11 July - Kings Canyon Rim Walk and Mereenie Loop

11 July 2016 – 178 362

Kings Canyon Rim Walk and Mereenie Loop

This morning we packed up, it was freezing – it had warmed up to 4 degrees by 8am.  We then headed back to Watarrka National Park to do the Canyon Rim Walk.
https://nt.gov.au/leisure/parks-reserves/find-a-park-to-visit/watarrka-national-park This was amazing…… The beginning of the walk is a steep climb up to the top of the canyon walls, it looks very steep but due to the rock being sedimentary it forms good flat steps for secure walking.  Once at the top the view was great as we had beautiful clear weather.  The walk continued amongst the domes on the top of the canyon walls, these are said to represent young men in the dreamtime legends.  The lookout points gave grand vista views.  In some places the canyon walls are sheer vertical faces, in other places there are large overhangs where the deeper, softer sandstone has eroded leaving the upper harder layers unsupported.  We saw some interesting rock formations – there are areas where the sediment layers do not run parallel to each other, there were also some great examples of ripple stones, formed at the edge of lakes.  The Garden of Eden was a very steep descent but was such a contrast to the top of the rim with its waterhole and luxuriant plant life.  I am glad I didn’t have to build the steps in and out of this.  This was a truly amazing walk, although there was not a single section of even ground.



To get to Hermannsburg we drove the Mereenie Loop.  This travels through aboriginal land and requires a permit ($5.50).
https://www.discovercentralaustralia.com/visitor-information/driving-permits
It is beautiful and constantly changing country with a dirt road, that is quite corrugated and has some big dips in places.  Some small parts have bitumen but this is quite potholed and has big bumps to come on and off.  One particularly big dip which has a standard road sign advising you to slow down, but closer to it from each direction there is also a forty-gallon drum which says “LIFT UM FOOT”.  We saw many brumbies, which looked in terrific condition. We stopped and checked the van and vehicle a number of times due to the roughness of the road, and this being our first time with the van in this type of conditions.  The first 150km were fine, but when we arrived at Hermannsburg we found a van leg had vibrated down and we had lost one foot, the cable adapter between the van and vehicle must have vibrated off then we had lost the plug from the van end along with the Anderson plug.  We will need to arrange an autoelectrian. On the side of the road there were monster sized piles of manure, which were presumably camel, some of these would have come more than half way up my shin in height and were just as wide.  

Approaching road train

The dust cloud after - why it is always best to pull over and stop when a road train
passes you on the dirt!

We are camping the night at Hermannsburg Heritage Precinct which is an old Lutheran mission.  There are only a very small number of vans here.  Hayden had a quick fire in the fireplace after dinner.  http://hermannsburg.com.au/
Mum