Saturday, 21 July 2012


Saturday 21 July – Another wonderful day, though the night leading up to it was a bit of a challenge.  Went to bed last night at about 20 to 11, read for a bit, then fell asleep.  All good so far.  Then at 2am and again at 4am we were woken by loud bursts of fireworks being let off here in the park – in fact pretty close to here.  There were five or six loud explosions each time, and you could hear some talking and laughing.  So that was a bit of a bummer so far as getting a good night’s sleep! And so much for the smart a…’s who obviously thought it was funny.
Relaxed this morning, before preparing a bit of food for lunch through to early evening, then left at about 11.30 for Kata Tjuta, about fifty kilometres distant.  I reckon they have been ripped off as I think they are equally as stunning as Uluru, but they don’t get the attention it gets.  First walk we did was the Walpa Gorge walk – 2.6km return, but much rougher walking than the base walk we did yesterday.  That took us about an hour, and the scene at the end of the furtherst extent of the walk was beautiful, and so peaceful.  There wasn’t a sound to be heard.

After lunch we drove a couple of kilometres further along the site and set off on the Valley of the Winds walk.  We only intended doing one leg of the three stage walk.  The entire walk is 7.4km and rated as difficult, so we opted for the Walpa Gorge section of 2.6km and rated as moderate.  Again the walk was beautiful, very rocky which I find hard on the knees, but the view from the first lookout showed us beyond to other formations and domes in the site.  It was lovely, and did in fact certainly live up to its name – the Valley of the Winds.

We really only ambled along for this walk – let’s face it – ambling was all I was capable of.  But as we had a lot of time before sunset, it didn’t matter.  After we had finished that walk we drove to the sunset over Kata Tjuta viewing spot, packed our thermos and eats into our backpacks and went and found ourselves a good spot to watch the sunset from.  It was fairly quiet until about 6pm when a bus load arrived, and we spent quite a bit of time talking to a couple from Orange who sat themselves down next to us at about five o’clock.

The sunset was magic – better, I think, than the one over Uluru the other night.  The colour is so vibrant as the sun goes down.

Once the sun set we made our way back to the camp, tired but very, very satisfied with the time we have spent here.  Now for a good sleep tonight in preparation for our drive to Kings Canyon tomorrow.  Please, no more fireworks!


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