Wistfully leaving our air conditioned backpackers spot, we were picked up in a timely fashion by Dan, our Groovy Grape tour guide. With first pick of seats on the bus, we picked the pair directly behind the driver (for legroom and the tinted windows - the floor gets pretty hot from the engine though!) and wrote our names and country of origin on the window.
We were soon joined by 19 others from around the world, with countries of origin including Finland, USA, Australia, Belgium, Switzerland, Mexico, UK and Germany. Introducing ourselves we found that a third of us were engineers, with a few teachers in the mix too.
We set off on our tour and the first stop was a camel farm. Here Peter and I had a short camel ride, which was quite comfy until the camels started running, at which point I became glad I am not a boy... My camel was golden brown and called Cirly, and Peter's was white and called Sparky. Curly occasionally tried to kick me off and sat down rather violently, Sparky seemed a little more docile.
Kings Creek station was next on the agenda, and this is where we were to camp for the night. A dusty spot, we had our own lean-to shelter, with a plug socket (which soon got very overloaded), fridge and hobs. We unloaded the trailer and had a quick lunch of wraps and the like before driving onto our destination of Kings Canyon. Here, we found that due to the heat, the main rim walk was closed. It appears that in the area, if the weather is forecast to be above 36 degrees, exposed tracks are closed by Rangers, for safety. For this reason, we found ourselves on the low level Kongs Creek track, which was a short walk leading us up one side of the gorge to a viewing point where we were surrounded by the red sides of the canyon.
Having enjoyed this walk (in spite of the large number of very annoying flies - I errored and wore black, which they like!) we returned to the amosite for a quick dip before dinner. The cool water was extremely welcome and that was probably the most comfy I felt all day.
Dinner was a green thai curry, which although not very cooling, was delicious. After dinner we learned how to use our swags, which are like big canvas sleeping bags with a thin sponge mattress inside. After watching a demonstration, we retired to our own swags for the night. The swags were nice and roomy, but just far too hot! I soon ditched my sleeping bag but still struggled to sleep in 30+ degrees in my black cocoon. I reckon in winter these would be lovely and cosy...
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