Kings Canyon

This was the view looking out from my room at the Kings Canyon hotel. I couldn't get the doors open, but perhaps that's just as well as there were a few insects ready to crawl inside. The next morning there was another early start  as myself and 5 others met our guide at 6am at the Kings Canyon. We wanted to climb up to the rim before it became too hot. We were told to bring 3 litres of drinking water as you are supposed to drink a litre an hour in this environment. I only took 2 because I reckoned carrying another litre would do me more harm than not drinking it.

This was the start of the climb. It is commonly called 'cardiac hill' as it is a vertical climb of over 500 uneven steps to get up to the first part of the canyon. Once at the top and breathing has returned to normal, the scenery is stunning. The sky goes on for ever here and you cannot see any evidence of human life, not even vapour trails from aircraft. In fact I never once saw an aeroplane go over.

They did say just take another step back but I wasn't falling for that old trick!

These are ripple marks on the rocks as this area was once, many millions of years ago, all covered by water. We also saw a fossil in the rock. From this point we walked down into the canyon to a waterhole. As it was always in the shade it seemed to retain water all the year round which is quite incredible in the heat.

 As we climbed up to the rim of the canyon again there were some other people on the other side which gives some perspective to the size.

I have to say the decent was much easier than the climb up but the temperature was rising quickly so I'm glad we got an early start. It took us about 3 hours to do the walk which was just enough for me in that heat.