Travel to Australia

Day 18 Kings Canyon - Alice Springs (622 Km.)

(in 303 Km.) Kings Canyon: We get up early to see the sunrise over Uluru from the road. There is a special area for this within the park (the Sunrise Viewing Area) but we decided to see it from the road so as not to waste too much time because the day is very long. We return along the Lasseter Highway to the turnoff towards the Luritja Highway, which allows us to enter the Watarrka National Park, where the famous Kings Canyon is located.

The Kings Canyon is a horseshoe-shaped canyon located in the middle of the desert. From the parking lot there are two walks to take. The first, approximately one hour long, leads to more or less the center of the lower part of the canyon and allows you to see how the walls of more than one hundred meters high fall. It is the recommended excursion for those who have little time or for those who find it difficult to climb stairs or walk through irregular terrain.

The park's most attractive excursion is the approximately three-hour hike that surrounds the canyon in its entirety. We made the walk following the clockwise direction. The first section is a bit tired because you have to climb the stairs that lead from the base of the canyon to the top of the cliffs. Once up the path is smoother and you can stop at the various viewpoints on the cliffs, especially those of the south wall that are up to two hundred meters high.

At the end of the canyon is "Garden of Eden", a crack where little water accumulates in the area. Obviously where there is water (we are in the middle of the desert) the vegetation accumulates and therefore the fauna. It is in this garden full of palm trees where we cross the canyon from one side to the other through a bridge and long wooden stairs that must first be lowered and then climbed on the opposite side. There is also a path that allows access to the pond to cool off. As with all long excursions in the area, it is necessary to bring enough water to avoid dehydration.

(in 319 Km.) Alice Springs: We return to the largest city of the Red Center. As we don't have a Four-Wheel Drive we go through the Lasseter Highway, but there are two more ways to do it with the help of a FWD. One of them is through the Ernest Giles Road, which saves about 120 kilometers. Near the end of this road, reaching the junction with the Stuart Highway, is the Henbury Meteorite Craters, an area where a meteor shower formed 12 craters, the largest of which is 180 meters in diameter and six meters deep. The second option is to return to Larapinta Drive, which passes through Finke Gorge National Park and West MacDonnell.