Travelling through inland Australia: Day 26

We had a great morning this morning.

We decided to tackle the Southern Wall Walk. It is actually the last 2 or 3 kms of the rim walk. It is a 4.8 km return walk that takes you up the southern wall of the Canyon to its head at which point you must return the way you came. There is a one-way gate there just to make sure you get the message. The Canyon itself is on your left and another escarpment climbs up on the right. This cliff face is in sunlight whereas the wall of the Canyon that you can see when you get to the top, (the north wall) is in shadow and it remains in shadow pretty much all day. The climb up is meant to be easier than the Rim Walk climb in that it is not as steep. However, it is a much longer climb.

Bev and I found the walk quite challenging but not impossible with flat areas interspersed with some tricky climbs. By the time we got to Kestral Falls, about a kilometre and almost a 100 metres in altitude, from the car park, Bev thought that discretion was the better part of valour and she turned back after a rest. I continued on and was very glad I did. I found the walk, and the occasional rock scramble, exhilarating. I couldn't believe the different landforms I was walking through, from soaring sandstone cliffs, to plunging waterfall courses that must be breath-taking when it is raining, to cross-bedded old sand dunes that have been turned to stone and now look like gigantic conical beehives. The colours of the landscape are also extraordinary, orange blends into red, brown gives way to dark grey, green springs up in the most unexpected places and above all, the blue of the Central Australian sky.

Tomorrow we are going to have a rest. Probably the most adventurous thing we will do is to do a short walk from the highway to Kathleen Springs. A short stroll over flat country and along a board walk to a permanent waterhole which is meant to look very nice.

'Til next time.