We woke up at 4:15 so we would be at the park at 5:00AM which was opening time. It was a beautiful ride through the desert as dawn was breaking coloring the desert and Uluru/Ayers Rock. Unfortunately by this point Hendrik’s camera had totally broken and was unsalvageable and mine was also slowly deteriorating and refused to turn on. It seemed to only turn on when I didn’t actually need it to but when I did it wouldn’t. So unfortunately we don’t have pictures of this morning.

The sun had not yet risen when we started the Valley of the Winds hike around the Olgas/kata Tjuta and the earth was still cool. We had loads of water with us this time but it was pretty unnecessary since it was cool and there are 3 water stops along the hike. It was a beautiful hike and often strenuous. There were signs everywhere that depicted a stick figure falling on rocks which we thought was funny. The walk only took us about 2 hours and progressively it became hotter and hotter. We passed by many people just beginning the walk when we had ended and thought to ourselves that we definitely wouldn’t want to start in this heat. It wasn’t even 9:00AM and it was already hot. It was a gorgeous hike and I definitely recommend getting up early for it because the switch of colors and temperature from night to day are amazing.

We were glad we had made good time because we needed a shower and we would still make breakfast and yes buffet breakfasts excite me. I have to admit as food goes the Ayers Rock Resort was one of the nicest (far better than at Kings Canyon Resort) and I enjoyed the dinner as well as brekky. After breakfast we had a few hours to kill before we had to catch the plane so I just surfed the internet and hung out by the pool.

The Uluru Airport is tiny and is there solely for a rock. I thought that was pretty funny that a rock can have its own airport. We arrived in Cairns in the evening, booked a Great Barrier Reef tour on Reef Magic for the day after next, and just relaxed.

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.