King's Canyon & Alice Springs

The week started with a shift from Uluru to King’s Canyon which are very similar desert  campgrounds.  At King’s Canyon we were lucky enough to get a good site in the shade under a large gum tree looking straight out over the ranges containing the Canyon. The sunset view of the range was better from our van than from the lookout platform a short walk from the campground.  There has been a major bush fire through the region recently which has stripped most vegetation back to bare red sand hills and wiped out the Kathleen Springs parking and viewing area which is now closed.  We set off early on the second day and managed the ‘Rim Walk’ which is a 6.4km walk around the top edge of the canyon.  It is a 3 to 4 hour difficult walk and we were satisfied that we saw it all.  The scenery is unique with large slabs of sandstone fractured into cube shapes and then weathered into domes.  There are great views into the gorge from several lookouts and the ‘Garden of Eden’ gorge side walk is very pretty given the surrounding desert.  This is a long narrow side gorge into the main canyon and has water along most of its length with large cycads and beautiful white gums.  There is also a large swimming pool at the junction with the main canyon which has developed from another fault line at 90 degrees to the Garden of Eden gorge.

Mt Connor - often mistaken as the first view of Ayers Rock but still 150kms away

Ranges containing Kings Canyon from campground

Half way up the rise to the top of the Rim Walk

Walking on the edge

At the top and enjoying the shade

On the Rim with the campground just above the front foot

A dome and the red wall on the opposite side of the canyon

On top of a Dome

Garden of Eden - side gorge to King's Canyon

Weathered cubes/domes up top

Overhanging wall - last significant rock fall was in the 1930's

cute little Holly Grevillea

Cycad measured at over 400 years old

Next morning we were happy with a much shorter walk along the Canyon floor amongst the beautiful red boulders and white and grey gums.  We also saw more cute ‘Holly Grevillea’ bushes which as their name suggests have stiff ‘holly’ leaves and miniature red grevillea flowers.  Despite catching up with some very friendly campers again we elected to set off early Monday afternoon and free camp along the road towards the Alice.  We got a couple of hundred km’s under our belts which left ‘only’ 310 km for Tuesday.  We met up with Roger and Caroline from Maitland who we have seen at a couple of camps since the roadside free camp on the border and also chatted with fellow vanners from Moranbah and Gosford, which made our stay very enjoyable.

Start of the bottom of canyon walk

We over nighted at another roadside free camp on the way into Alice Springs.  It had good shade and clean bagged bins and we were able to camp well in off the road so the traffic noise was negligible.  The flies however were the worst we had ever seen; even thicker than at Cecil Plains in summer.  We have been buying diesel in ‘just enough’ amounts lately as the price has been up a bit. $2.03 at Uluru, $2.33 at Kings Canyon, and $1.98 at Erldunda on the turnoff has made us aware of the cost of travel.  We are happy to be averaging 14.63 litres per 100km over 51,500km since we left Brisbane in August 2011 towing the van with our worst leg being 21.1 ltrs/100km (into a howling wind) and our best 9.9 ltrs/100km (without the van on around the Eyre Peninsula).

Alice Springs is a big town and has changed a lot since I last saw it.  It has all the facilities including indoor pool and a good well lit footy stadium, plus all the shops and takeaway food joints of course.  It also has a very good Golf Course with 18 holes built around the hills in amongst a suburb of very nice new homes.  The casino is in the same suburb.  The course is in very good condition with smooth large greens and good bunkers with the red ranges in the background of each hole.  A trip out to the old Telegraph Station reminded us again how tough the pioneers of these parts had it.  A single wire telegraph line was run from Adelaide to Darwin using 36,000 wooden hand cut poles in less than 2 years in the 1800’s including 5 repeater stations along the route.  This was joined to an undersea cable from Darwin to Asia and on to Britain and cut the communication time from 3 months to 2 hours.  Operators manned the repeater stations 24/7 and when a message came through in Morse code, it was copied and re-sent on down the line, one message at a time, one direction at a time.  The diaries tell of the heat, the cold, and the flies, and the supplies once every few months.

The Telegraph Exchange - note 9 wires - 1 in, 1 out, 7 local.

We spent a full day out amongst the West MacDonnell Ranges with stops at most gorges and tourist sites.  Simspons Gap, Standley Chasm, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Ormiston Gorge, Glen Helen Gorge, Mt Sonder lookout, and the Ochre Pits were all visited and were all impressive.  The water and lush growth along the gorge floors together with the beautiful white Ghost Gums made for some pleasant viewing after the desert scenes we have become used to.  The walks are all well maintained.  The colours of Standley Chasm in the noon sun and the contrast of red rock, dark water and white ghost gums was very memorable.  There are campgrounds at several gorges and our pick is Ormiston Gorge. It has a small kiosk and a short walk into the wide sandy Finke River with red cliffs and a large waterhole.  We had afternoon tea at Mount Sonder Lookout which is just west of Glen Helen Gorge and has great views of the ranges north and south with the prominent peaks of Mt Sonder (1,380mASL) in the west and Mt Giles (1,389mASL) to the east.  They are very impressive peaks and the long ranges running east west clearly demonstrate the faults where the earth’s crust cracked and was pushed up onto its edge many moons ago.  The Finke River runs through just below the lookout and has a large waterhole and green reeds/grass surrounding it following recent rain.  The Ochre Pits where the aborigines have taken the different coloured ochres for painting for tens of thousands of years is another example of horizontally laid down beds being pushed into vertical layers.  A creek has cut through the beds and the cliffs are beds of very pretty colours from pure white, through light to bright yellows, and on to oranges and reds where iron has washed through and rusted.

Simpsons Gap

Standley Chasm just pre-noon

Standley Chasm walk in

Ghost gum that got tired and lay over

Ellery Big Hole - popular swimming hole but cold!!!

Glen Helen Gorge - 9 species of desert fish live in this gorge

West MacDonnell Ranges over the Finke River

Mt Sonder

Ormiston Gorge swimming hole

Another impressive gum

Ochre Pits

We have spent a quiet day in camp today with the sewing machine back in action and a game of golf enjoyed.  Tomorrow we head east for another days drive.