Day 5: The Ghan/Uluru/Darwin. The King’s Canyon Rim Walk.

I got up before the alarm at 5:15 AM. I knew I wanted to be first there for breakfast at 6, so that I could have time to get myself ready for this walk. We were leaving at 6:45 – no waiting for any stragglers! The sun was rising as we set off for King’s Canyon, all of us carrying at least 2 litres of water with us.

I know I try a lot of things when I’m on holidays, but this one wasn’t a slam dunk by any means. This is a walk that is definitely an achievement, almost a badge of honour for having completed it. It’s marked as VERY DIFFICULT on lists of walks, so I wasn’t sure if I could do it.

The main area of difficulty is the first 500 steps. They’re practically vertical up a cliff face and they’re not man-made. They’re made from the natural rocks, so they are all differents sizes, depths and heights. You have to concentrate on every step. Not just with the first 500 steps, but with EVERY step you make on this 4 hour walk. It’s intense.

This is an action shot of Colin on the right, saying, “See that horizontal ridge? That’s the first 200 steps. We’ll stop there and make sure everyone is right to go on. Remember, once you take that 201st step, you’re committed. There’s no going back.”

The next 200 steps were near the top of the hill, with the final 100 steps curving around to the back. I don’t know about you, but that ridge looked. long way up…

When we got closer, we saw the steps. Zoom in on them. There’s no way anyone can mindlessly do this walk. You have to be conscious of where you place your feet every single step.

And yes. Heart Attack Hill was BRUTAL.

I took my time and let people pass me, pretending to be polite when really, I was trying to catch my breath. I had to take it slow and steady because the cardio is insane.

At the 200 steps, all of us elected to continue and we all made it to the top. Fabulous view!

Personally, I was proud that I made it to the top without needing the emergency defibrillator.

At the top of the canyon, there’s space for a helicopter to land if they need to evac someone out. There’s also a big store of medical gear here too.

It’s not just heart attacks. People have fallen from here, broken bones or sprained ankles etc. There are 4 defibrillators along the track, along with two-way radios to let the park rangers know if there’s an emergency.

After we had a drink – small sips only to let your body absorb the water! Lots of small sips along the way! – we started making our way along the top of the canyon.

Here’s Colin telling us about this narrow pass.

“You’ve all heard of the movie ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? Well, when they were filming out here they brought the cast and crew here for a tour. For some reason, they named this ‘Priscilla’s Crack’ and it’s a thing on Instagram for the kids to stand, one foot on either side, hold their arms up and shout, “I’m in Priscilla’s Crack!”‘

Can’t let the kids have all the fun…

I’m pretty sure that the white you can see is the car park with all the buses.

Zoom in on this one and you’ll see that the cliffs on the left look as if they’ve been sliced by a knife, like a slice of cheesecake.

We saw ghost gums in the most precarious of places. The sandstone cliffs act like a big sponge, absorbing any rain that falls. The trees’ roots can slide between the rocks and the tree happily grows.

Look at these rocks. They prove that all of this was once under the sea, just like the lines we see on the beach in the sand. Incredible.

At last! The first sign that we were getting near The Garden of Eden.

Man-made steps, too. Fancy!

This is the first view of The Garden of Eden that I saw. I was a little disappointed, to be honest. Then, once I was down the bottom of the stairs, I turned around and saw this:

Look at the clarity of the reflection! This was a wonderful spot.

We sat here for a while, eating a snack and taking more small sips of the water.

This is almost at the mid point of the walk.

Erosion is weird sometimes.

This is where our group split up. One woman had an elevated heart beat or something, so Colin went back to check on her and give her some hydrolytes. Some of us decided to push on. It was about 10 AM by then and the sun was getting hotter. Most of the walk is in full sun, so we wanted to get while the going was good.

Frank is in the green shirt. I followed behind him like a little duckling for the rest of the walk.

Funnily enough, we were back on flat land at the car park and I almost rolled my ankle. After doing that whole walk!

Speaking of doing the walk, would I do it again?

No. I was getting over it fo the last third and I was starting to fantasise about there being a secret lift down, that everyone who takes the walk signs a vow od silence so that all newcomers don’t know about it until they reach it.

Yeah. That didn’t happen.

I NEVER want to do the 500 steps again. It was hard. Even Frank said that this was the hardest walk he’s ever done,and he willingly goes on walks all around the world.

But I’m extremely glad I chose to do it. I’m proud of the achievement that a tubby, stubborn woman from Melbourne can do.

Tomorrow we leave for Uluru. And it’ll be my birthday!

(Funny thing – Mum left a voicemail TODAY, wishing me a happy birthday. It was only her and I there at the time… you’d think she’d remember the date!! Haha.)

Dad joke of the Day: