Day 357 – Kings Canyon

• Yulara – Kings Canyon
• 304kms
• 32°c

Happy Fathers Day! Ella & Oscar awoke Daddy with beautiful kisses and snuggles before getting up to make him a special breakfast and coffee in his new Kombi mug.

We packed up camp and bid Ayers Rock farewell as we drove East again before turning off to Kings Canyon. A fairly quiet drive, other than a moment of concern for the vans new tyres, when on a very narrow stretch of road a truck approaching decided it wasn’t moving over at all and so sent our tyres into the crumbled side of the road. We pulled over to check and thankfully they were still looking good.

Kings Canyon resort is the only place out here that allows camping other than a station we passed about 30kms earlier and with almost no difference in price we chose the resort. After checking in and grabbing a bite to eat we drove out to Kings Canyon to have just a short stroll, seeing as the shortest walk is about 1.5kms and the walk around the rim is about 6kms. 

Despite the heat, the flies and Ella’s sore ankle, curiosity got the better of us and so we climbed what is noted as the steepest part of the climb (they should try Ayers Rock) the steps leading up to the rim of the canyon. It was a fairly easy climb on the manmade unobtrusive natural looking steps to a lookout that allowed us a pretty awesome view of the canyon and the landscape on the horizon. The clouds seemed to be getting darker overhead so we decided to head back to camp, seeing as we were out of water we couldn’t go on any further anyways.

The Outback Bistro was our destination for dinner and we were treated to a show as well by the in house performers: The Roadies. Reuben & Petrea came up for a weekend 13 years ago and have been here for 8 months of the year every year since. Petrea spent some time chatting with us and told Ella & Oscar that she would really appreciated their assistance up on stage later on in the evening, they were happy to oblige and were paid in kind with a giant ice cream sundae!

They played country music and were great entertainers, they had a group of kids up on the stage performing with them and had the adults chuckling when she got one of the kids to play the “seweridgeridoo” made from a piece of pvc pipe and a joiner and she assured us that it was not a bong!

For their next act, they got the Dads up on stage for a little performance, being Fathers day and all, or so I thought… because the next thing I knew it was the Mums turn. All of a sudden there was a really strange sound… it was rain! We haven’t seen or heard rain in months, the kiddos found in quite novel to stand out in it.

In true travelling style we got chatting to the parents and spent the rest of the evening swapping stories and experiences whilst the kids played, happy to have other kids around. As “The Roadies” were getting ready to leave Petrea told me there was a paper bag under the table and not to leave without it? Earlier I had asked her about the small didgeridoos in the shop next door & whether they were any good. In the bag were two didgeridoos! she said they’d had them out the back and they didn’t use them in the show. I couldn’t believe the generosity we were shown but yet at the same time I wasn’t that surprised. Karma is amazing!