Knowing
that it was going to be a hot day Diana cracked the whip and we were
on the way by 7. It started out cool, we had needed sleeping bags
during the night even though it had been 104 the day before.
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| Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. They're bigger than ravens. |
We
hadn't expected much of the walk, but were very pleasantly surprised.
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| I wouldn't let Diana get any closer to the edge... |
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| ... but of course, she did anyways. |
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| The cliff wall looks as if it was carved out by a giant machine |
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| The top is a maze of beehive shaped domes... |
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| ...which are a lot of fun to climb |
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| G'Day mate. Mind if I join you? |
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| There is a permanent pool at the bottom... |
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| ... where it's nice and cool... |
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| ... and makes a nice place to sit a spell in the shade |
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| The Spinafex Pigeons agree |
Many say that Kings Canyon is the highlight of their trip to the Red Center of Oz, and while I would choose Uluru, it is an amazing place.
We
wanted to take “the back way” to Alice Springs, which meant
taking the Mereeni Loop Road, a 4WD track that was very red, rough
and dusty, and the most isolated place we've been to yet. From the
time we left Kings Canyon Resort until about 25 km outside of Alice
Springs, we didn't see a sign of human existence other than the road,
not a house or ruins, no cows, horses, or sheep, no fences or power lines, or even a wrecked car at the
side of the road. That was a distance of 500 km. The landscape was
amazing, but the road so rough that I could rarely look to appreciate
it. And to think that there are tens of thousands km of such roads
that many Aussies love to travel on with their 4WD and caravans.
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| A very long, lonesome road |
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| Termite mound. The Northern Territories are covered with them |
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| Camel tracks,... either that or some dude with big flip flops |
Along
the road there are the remains of a cometary impact called Gosses
Bluff that vastly overshadows the Henbury Craters. 140 million years
ago a comet 1 km wide exploded just above the earth here. It left a
crater with a central peak, much like you see in a slow motion photo
when a drop of water leaves a small rebound droplet and an encircling
rim of splash. Gosses Bluff is the center peak of the crater and
three miles wide and nearly 1000 feet high and is formed of the hard
rock that had originally rested two miles below the surface. The
outer rim of the crater has eroded to the current level of the plain
for the most part, but was 15 miles in diameter when formed. It's
very impressive to stand near the Bluff and imagine the explosion
that caused such an upheaval. Scientists say that a similar event
today would cause mass extinctions around the world, probably
including us. Oh well, as I write, it's election day and tomorrow
half of the American voters will be assuming mass extinction is soon
upon us anyways if their guy doesn't win.
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| The remains of the center mound of a huge cometary crater, 3 miles wide |
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Webb Crater, on the moon, 12 miles across, is smaller than the Gosses
Bluff crater would have been. The small peak in the center of Webb Crater
Corresponds to Gosses Bluff. The outer rim of the Gosses
Bluff crater has eroded away, but the whole city of Chicago could have
easily been tucked within its circumference. Yikes! |
On the way
to the bluff we met Jorg and Britta driving
their rental Landcruiser camper and agreed to meet later at the
veranda of the Glen Helen Gorge campground for beers. We
stopped at Redwall Gorge and had a hike there, then drove to Glen
Helen, passing an emaciated dingo along the way.
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| "My cousins down on the Nullarbor Plain get a lot more to eat than I do." |
We met
Jorg and Britta at the campground and drank Melbourne Bitter and
Toohey's New while enjoying the view of the gorge and watching the
egrets and cormorants and ducks, utterly incongruous in the bone-dry
red center of Oz.
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| Thanks for shouting us a round, Jorg and Britta, we owe you one |
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