Our travels have been saturated with stairs! Right at the start of kings canyon, the first hurdle is known as heart attack hill. A steep staircase, with a defibrillator at the top just in case. And when we reached the top, we were greeted with the immense sight of the canyon. A crack in the mountain so large that it shook the whole planet when it formed, and left a jagged scar through the lands. Pieces hang from the edge of the crack, the size of houses, and threaten to plummet from the heights and crash down on the unsuspecting world below.
We walked along the fissure, staying at least two metres from the edge at all times, and got our first taste of the ochre-red hue that is famous in this part of Australia. And when we reached the gate, we found the end of the canyon, and hopped over the small gap where it all began, before making our way back to the van and driving off into the outback.
Part way along the road, we stopped and all piled out into the bushes, in search of fire wood for our bush camp that evening. We had to take it in to or threes, carrying great logs and stumps of pale wood back to be strapped to the roof of the trailer. And when we arrived that night in the middle of nowhere, our experience truly began. We started up the blaze, and began heating up the pans ready for our bush tucker dinner. We heated up sauce in a pan with the embers, and used the fire to cook the meat and the kangaroo tail (which tastes a lot like lamb).
Then all that was left to do was set up our swags, which are like one person body bags with open ends so that you can still stick your head out and see the Milky Way forming above you. We put on every item of clothing we owned, layering up like the Michelin man, and his our shoes and our back packs in the bottom in fear of them being carried of by dingoes at midnight. And then we hunkered down ready for a super early morning where we would open our eyes back up to a sky still dark.
