Red Centre Way

Last night was the WORST night sleep in forever!!!!! Holy shit, it was worse than the night in the tent with the howling animals freaking me out. I was hotter than hell, too tall for the back seat, no place to put my legs or long arms…ugh! Finally around 4:30am, I moved into the driver’s seat (the other one was totally covered with stuff), reclined and somehow managed to pass out for a few more hours. I got my ass in gear around 8am, repacked up some of the stuff and got it in order for the long ride ahead of me. I made it a point to hike the trail (Ghost Gum Walk) to the top of the gorge before I headed out on the road. This walk took me about an hour to do and I didn’t do the whole route because I didn’t want to walk through the river to get back, so I went to the top and turned back around lol. Along the route there were a few signs giving us visitors some history about where we were. At one point, I was standing in an area that used to be the bottom of the sea floor 800 million years ago. It apparently (according to the sign) was bare like the surface of the moon, with no patches of green anywhere, it was covered by warm shallow water that hosted only algae and bacteria. Kind of another cool moment to know that I am standing somewhere that existed so long ago. This hike had a ton of stairs which kill me, but way better than uneven rock to traverse. At the top, it was really pretty to see the gorge, it had the Finke river running through it (which is the largest river in Australia), it had the ghost gum trees that had a stark contrast of white against the red rocks and here and there were small little flowers just adding a dab of extra color.

On my way back down to the parking area where my car was located I came across a lizard who actually sat still on a branch long enough for me to take a few cool up close pictures of it. There was also this beautiful blueish turtle dove with bright red eyes that was hopping down the stairs ahead of me that was nice enough to stay still for a few pictures. Back to the car, and off to Kings Canyon. I knew that most of my day was going to be spent driving and I was prepared for that. What I was not completely prepared for was the road surface. I have told you in previous posts that I have no patience at all, sometimes the smallest things drive me nuts. Well this patience was really put to the test today. I wish that you could actually hear what I heard today with all of the noise I had going on. On the front floor there was a Styrofoam cooler that had water and fruit in it, and the ice had melted so it was semi full of water. I had a CD in the player since there are no radio stations out here and it happened to be playing Dave Matthews Band. Then on top of all of this the road wasn’t paved so it was corrugated, so it was bumpy as hell. This was about a 3-hour drive on this bad boy. The road was so incredibly loud, and the rocks that kicked off of the tires and pinged under the car were often enough to notice. Then not to mention, even though I was in a small SUV it felt like I was in a tin can the way it rattled. So I have lovely ole Dave Matthews singing to me, the rattle of the car and its shocks, random rocks pining around under the car, the god awful noise of the road itself which is absurdly loud and the friggan Styrofoam cooler that was squeaking over every bump. Testing my patience to the max!!! I tried putting something heavy on the cooler to stop it from squeaking but to no avail, so I just had to deal. I think that reason I was really able to deal with it for so long was the beautiful scenery and the random things to see on the road like crazy road signs, bones of animals, trees covered in clothes and the best of all was the wild horses. I saw a ton of these along my drive. Most of them don’t let you get too close so thank goodness for the long lens on my camera. I stopped a few places along the way but nothing really worth writing about. My final stop today was the Kings Canyon. Here I can stay the night, get dinner, have a swim and get up early to do some great walks around the canyon that get too hot during the day so they are closed. Till the next time I can post.

XO Noodle