The Greats of the Centre: Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta, and Uluru

We moved at an incredibly fast rate from Finke (well as fast as our beast allows!), with a huge walk each day over the next three days, and on two of those, we travelled as well.  The boys were tremendous in their efforts and really outdid themselves. By the end of it however, we did need a well earned days rest, just hanging out, looking at the flowers, red sand, birds and the abandoned car at the rest stop we were staying at, Sandy Way Rest Area, just short of Yulara.

So, we left Finke National Park and drove through the beautiful Finke River once more, then through the Mereenie Loop (one does need a permit to drive here).  I saw my first grass tree since Cape Arid (SW WA), thinking I would see heaps more, took no pics - I saw no more...

We arrived at Kings Canyon early afternoon and decided to tackle the rim walk including the garden of eden (10.4km).  It was absolutely wonderful.  Hot, top of the world, domes like at the bungles on the top, huge bits of rock broken off...wow...

We stopped at Kings Creek Station that night as we saw the rain clouds coming our way (I do feel like I am repeating myself when I say those words...).  Yes it did rain, but not too much.

The next day, on the way to Kata Tjuta Uluru National Park it bucketed.  We drove to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas).  They looked magnificent with their heads in the clouds.  Arriving just after lunch we decided to tackle the Valley of Winds walk then (7.6km).

I was blown away by the beauty of it.  I was brought to tears.  Water trickled down the rocks.  The creeks flowed.  It was lush and we were blessed.  We stopped to take it all in.  At one stage we did get (slightly) lost due to the incredible overgrowth, but our trusty leader Matt, got us through (and the lone Italian who was following us).

We drove back to a rest stop out of Yulara to stay as it was off the road and looked peaceful enough.  Sandy Way.  Too broke to stay in Resort Towns, and quite like our peace.

Next morning we were lucky enough to be walking around Uluru on the 25th anniversary of Handback Day.  Great thing to talk about for 10.6km.

Understandable that we needed to just sit and do not much at our red Sandy Way Rest Stop, other than explore, dig holes, play, recover and plan where to from here... the plan was to find the Lamberts Centre, the Geographical Centre of Australia for an overnight stop.