King's Canyon and the Great Hat Rescue

It was a long, long drive to King's Canyon, through some really remote desert country. Andrew and I paid some attention to the scenery (after the fog lifted) but I don't think the girls noticed much. As we came within 50km or so, there was water everywhere - and lots of it across the road, which was fun (I was driving). We had intended to call in at King's Creek Station, about 35km from King's Canyon - just to check out the quad bike safaris for the trip back - but the track in was such deep red mud that we couldn't even get out of the car. Hence we arrived at KC early enough to get a good spot with a view out to the canyon itself. It was REALLY hot and humid, which was a bit of a shock to the system. Of course I made the most of it by washing all the sheets and towels before dinner! That night it POURED with rain all night, which was quite romantic and all that - except that we discovered a small leak RIGHT above my pillow when we went to bed. A hasty repair with a teatowel and some sellotape fixed it perfectly, though! Before bed, we ventured over to the bar where we were promised live entertainment. The free rainbow umbrellas the girls had been given in the Post Office back in Aberfoyle Park just before we left proved to be........ well what you might expect from free umbrellas, but we made it to the bar without getting too wet, and found the entertainment involved the audience: first the kids up on stage playing instruments and then the dads trying to ring cowbells without using their hands (quite obscene in some cases!)........ then the mums singing "do-wa-diddy" etc. Why am I telling you this? I could have left it in KC where no-one knew us. (At least I don't have any photos.)

So - hastily drawing a line under that one.... the next morning we were up early to tackle the "Rim Walk" around the Canyon. It turned out to be a very special experience: a four hour walk that started with (according to Kendall) 600 steps straight up - then an easy but spectacular walk all around the edge of the canyon. The rain had completely cleared, but there was plenty of water in the gorge, and the vegetation looked fantastic. There are cycads there, which are relics from a time 500 million years ago when the Earth was much wetter - and hardly grow anywhere else now. There was also a film crew up there from the Brisbane equivalent of "Postcards" - so we might even appear on TV somewhere, sometime in the future. Sadly they weren't there to catch the great Kirralee Hat Rescue................

Partway through the walk you can take a detour down to a lovely rock pool, where the water emerges from the rocks, because of an impermeable layer below. We had packed bathers and a little towel, but the water was REALLY cold, so we decided to settle for just paddling our feet - that is, until my hat blew into the water, and Kirralee (who had been prevaricating about going in for several minutes) did a quick change into her bathers and jumped in without a second's hesitation - headed straight for my hat, which by then was at least half-way across the pool, grabbed it and came back with it - like a little terrier. What a champion! When we pulled her out she was freezing, but she soon came good in the heat of all that admiration. By the way - for the record Tahlia would like everyone to know that she could have done it too - in fact she was just about to, but Kirralee got in first. Much like Piglet.

After a late lunch and some "chilling out", we went back to the Canyon and watched the sun go down. It's not quite Uluru in this respect, but the rock does glow an amazing deep orange - and really I can't understand why this place doesn't have the profile of Uluru/Kata Tjuta. It is fantastic (and the caravan park is much better!). One more detail: both nights we were woken by the howl of a dingo - which is something not only completely unforgettable, but totally undescribable. What must Stuart and the other early explorers have thought, hearing that for the first time and not knowing what it was?

Captions for pictures

- View of KC from our caravan park site

- View of the rock pool from the top of the canyon

- Another spectacular view - the water is disappearing over a very steep edge

- Kirralee rescuing the hat

- Cold but very proud

- KC at sunset (yes it's somewhere there in the background!)