Day 1 – Conquering the Rim
Today was one of the days we’d really been looking forward to as we planned to hike the iconic Kings Canyon Rim walk. The official classification of the walk is Grade 4 – Moderate to Difficult and “The rim walk starts with a difficult climb so you should only walk it if you are fit and healthy.” I was a littile bit dubious about whether I’d be up to it but we figured nothing ventured-nothing gained so we decided to have a go. I’m so glad we did! It really was a magical experience…
We made an early start, stopping in to the Outback BBQ cafe for their buffet breakfast just after sunrise. Then it was on to the Canyon carpark which is about a ten minute drive from the resort. It was chilly! There was a cold wind blowing and I was glad I’d work jeans and my jacket as we walked past the striking gateway to the walk – a red iron walk thorugh structure that reminded me of an echidna. There’s a video playing here on a loop with dire warnings about being realistc about your ability to attempt the walk and also about cliff safety if you make it up the top – all very daunting!
I’m climbing up there?! 
Come on Adrienne, you can do it!
Up we went, and it really wasn’t too bad. I was glad to stop at the two rest areas on the way up to catch my breath but each time your rewarded with a view that gets better and better the higher you climb.
Finally at the top I tried to give a little hoot of triumph, but i didn’t have the breath for any more than a grunt. 🙂 This is where you find the first of the emergency contact stations and defibrillators that ar scattered along the top of the rim. There’s also an emergency helicopter landing area if anyone really needs help – good to know! There’s also an information board that says the rest of the walk is more leisurely, I gave it a big thumbs up!
The walk around the rim led us through Priscilla’s Crack made famous by the 1994 movie Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Once through here, you come to the first lookout and an awesome view across the north wall to the south wall of the canyon.
The walk is a mix of reasonably level areas with a lot of extra scrambling up and down over small rocky hills. The Lost City part of the canyon has as a series of sandstone domes which somewhat resembles the buildings you might see in an ancient city.
At one point there is the choice of taking a side trail out to Cotterill’s Lookout, so named after one of the first tour operators to the area, the view from there was a bit unusual in that there were two young women stripped bare to the waste, only wearing leopard print leggings taking selfies of themselves with the valley view below. NOT what I’d expected to see up there at all, I figured maybe for some social media post. However I take my hat off to their bravery – stripping to bare skin in that wind was on Instagram challenge to many for me to consider!! And, no I did NOT take pictures of them, I just took shots of the view instead.
Further on we arrived at the Garden of Eden via one of the most striking staircases I’d seen for a while – it was extremely steep too, halfway to a ladder really.
We crossed through a gate marking the entrance to the south wall , there is a seperate in-and-out walk that brings people up to the gate from the other side. However, if you[re doing the rim walk it’s all in one direction only. The views from this site were just as spectacular . Here we were past half way and heading back towards the car park.
It was fascinating seeing how many plants are growing out of the stone, the plants looked so perfect in their habitat I kept thinking it looked more like a botanic garden than a natural landscape. It was all downhill from now on and finally we arrived back at the carpark. The walk had taken us just under 3 hours at a comfortable pace. We’d stopped ofetn to take photos and for a few 5 minute breaks to sit and enjoy the view. The legs were feeling it a bit but it was worth the effort.
The rest of the afternoon was a quiet space to catch up on some laundry and to catch up on our blogs. We decided to head back down to the Thirsty Dingo bar for drinks and dinner again at the Outback BBQ – basically a repeat of last night but a different choice of meats for both of us, Scotch fillet steak for me and a Trio of Sausages for Neil. This afternnon the flies had finally descended on the area in force – we really hadn’t been bothered by them up til now but we really needed our Bushmans at dinner.
Tonight was one of those occasions when the full moon is termed a “Supermoon” , at it’s closest distance from the earth. Amazing to see everything bathed in moonlight to finish the day.
Day 2
We had a more lazy start to the day this morning and really enjoyed our big breakfast at the Outback BBQ again.
Two more short walks were the plan for the morning, the first being the Kings Creek Walk. This one starts at the same place as the Rim Walk, but instead it follows the path of the dry riverbed into the canyon that we had walked around the day before. It’s short but very pretty, some of it paved and some of it scrambling along the rocks in the riverbed.
At there end is a large viewing platform whcih was almost completely occupied by a school excursion group working hard on their drawings of the canyon wall.
The carpark for the second walk , the Kathleen Springs Walk, was about a 15 minute drive south. There were only a few cars in the carpark and we had it pretty much to ourselves as we walked in past low canyon walls, finally arriving at the waterhole under the rock ledge.
The flies were really out in force in this area, so we were glad to use our fly nets for the first time.
Along the way we passed some old crumbling structures that had been used back when the area was part of a cattle station.
For lunch we’d decided to take the advice of the lady back in Alice Springs who told us that if we went to Kings Canyon we MUST try the camel burger at Kings Creek Station. The station runs cattle and camels but is also a large tourism enterprise, it’s the other large provider of accommodation in the area with rustic bush tents and glamping tents as well as a cafe – famous for it’s camel burgers! The burger was certainly tasty.
At 2pm we were booked in to see the Karrke Aboriginal Cultural Experience which is owned and run by a local man with help from his daughter and son-in-law. It was outstanding and we were very fortunate that we were the only people doing the 2pm tour so we had them all to ourselves! it was an authentic aboriginal cultural experience of the lifestyle of the local Luritja and Pertame (Southern Aranda) people.
We moved from area to area around the compound with each area devoted to a different aspect of aboriginal culture. I learned a lot, for example I had no idea that the didgeridoo is not used at all by Central Australian aboriginals and neither is a returning boomerang. Peter, Deb and Aaron were wonderful, if you’re ever in the area I highly recommend their tour.
Traditional ochre colours 
Neil and witchetty gub
We had one more “activity” planned. The resort has a Sunset Viewing Platform which is a popular spot to gather and see the sun painiting the canyon ridges with a warm glow. Tonight we’d planned to have an easy nibbles dinner with cheeses etc that we’d bought with us from Alice Springs. Our little verandah is a lovely spot to sit and enjoy a drink and we hadn’t really used it much up until now.
When we booked the trip neil was keen to stay 3 nights and I’d wondered if we would find enough to occupy ourselves, but I shouldn’t have worried, it’s been great!