to the hostel early, as we have had too many early mornings.

When we got back to the hostel, Vince was waiting for us to tell about other places to visit in China.  We had a really interesting chat with him about Hong Kong citizens and China citizens and farmer citizens (Chinese class system).  Too many women are going to Hong Kong to have their babies and the babies become Hong Kong citizens.  The mothers are often returned to China and the babies have to be looked after by the Hong Kong government as they are de facto Hong Kong citizens.  Vince explained that Hong Kong citizens have a better lifestyle than many people in China.