Final Adventure

Day 6
We woke up to an amazing Australian desert sunrise and after breakie we set off for Kings Canyon. The scheduled hike began with an uphill climb of 65 degree incline. We climbed half way up for the view then back down to the base for a 4km hike thru the canyon floor itself. We were dwarfed by the towering walls each side of us and enjoyed the peaceful setting of the running streams an waterfalls on our path this was again the result of the unusual weather brought to the area by Cyclone Yasi.  We met a dragon lizard by a waterhole which we discovered later was a very dangerous animal but lucky for us he was more interested in drinking water!!  We had lunch back at the campsite and started our final leg of our journey to Alice Springs. This was a 41/2 hr journey in 38c heat.  Of course Murphy's Law struck as the air conditioning was unable to cope with the oppressive heat generated by the high temps and 24 sweaty bodies. Never the less the good humor and resilience of the group got us thru this ordeal. There was not one complaint from the group but quite a number of bush pee stops due to the excess amount of water been drank.  We arrived in Alice at 6pm to a lovely cool hotel room where we had a quick shower before joining our new friends at a Backpacker pub/restaurant for a special Backpacker dinner for $10 which was excellent. Later we moved next door to the outback saloon where we danced and caroused the night away. We then said our fond farewells to everyone and retired to bed exhausted but very happy after having an amazing experience.  MR&K