Kings Canyon - Watarrka National Park (Australia Part 36)

The drive from Uluru to our next stop, Watarrka National Park, was on abandoned but well-maintained roads with views of the red landscape, which had more vegetation than we expected.

Upon entering the national park, we first reached the 'Kathleen Springs Walk', a trail to a waterhole in a canyon.

There, the Aborigines used to hunt animals that went to the water and could only come back out through this path.

But we only saw a lizard on the path, which was hardly bothered by us passing by.

On the way back, it started raining and we were glad when we were back in the car, dry.

In the afternoon, the weather improved and we took a short hike in Kings Canyon, the Kings Creek Walk in the riverbed.

On the way back, we saw a large lizard that was about 1.5 meters long.

In the evening, we went to the viewpoint on the hotel grounds to watch the sunset. There, we had a nice view of the mountains, even though there was unfortunately no proper sunset.

At 5 o'clock the next morning, our alarm clock rang again because we wanted to do the 'Kings Canyon Rim Walk' on this day. This hiking trail is closed on days with temperatures above 36°C from 9am onwards. Since 38°C was predicted, we wanted to start our hike early, especially because the climb to the edge of the canyon is strenuous at the beginning.

Because of the early time, it was pleasantly cool and so we could admire the view from the canyon without difficulties.

The trail follows the edge of the canyon and offers interesting rock formations.

Along the way, we climbed some of the rocky peaks to a viewpoint before continuing the hike.

We also made a detour to the 'Garden of Eden,' a river valley that always has water and is green, to a waterhole.

There, we already heard the first roll of thunder. When we had about two kilometers of trail left, it started to rain. So, we also experienced the four rainy days on average in December...

In the afternoon, it got very warm as predicted. We had already done all the hikes in the national park, so we just walked a bit on a circular path around the hotel grounds, which was more difficult than expected.