Kings Canyon (for Mar. 4)

Boy, that was a short night! Our pickup was at 5:30 AM from the other hotel. We set the alarm for 4 so we would have time to eat, shower, check out, check our bags, and walk across the resort in the dark. I woke up at 3 and couldn’t go back to sleep because I was afraid the alarm wouldn’t go off or I wouldn’t hear it. Meanwhile, Celesete wasn’t having a very good time of it. She had a bad headache and hardly slept at all, tossing and turning all night. She finally started to get back to normal by 4:30 and we made it to our pickup on time.


When we got to the east side of Uluru, the scene was much like the west side the night before. There were buses, cars, and people everywhere. The sky was almost totally clear, so we got the full performance. It is a very photogenic rock, with its changing, but mostly red colour and the changing shadows of its eroded face. And the view is different from every vantage point.


After the sunrise, we took a couple of guided walks around points of interest hearing more about the mythology and geology. It is very interesting to view close up and see all the eroded imperfections that are not evident from a distance. The erosive power of water has created many interesting effects.
Then it was back to the hotel for lunch and the pickup for our next stop, Kings Canyon. It was about a 5 hour ride including 3 short stops for a leg stretch. The terrain was gently rolling sand and dunes until we hit the rocky hills near the canyon. The vegetation was pretty much the same as around Uluru. We did our usual exploratory walk around and went for a swim before settling down for today’s blog. Lights out at 10.