King's Canyon and the Outback

Day 1

We got picked up from our hostel at 6:30am and drove south to King's Canyon. We had ten people in our tour group: Martina from Switzerland, Leslie and Julia from the Netherlands, Sue from Sydney, Isabel originally from Spain but has loved in Australia for over 20 years, Lubinka from Macedonia, Cathy from China and Keisha from Canada. Lubinka, Sue and Isabel are in their 60's and are all proud grandmas. Mike nicknamed them the Groovy Grape Grandmas ( our tour company is Groovy Grape).

King's Canyon was absolutely stunning. The red rock was spectacular. We hiked around the canyon. The hike started with a 20 minute climb up a steep hill which was 100 meters high. We then walked around the top looking down into the dried up river bed. We got to see ghost gums along our walk and  an area of lower elevation had water. The trees were very lush and waterhole was beautiful. This spot is known as the garden of Eden, especially since water is scarce in the desert. One of the trees we saw is about 800 years old and our tour guide, Ross, nicknamed it Frank.

The canyon is made of sandstone and has evidence of the inland ocean that once covered the area. There were ripples in the rock made by this ocean. The ocean then went underground and become trapped by a shale layer. The artesian basin formed because of this ocean. It is very deep underground and covers a large area of Australia.

When we were driving to our camp site, we got to see wild camels. It was pretty amazing. We also stopped to gather fire wood from the surrounding desert. The red sand made it feel like another plant. I was surprised by the amount of plant life for the middle of the desert. We slept around the camp fire in swags, which is a canvas bag with a mattress that you put your sleeping bag in. The starry sky was amazing to look at while falling asleep.