What a beautiful morning, this has been one of the most amazingly active bird locations we have been to. It is a lush and richly treed area which means food and homes for all of the different species of birds. One bird has a beautiful two tone tweet and I have particularly liked this one. Last night when Tim got up he woke me to show me how close 13 brumbies were close to our camp. They were literally only 10m away just beyond the closest tree line. Then we had the biggest dingo call we have heard to date - we are getting closer to Ayres Rock!
Last night saw us set up a very basic camp again, no awnings or verandah and we were on a mission to be packed up before the majority of people - this means no ensuite tent or chairs and at 8:12am means I will be on my feet until we depart for the next adventure that Dave and Peter take us on! And at 8:29am we are all fully loaded, tied down and Tim has even done a tool reshuffle in case we go through any more deep water. Fortunately all of the tools are okay and his old t-shirt -wrapping the compressor- saved the day! We have done 99.6km since Hermannsburg and we still have plenty of fuel.
We are off on the track and we have been seeing these spoon like plants along the way. Peter brought them to our attention and said that someone had been planting plastic spoons, so on the next opportunity I got out and took a photo. It reminds me of the alien invaders movie where the eyes we're planted in the ground ready for the take over of planet earth!
We are the last car today and that enables Tim to seek the best photo opportunities of the ute. Look what he sent me out into by myself...
Just me so that I could take this photo of Tim and his ute...
We then found another Waddi tree plantation - a joke of the trip - but an important indigenous tree that is used for ceremonial purposes. But the car was more important even though I kept telling Tim that the lighting was wrong!
As of 11:19am we have done 44km and are seeing some very twisty tracks now. We have made our way onto Hembury track, an indigenous land area where we need permits to leave the track. We are 38km from the sealed highway and finally make it to nice smooth roads. Tyres are now pumped to 55 in the rear and 38psi in the front. We are 61km from the Kings Creek Caravan Park that is located in the Watarrka National Park. We are hoping to make it to Kings Canyon today and are loving the bitumen surface of Luritja Road. With time for a fuel refill at Kings Creek Station (2017m above sea level) we find our selves paying 254.7cents for fuel a litre.
In the space of an hour we have travelled 23km and seen so many different environments - river beds lush with eucalyptus trees, bush scrub and now taller skinny looking trees and all beside the red sandy track that has been graded recently (we saw the yellow grader on the side of the road - all bashed up and broken windows - it's been here for a while) enabling us to travel at 80km.
You know what we also found today? Water! This wet clay pan was so much fun and a few people have made videos so I can't wait to see them! Here we have Irma driving Lee's car and Travis on L plates having a spin in the mud flats. We can't even see out of the side windows at the moment!
This took us to Kings Canyon and we did the 5.5km hard walk! It took us most of the afternoon but we were rewarded with a fabulous afternoon with the sun perfectly colouring the canyon. If you have been there then you will know how spectacular it is...my photos do not give this location justice!
On the way up...
Dave contemplating the view...
Sunset at the car park...
We decided to stay at the Kings Canyon Resort Campground as it was already getting dark. Tim set up while I relaxed in the shower and for this I am grateful as it kept me out of his way and I wasn't bothering him. We enjoyed lovely salmon and steamed vegetables for our Good Friday dinner. What did you do?
Thanks for a snippet of your camp setup!! Loving the pics and stories. We never did the West Macdonnell Ranges or Kings Canyon - it is definitely on our to do list now!!
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