We woke up nice and early to depart for King's Canyon at 5:15am. We would be doing the full rim walk, which required us to start by hiking up Heart Attack Hill, and we wanted to do at least the beginning of the hike before it got too hot.
Today we would do the full King's Canyon Rim Walk
Only 17 of us plus Adam went on the full rim hike, the older women went on a milder hike into the bottom of the canyon. The start of the hike, Heart Attack Hill, is a 100m climb up a pretty steep hill, and yes, there are AEDs distributed throughout the hill if you actually have a heart attack. We got to the first viewpoint, 100ft up, and I told Nils 2 my elevation gain reported on my watch as we approached it, saying I hoped my watch was not accurate. As we got to the very top, we could evaluate that yes, my watch was accurate the whole time.
View of the sun peeking up above the ridge from the top of Heart Attack Hill
Our group at the top of Heart attack hill
We walked along the top of the canyon rim and admired the amazing views and the ancient vegetation and rock formations. In some of the rock you could see the wavy remains of the ancient sea floor that had once been there, and there were fossils of aquatic organisms. You could also see lots of lichen on the side of the rock, which left dark colored stains. Adam showed us the ghost gum trees, which are eucalyptus trees that somehow managed to survive at the top of the canyon by recalling all their resources back into their trunk, creating dead limbs on otherwise living trees. It was weird to see eucalyptus up at the top of the cliff, because as Adam had pointed out in the previous days, nearly all the vegetation we see through the desert is either spinifex grass or acacia tree.
View of more canyon through Priscilla's Crack
More canyon views
We hiked through the canyon down to the Garden of Eden, a permanent waterhole with lots of life. Apparently you can sometimes see mountain wallabies but we didn't spot any. We did see a few different types of birds, including song birds and ravens, and some dragons. We also heard a frog but couldn't find it.
The Garden of Eden inside King's Canyon a permanent water hole with lots of life
A ghost gum tree, you can hear the water rushing through it if you listen carefully
As we carried along the hike, Adam told us to be really careful to stay at least 3m away from the cliff edge. Apparently people have fallen off the cliffs before trying to take selfies...
The cliff face is so steep and seems like it could collapse any minute
Each frond on this tree takes ten years to grow, meaning this tree is at least 2000 years old
We concluded what would be the final hike of the trip, and headed back to King's Creek station for lunch. On the menu was sausages, but we also had some leftover camel burgers which were still good reheated. After eating there was a bit of time to visit the pool, which was refreshing, but there were a of hornets flying around which was irritating. We packed up the campsite and had some time to stop and get ice creams and cool drinks at the King's Creek Station shop before heading out. As we drove back towards Uluru, we stopped in a field of wildflowers along the side of the road to "frolic." It was pretty surreal seeing a field of flowers on the side of the road in the desert. Not far from the flower field we stopped at a smaller salt lake, where Adam explained the formation myth of the salt lakes: basically, there was a snow monster that fell down. He asked, how would desert people have a story about snow? The theories are either the story is old enough that it comes from an ice age, or that knowledge of snow made its way from snowy regions of Australia to the desert.
We stopped in a wildflower field to frolic
Our group in the wildflower field
We also stopped at a salt lake to take fun photos
You could drink the salt water from this pond or grab a salt crystal to eat
Philipp and I posing with our water guns above the salt lake
It was so hot, we cracked an egg on the road and it started to cook, although slowly
We made our way back to Curtin Springs to visit the shop again, and tonight we would actually be camping at a "bush camp" on the Curtin Springs cattle station. The bush campsite was basically just a hut built out of an old shipping container, with a propane-powered grill. No running water, no toilets, no swimming pool. I was on barbecue duty for dinner, and Nils 2 helped me again. We grilled some falafels for vegetarians, a huge pile of vegetables, and some ground beef, and we then mixed it all together with tomato sauce to make bolognese. Jenna cooked pasta over the fire, while Adam tried to figure out how to cook two kangaroo tails that he had purchased in Yulara. He would have preferred one large kangaroo tail, but he could only manage to buy two small ones, which are more difficult to cook. Basically, you need to completely burn them so all the hair burns off, then cut them open and peel the skin off. We didn't have any sharp knives, which made the task a lot harder (I was able to use the serrated knife like a saw to cut them, I'm not sure why Adam didn't think of that - probably he was dehydrated). According to Adam, the tail is the Aboriginal people's favorite part of the kangaroo to eat.
Our bush campsite at Curtin Springs
Adam trying to cut a kangaroo tail with a very dull knife
Adam messing with the kangaroo tail, Jenna making pasta, and Nils tending to the fire
I was on barbecue duty again, I made bolognese
Our pasta dinner for the night
We also got the chance to try kangaroo tail, which is the indigenous people's favorite part of the kangaroo to eat
It was so hot while cooking so a cold beer was really refreshing
It was very difficult to eat because there were flies swarming the entire time. The bush campsite had way more flies than other campsite, probably because it is an active cattle station, and the flies are attracted to the cows (and their poop). We then went up the hill to quickly watch the sunet, before going to sit around the fire and reflected on the trip. It was a little hard to take seriously because the cows kept mooing really loudly. We went up the hill to stargaze, and took all our sleeping gear up with us to try and sleep under the stars and be at the top of the hill to watch the sunrise as well, but it was surprisingly cloudy. Adam told us the myth of Orion and the seven sisters (Pleidies), which apparently is found not only in western mythologies but also in the Anangu mythologies too. We went to sleep with an unfortunately cloudy sky.
We watched the sunset and it was strangely cloudy