Uluru and Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon is located at the very end of the George Gill Ranges. There were 2 walks you could do. The canyon rim which was 6km with a steep hill climb or the Canyon Floor walk which was a one km walk. I wanted to do the Rim walk but wasn't sure how the boys would go.....the boys were keen as to do the Rim walk so we set off seeing how they would go! They set off at a run!

This was our first rest stop and already we had gained some altitude!

To the left was the path we walked up!

It was at this point I realised just how steep it was and how high up and how unprotected the edge was! So I started having a freak out! After that I went first holding Ben's hand, Matthew went in the middle with daddy holding rye's hand at the back. For a while it didn't make me feel any better. I could so imagine us coming home one boy short! But do you know what? My boys are awesome! They were sensible, they were cautious and they were strong! 6kms and not one whinge!

We rested often and there were some awesome rest stops!

Ryan spotted this Spinfex Pigeon!

That was the drop! Arhhh! Frightening!


There was a storm brewing the whole time and we were convinced we were going to end up wet but thankfully we didn't! Although it would have cooled us off!

The rock formations were beyond belief!

I could give you a geology lesson but it is, well just a little boring! I'll just go with this has been caused by millions and millions of years worth of erosion!

Once more the colours are spectacular!

The cycad to the left is millions of years old! When we told the boys that once upon a time the dinosaurs would have munched on that tree they were rapt!

The lady who took this picture for us had three boys of her own that were at home by themselves for their first time! They were 17, 19 & 21. I reassured her they were probably having an awesome time at home throwing parties! She thought I as probably right!

Everybody up there stopped to talk to the boys and tell them what a great job they were going! When we started we offered to let some older people go first, well we passed them at the first rest stop and then didn't see them again! In typical Rickard fashion we thought it was a race to the finish line! They recommend that the walk takes 4 -6 hours we did it in 3! PB!!!

The drop down into the Canyon.

Cheese! My absolutely awesome boys! I am so proud of them!

They loved climbing on the rocks and getting a feel of them. We had explained before hand that you cant take the rocks home so they were quite happy to have an explore then leave things be.

Looking along the length of the Canyon.

The sheer rock cliffs were amazing but frightening! I wouldn't let the boys go anywhere near them! Nathan was warned that if he fell off them I would never talk to him again!

This sign was situated over the following rock!

The walk led you past a place called the Garden of Eden and whilst we didn't walk all the way into it this part was special enough!

I much preferred climbing these stair than the rock ones we started with!

The scenery was stunning!

Who knew rocks could be so interesting and pretty!

So after a long hot walk we all managed to make it down the other side! Much to Mummy's relief!











So after that little walk we went back to the station for a quick lunch (Of frozen stale bread and cooked chook imported by us from Alice Springs! The outback survives on frozen food alone. There is no such thing as a local bakery! We didn't have fresh bread from Coober Pedy to Katherine. That makes 2000kms worth of people that never get fresh bread!)

Anyway we decided we had better get a move on if we were going to make it to Uluru just a short drive of 300kms away. That in outback measurements is a real quick trip, similar to just popping out to the shops!

While the boys napped in the back we and we were still 250 clicks away from Uluru we spotted in the distance this massive rock. There was lots of cheering and saying well we've seen it now lets go back! Well as we got closer we realised the big rock wasn't Uluru! But Mt Conner! My Mum had warned me that it looked deceiving but I had forgotten in my initial excitement. So we settle the boys back down to complete the rest of the journey!


We could eventually see the real Uluru some 50 kms away. The colour of the rock is constantly changing....

Matthew spent a fair bit of time trying to work out how many time bigger the rock was than him. He decided at least one thousand!

Ryan thought it was a millions times bigger than him!

Uluru is 88 times bigger than Ben!

The white line is the track used to walk up the rock. It was steep! We had discussed with the boys and they had decided they wanted to obide by the rule of the traditional landowners so we didnt walk it.

We spent a fair amount of time at the Cultural centre reading Dreamtime stories. I brought a book home of dreamtime stories.

We also bought a wana (digging stick). After all, all boys can do with a wana! And believe it or not I am letting the boys play with a $35 stick to dig in the back yard with! Ryan chose timpilypa (music sticks). Ben chose a thunder stick and rain stick when we finally made it to Darwin!)

Uluru was even bigger than Mummy and Daddy put together!

I wished i had a photographers eye. I really wanted to be able to capture the amazing scenes!

Everyone had to have a turn of touching the rock!

Even Daddy!

We didnt get to walk far around the rock as we had so little time. (Not only had we walked Kings Canyon but we had booked in for a camel show back at the station for later that night! This day was a BIG day!)

We did a small walk called the Mala walk which went past some rock art....

past water running down the rock.

the texture of the rock is really weird!

There were a few caves along the bottom of the rock that we had a squizz through....

Again the texture of the rock was just so different!

More caves!

And we ended up at this beautiful billabong! There were fish and tadpole in there! The tadpoles were the size of golf balls!

It was a stunning spot! Very peaceful even with stacks of tourists!

We unfortunately didnt get to the Kata Tjuta's as it was just too far away in our jam packed scedule. Some people say they are even better than Uluru. Nathan will just have to take me back so i can decide for myself!