Dingoes, Kings Canyon, another sunset and more Dingoes

29th May 2013

Today was pack-up day as our three nights at Yulara were up. The van was made ready to roll in no time as we're getting well practised by now. We said seeya to the fellow Victorians that were camped next to us and we hit the road again, saying goodbye to the rock in our mirrors.

It was a source of amusement to us as we drove down the Lassiter Highway towards Yulara four days ago to see the constant procession of vans, campers and motorhomes leaving the Uluru & Kata Tjuta National Park area. Today, that's us as we joined  several others leaving at the same time.

A little way down the road we caught sight of a Dingo sitting atop a red sand dune next to the road, just casually watching the passing traffic. Unfortunately, between the animal blending pretty well into it's surrounds and us whizzing along at 100km/h, we weren't quick enough to take a photo.

There was a couple from Harcourt that we'd been bumping into since Lake Hart, just west of Woomera. During our last encounter out at Kata Tjuta, Colin told us about the excellent free camp area 28kms out from Yulara that they were staying at. On our way out we decided to stop and have a look at this campsite for ourselves, with a thought to perhaps visiting it on our next trip up this way. The campgrounds were over a small sandhill and down into a hollow at the back of what otherwise looked like a typical wayside stop. So, I decided to drive in through the dune to take a closer look, but, who should be driving out at the same time but our friends from Harcourt. After I backed out of his way and we parked the rigs, we stopped and had a final chat. They were heading directly for Alice Springs and on further north where we were stopping tonight at Kings Canyon, so we said our last goodbyes and proceeded on our way.

We arrived at Kings Canyon Resort campground and were pleasantly surprised by the surroundings. The sites were large and shady and all had mains water and sullage.

After setting up camp, we drove the short distance down the road to Kings Canyon. The decision here is to walk the floor of the canyon, which was rated as "Easy", or do the rim walk which was a lot longer and much harder. We decided that we weren't up for the rim trek so we took off into the Canyon. This turned out to be a very pleasant walk, with the walls towering on either side and magnificent ghost gums providing shade.

Variations of colour in the rock was  amazing

Our site at the Resort/Campground was handily just across the road from one of the many ablutions blocks, which curiously had waist high wooden doors at every opening. Later, we came to the realisation that these doors were meant to keep the Dingoes out as there were signs warning that they do enter the campgrounds and visitors were advised not to approach or feed them.

The Resort has provided a sunset viewing area with a boardwalk across the dunes to access it. By the time we got there, a group had already set themselves up with beers and bubbly, and plenty of others as well were ther with their cameras ready.

That evening we went to bed hearing packs of Dingoes howling at each other, some sounding pretty close to us.

One for Davo....203 spotted in the carpark at Kings Canyon. There was another one back at the resort.