There was the most glorious sunrise this morning, which we could see quite well from our room, as we were getting ready for our walking tour of Kings Canyon.

The plan had been for us to meet our guide for a private walking tour at 6:30 am but we ended up being tacked on to a group of about 30 pharmacists who were on a private tour as part of their annual conference. Their group had also been to Uluru and we are now in Kings Canyon before heading to Alice Springs, much the same as our itinerary, but then there was the options for interested pharmacist to head onto Kakadu for a recreational section at the end. It ended up probably being better being part of a larger group as we were able to chat to some of the more friendly of the group and commiserate over the shocking dining experience and the upside to the sunset drinks. We all agreed that the sunset drinks was a much better experience and dining at Carmichael’s. Some of this group are also going to adopt our plan to have more time at the sunset drinks and to order pizza to have back at their room.

The Kings Canyon walk was rather challenging but something we are both glad we completed. It involves a steep climb, of around 500 steps, to rise up to the top of the rim and then around a 5 km walk / rock scramble around the rim of the canyon before descending at the end. The whole walk takes around 3 – 4 hours and is rather invigorating.

It is hard to describe in words just how impressive Kings Canyon is. This area of uplifted rock, part of the same period of formation as the McDonnell ranges, was exposed about 300 million years ago. To put that in some perspective, the Grand Canyon only formed 5 million years ago. So, there is some seriously amazing history and geology here. As we scrambled over the rocks we saw some evidence of previous marine life, from when the area was underwater and before it formed into sedimentary rock: there were scrolls in the rock as a permanent record of ancient crawling sea animals and ripples in the rock being a now permanent reminder of the wave action over the sand that was once experienced in this area. Kings Canyon is definitely worth adding to your Central Australia bucket list!

The only place to have lunch was back at Carmichael’s so we decided to head up there on our return from our walk to have an early lunch to avoid the crowds. We both had a burger and this turned out to be ok so lunch is better than dinner at this venue!

We had little planned for the afternoon other than a helicopter 15 minute tour of the Canyon scheduled for 3:25 pm. This was a great way to take in the whole majesty of the mountainous landscape and another activity I’d highly recommend taking.

The only other thing left on our schedule was to have drinks at the Sunset bar and then takeaway pizza. The sunset bar evening was pleasant enough but the colours of the sunset weren’t as rich as the previous day so we’re glad we got in some beautiful scenery and good photos from the day before.

The take away pizzas ended up being as disappointing as the offerings from Carmichael’s restaurant. The resort really needs to pick up its game with the food offerings because people are spending a lot of money to stay here and the food is very sub optimal.

It was an early night for us again because we had a big drive to Alice Springs the next day, a five hour drive.