The sky shed a few tears this morning as we left.

We had planned on a ‘small’ side trip of 380km return to Kings Canyon on the way back along the Lasseter highway and it was worth the travel.

Kings Canyon is quite spectacular.
It starts with
a steep climb up from the carpark.

Under a grey sky I was quite conscious of the long drive still ahead of me before the end of the day, so we set a good pace from the start, but I had to take a multitude of photos of the landscape and vegetation – I wanted to remember every bit of the colouring and the textures.

We walked along one side of the canyon, looking across to the other side and wondering if all those people walking along the sheer edge were foolhardy… We didn’t realise that we were just as close to the edge as they were as the top regularly overhangs the cliff face. Keep hold of over-enthusiastic children! Watching this photographer set up made us especially nervous.

The centre gorge is aptly named ‘Garden of Eden’ full of ancient cycads, figs, trees and water.

Halfway across the gorge, it started to rain lightly and we picked up our speed and arrived back at the car well before the rain started.

Back on the road we retraced our way for 180km to the Lasseter highway and then headed east towards the Stuart highway junction. A short stop at Erldunda to refuel and eat before night fell, and we far as we could towards Alice Springs before dark.

We stopped at a rest area and shared the last night’s fire with two caravans from Newcastle and a French couple who were happy to take on my remaining fruit and grocery items as we would drop our van off in Alice Springs in the morning. Tonight we slept in it for the last time – between the river and the highway. Only this sunrise we had said farewell to Uluru in the rain – what a long day!