The Rim Walk around Watarrka (Kings Canyon) is definitely something everyone should experience in their lives. It is an incredible walk with scenery and lookouts that photos will never do justice.
We arrived at the Watarrka car park at about 8:15am or so – even though today was only going to be a max. of 19º, we still liked the idea of getting the majority of the walk done before lunch if possible. After a last refill of water bottles and toilet stop, we headed up that hill. If you don’t know the walk, it’s incredibly steep at the start. You walk up about 500 steps to essentially the top of the ridge that creates the canyon. I think I definitely prefer the hardest bit of the hike being first up – yep, it’s hard instantly, but you get that out of the way quickly!
From there, it was just a series of incredible views for the next few hours. Both into the canyon and just the amazing rock formations that millions of years of wind and rain have created. There was hills and domes of rocks at every turn, and then natural crevices and valleys on top of the ridges.
The Garden of Eden was particularly incredible – hidden away at the base of a couple of the canyons, right in the centre of the rim walks. It was a bit of a walk down into it, but again, not hugely arduous either in or out. It was incredible to see so much water in the waterhole down in there, and to see the incredible variety of plants living there.
We stopped a few times along the way for water and some snacks. On the way back out we decided it was time for an early lunch. We knew we were reasonably close to the end, but we thought we were still a good 45 mins or so from finding the bottom again. We stopped at what ended up being one of the southern most points on the walk, and really, it was then only about another 10 minutes until we hit what was very obviously the walk down into the carpark.
The kids were amazing on this walk. I think it was a combination of making sure we brought extra snacks, prepping them for this walk for a couple of days, and then just a little bit of “a good day”! In all seriousness, we did spend a bit of time talking to them about how hard the initial climb would be, and that the whole walk was 4 hours overall. So they came into the walk knowing what to expect, and I think that made a big difference.
And in all honesty, once you get through that first mega climb, the rest is actually pretty comfortable. Sure, it’s a very rocky walk, and you need to walk carefully. But taking your time through the walk, it’s not exhausting at all. Although let’s be clear, I’m not signing up to do it on a day with temperatures much above 25º.
This afternoon has ended up being a really nice chunk of downtime. The kids were having a great time in the cabin playing in their own make-believe caravans. They were having so much fun, in fact, that an offer to come up to the bar to watch the Swans play didn’t even interest them. So that’s where I went to do a bit of photo editing and write up part of this post.
This afternoon we headed about half an hour down the road to the Karrke Aboriginal Cultural Experience. A very small community called Wanmarra still lives on the lands of their ancestors, and they offer tours and experiences to share their cultural knowledge with us. It was a wonderful chance to spend time with Peter and Natasha, who live in the Wanmarra community, and have them share so much with us. Of course we paid for the tour, but it still felt incredibly generous of them to spend their time sharing and teaching us – it really felt like a privilege. They spent time teaching us about their bush medicines, then bush food (mai) and different beading and craft styles. Lastly we finished up learning about ochres and painting, weapons, and seeds.
I think part of the reason it felt so special was that we were the only people there for the 4pm tour. I’m sure (I hope) they get plenty more people at their 3 earlier tours – but it was great to have the time to ourselves this afternoon, and get to ask so many questions. We learnt so much, but also, it was a great affirmation of other bits of information we’d picked up as we learnt things along the way at Uluṟu and Kata Tjuṯa in particular (the other Aṉangu people).
Tomorrow we head off from here after a really wonderful time. I picked up some $2.50/L petrol (!!) earlier this afternoon ready for the trip. Next stop is Alice Springs…
