Cliff Tops & Waterholes

Our trip was coming to an end, but in between fighting through crowds of prickly, name-badged pensioners, and bunches of prickly, irritating Spinifex grass, we still managed to come across some interesting rock formations to climb on for some interesting photos.

This is a prime example of one of the uninteresting rock formations though - I just can't remember what Jo and I were thinking of for this photo...?

It does show you, though, the weird rock that the whole area is crafted from. Just walking around the area, you could see the vast amount of fossils imprinted into the ground - an amazing reminder of the fact that the Australian land-mass is the oldest in the world. In fact, the lasting reminder of the three-day trip was just how old this area is.

Puts a whole new perspective on me feeling old at 23, eh?

Despite all this deep, meaningful thinking, there was still time to take pleasure in the more 'real' wonders of just how big King's Canyon actually is. Sitting with your feet dangling over the edge, once again, of this unbelievably huge chasm in the earth - with no protection, no fence, no chain - even made me forget about doing the amusing 'saved your life' pretend-to-push joke that I am so fond of.

And yet, just to the left of where we were all sitting was this overhanging piece of rock. It looked remarkably fragile, but after being reassured by Rychelle that it wouldn't fall off with my kind of weight on it, I couldn't resist going for a wander.

But no matter how daring/stupid it looked, when you actually stood on it there was no feeling of being on a precarious overhang with nothing but hundreds of metres of air beneath you.

Which meant that I acted stupidly again...

Then it was time to head back again - a walk down the other side of the canyon and over to our minibus, and then the ridiculously long drive back to Alice.

Yep, although on the map Ayers Rock is just next to Alice, it is about a four hour drive. The scale of this country still amazes me...

But, because we were such a good group, Rychelle took us down to an aboriginal 'camp' and watering hole so that we could have lunch. The best bit, however, was the fact that we could practice with some of the weapons used by aborigines for hunting - my particular favourite was the Woomerah that we could fling mini-spears with.

If only I had something like that to annoy my brother with for when I see him next...

Then it was the long road back to Alice that, for most of us, passed in fitful, neck-cricked sleep...

Kings Canyon   Rocks, Drops 'n' Holes   End Of The Middle