We set out in the morning and drove to Kalbarri,  On the way we saw a leaning River Gum tree which leans because of the wind on the plains.

River Gum Leaning Tree

Once we entered Kalbarri National Park there were a few lookout points by the cliffs along the coast, which were pretty but failed to be spectacular compared to the Great Ocean Road.

We reached the town by noon, had lunch, bought a lot of bottles of water, and headed out onto the unsealed most popular road of the park which is about 25 KM long.  Originally I thought we may need to rent a 4wd but it was not necessary.  I had not done my research for the climate though.  I didn’t think it was a desert, but it was, smack in the middle of summer and the temperature was extreme.  Signs said that it could get up to 50°C or 122°F, and I think it wasn’t too far from that today.

Our first stop was a lookout which was a 100m walk, and it was incredibly hard.  I felt as if I was in an oven, and that my skin was crisping, even though I was using lots of sunscreen and had my windbreaker on.  It was definitely deadly heat.  We arrived at Nature’s Window soon afterwards and as we got out of our air conditioned car, a family next to us was just getting into theirs.  The woman told us not to go, that it was too hot and that they didn’t make it to the window, and turned back.  It seemed ridiculous because the window was only 400m from the car park.  We think the she was more concerned for my dad since he is a heavy older man, and I was glad she scared him out of going because I did not think it was wise for him to go either.  He stayed behind in the shade, and Hendrik and I went, because I was really looking forward to seeing the window which was pretty much the whole point of going to Kalbarri in the first place. I had a hard time getting to the window and was dizzy and felt my muscles shaking when I finally reached it.

We sat in its shade for about 15 minutes drinking water.  We had brought 2 liters each for this short walk, and I wished we had brought more. Hendrik seemed fine though and was thriving in the dry heat while I was begging for some humidity.  As I sat in the window I dreaded the walk back since it was uphill this time and was literally scared of it.  The window was gorgeous and the view was amazing, and suffering in the heat was totally worth it.  When I finally made it back to the car I felt as if my insides were boiling and was having trouble breathing.  I had a headache and drank more water as I faced the air-conditioning which was on full blast but having a hard time being too cold in the desert.  It took a good half hour before I felt better.

It was the hottest place I have ever been to, and would have planned differently if I was to go back.  Preferably go there in winter and not at 3 in the afternoon in the summer.  Then again, that was probably the reason we had the window all to ourselves and didn’t have to share with other tourists.  We did not attempt the z bend, though Hendrik was ready to go and feeling up to it, but I don’t think I would have survived that 500m (1Km return total) walk.  It was a shame, but I don’t think it was worth risking.

There was no shortage of Yuka trees in Kalbarri

There was one more stop before leaving the park which was a lookout right at the car park so that was ok.  Then it was just a straight drive up North to our overnight destination.  There were hardly any rest stops or roadhouses, but we stopped at one rest stop because I had to go after drinking so much water, and there I found a goat sitting in the shade of hut where the toilet was.  It was the only shade for miles and someone had made it a bowl out of the bottom of a water bottle for it.  It had no more water so I gave it some and then some more until it had finished off a liter and all our water.

I felt so bad for the toilet goat

There was a \roadhouse nearby (nearby is about 40 miles) so we could stop there and get more water.  When we arrived there, Hendrik told the man who probably owned the roadhouse that there was a goat in the bathroom.  He didn’t think much of it, laughed at us when we said we gave it water, and said that sometimes goats from farms escape and that they get rounded up once in a while.  We had wanted a rescue party to be sent for the goat.

Sunset near Denham

By sunset we had reached the outskirts of Denham and arrived at our cottage at dusk.  I was shocked by the state of the cottage which was a complete dump since the website seemed nice.  It was dirty and falling apart.  The wind from the sea roared all night, and I didn’t know how it didn’t just pick the cottage up and make it into splinters.  Denham was tiny and since it was 9 everything was closed, and we could not find food anywhere so we had potato chips, which the one bar in town was able to sell us, for dinner.

Our cottage

We set out to do the King’s Canyon Rim walk a 6 km trek around the top of the canyon. Hendrik and his parents decided to buy hats at the gas station/ souvenir shop (the only store in the area). I already had a hat, but for some reason they only bought 2 hats to share among 3 people. We didn’t read the recommended amount of water we were supposed to bring and Hendrik and I each brought a 1.5 liter bottle. We didn’t know until later that his parents had only brought one to share amongst themselves. The recommended amount of water was 1 liter every hour and we were going to be hiking for 3-4 hours in midday. We could have finished all our water after the first steep climb, straight up the canyon. It is definitely the hardest part of the trail.

The steep climb

Hendrik and I did both detours and went to the Garden of Eden which is a cool pool. We wanted to take a dip but since there were so many bugs on the water and the bottom was really slippery we decided not to and just made our shirts and hats wet. Later we met another hiker who said swimming in it was great so we regretted not going swimming.

The Garden of Eden

The scenery was gorgeous and the hike is definitely worthwhile. Even with low water we enjoyed ourselves though the last bit was a killer since we were all dehydrated. We had to really ration our water and Hendrik and I even shared our water with his parents, but we all survived even tough Hendrik’s mom got quite sunburned since she was without a hat most of the time.

Kings Canyon

Back at the resort we relaxed and went to the pool which is freezing. I don’t know how they keep a pool that cold in the middle of the desert and even in the desert heat the pool was just too cold to spend more than a few minutes in.

At the buffet dinner the wait staff was surprised to see us again since they said most people only stayed one night. I was glad we stayed two days because I really liked the resort and because it was nice to relax after a day of hiking than go driving.

We flew from Adelaide in the morning to Alice Springs. It was remarkable landing into the tiny airport with bright red sand all around as far as I could see. I couldn’t even find Alice Springs because it’s so tiny it would qualify as a village in most other places. Extreme heat hit us as soon as we stepped out of the airplane. Miraculously we were able to fit all our belongings into the rental since it was smaller than we had thought it was going to be and drove into Alice Springs. It was much smaller than I thought it would be , and there were many Aboriginals, more than we’d seen anywhere else. Apparently the Alice Springs region is the only place in Australia where nomadic Aboriginals still live.

Alice Springs' trash can with Aboriginal Art

We had lunch and walked the main street which only took about five minutes and then we were off to Kings Canyon. Originally Hendrik’s parents wanted to stay a night in Alice Springs but the Master Games were being held there at exactly the same time and no hotels were available. After we’d seen the town I think we were all glad that we weren’t staying in Alice Springs longer than 2 hours because there would be nothing to do at all.  On the way there we saw a road train which is a truck which has 2 or more trailers.

road train

Kings Canyon is located in the Watarrka National Park and there is only one place to stay, the Kings Canyon Resort. All the rooms were booked there as well except for the deluxe rooms which had a Jacuzzi in each facing a gigantic window with views on the desert and therefore this was the best hotel we stayed in.

The Hot Tub and the View

The desert is an amazing place, since it’s both so beautiful and ugly- beautiful because of its colours and vastness and ugly because of its dry barrenness. Maybe I’m just amazed by deserts since I hardly ever go to deserts. I’ve been to one in New Mexico and California years before but this one was especially unique because of its red sand. I do know, though, that I’d never want to live in the desert.