Back to Australia October 2014 | The Long Way Round Tour Day 2

 Destination : King's Canyon

First stop, Stuart's Well, has its own wildlife park. These emus are the larger, but definitely less attractive, poor cousin to the Cassawary that I saw later (but wrote about earlier) in the rainforest.
This was our stop for ice cream (gourmet chocolate coated, of course), souvenirs, water, water, more water, fancy coffees (yeh!) and a chance to take in the heat while lined up for the bathrooms. It had to be close to 40 degrees.

Second stop: a flat tire. Craig and Kerri had us more than a little concerned that the spare tire was not coming off from under the bus, but they did it. Kerri, a kiwi, formerly of the NZ  military unit that served in Afghanistan, former tour guide, now bus driver, did everything imaginable to loosen those bolts. She's mid-air here, applying every kg of her weight while we....watch and wonder.  Cell phone coverage? Not. We're how far from where? We watched and we sweat--not literally, because you don't sweat in the desert--while the guys cleared space for the flat in the trailer. I think I drank two bottles of water just watching (recommendation is 1200 ml per hour in the desert!). No bathrooms here, but it's a long lonely road, and there is no one on it but us.

Next stop: lunch and a bathroom break: up and over the ridge, men to the left, women to the right, carry out your garbage (!), and no peeking. Check out the cockatoos in the tree.

Finally, King's Canyon. If it's 35 degrees by 1130 am all high walking/hiking routes are closed, so we were too late and it was too hot for the high rim walk. Kerri gave us a lesson on local geology--the formation of the canyon--and we headed out on the short King's Creek Walk.

This is the road not taken. A group got up at 5am the next morning to climb up to the rim but I was not among them. 

 At the end of the trail, there's a great view of Kings Canyon, but I'm sure it doesn't compare to the rim walk (I saw the pics!). Along the way I learned about white gum trees, whose bark is silvery bright and the red gum whose grey bark is mottled with roan red patches.