We had come to Kings Canyon with one thing in mind, unfortunately for me, that thing was trekking! As we mentioned in the previous entry, the 'rim walk' is the main event here taking you on a full loop of the top of the canyon. It works out to be about 7km long and takes the average hiker between 4 and 6 hours. It is highly recommended not to start the walk after 9am because the temperature gets so high, it is very dangerous to be walking in the midday heat. We knew the weather forecast was in the high 30s so we had to get started without any messing!
 
Needless to say we were awake early anyway as other campers got up for the sunrise, some of whom felt it necessary to sing camp songs and do group exercise sessions at 7am, so we had plenty of time for breakfast before we set off . We had a lovely view from where our tent was pitched, looking out of the campsite and over to the canyon so it was nice waking up with such scenic surroundings. After a quick round of beans on toast, putting a layer of sun cream on and grabbing our fly nets we were off and ready for the day's events. I was quite concerned about this walk because of several things really: the heat, the flies and the sheer length of it but I kept my spirits up as I really wanted to do it because it was obviously going to be beautiful and I knew it would be another little achievement. We had been warned that the hardest part is the start, as you instantly get a difficult and quite steep climb up the canyon wall so you can then go around it at the top to come back down the other side. A little word of advice, "the guide map doesn't lie!" No sooner had we tied our laces and armed ourselves with a bottle of water, we were scaling our way up a set of rocky steps that looked like they wouldn't have been out of place on Everest. Even though it was still only 9am, it was already very hot so we stopped for a break half way and all 3 of us were already sweating and panting for breath . We had only been walking for a matter of minutes and our leg muscles were burning, this seemed like it was going to be harder than I thought. Eventually, as we made it to the top, the relief was clear to see as we all gasped for air and water, along with the group ahead of us who were still doing this despite having reached the top quite a while before us. Luckily, that was the hard bit out of the way or else I'd have been turning back I think! We were rewarded with lovely views of the area and the canyon, we had a picture taken but as you will see, Matt and I were still donning our beautiful fly nets as the flies were pretty awful, we're not actually sure how Gareth kept his cool without a net on. In all fairness, the number of flies did seem to have thinned out as we'd reached the top so we were hoping flies didn't like heights and they'd leave us alone now. 
 
Fortunately, the majority of the rest of the walk was now on flat land so we made our way on as we knew we were in a race against the heat. It was a very interesting walk as we made our way through natural walkways and climbed over rocks . The rock itself was so strange to look at, making the whole place almost feel like a film set. The rock is all sandstone so it erodes away in the joins and cracks, turning little cracks into huge ones and rounds off any square or sharp edges so every rock was rounded and looked almost like honey comb as it was so worn in all the different grooves and cracks. After a little while we came to the canyon itself. This canyon originally was nothing but a small crack in the ground but after millions of years of erosion it's turned it into this huge gap in the ground, it's incredible really! We could walk right up to the edge of the rocks as there's no safety hand rails but it's a very big sheer drop down to the bottom so we didn't go too close as the rock can give way beneath your feet and you certainly wouldn't survive a fall. To get to one of the lookouts, there's a small bridge which we had to walk across, this was a lovely spot for photos as it looked right back over the canyon's mouth. We relaxed and took in the view for a while so we could rest a bit but also because it was so peaceful and picturesque . 
 
There was an area we had to walk through called the bee hives. It's named this because of the way the rock has eroded leaving big round bee hive formations it was fascinating! Everywhere we walked, the whole surrounding area was quite impressive to see, making it a much more enjoyable walk than I had anticipated. Also along the way, there was the Garden of Eden! After going down lots of steps into a smaller canyon, you find the Garden of Eden sat right at the bottom. The main reason for this is because its a water trap so there's a big pool of collected rain water along with lots of lush green trees. The trees somehow manage to root into the cracks in the rock itself and because of the constant trapped water they grow and survive nicely. Some of the trees are very big so they must be very old. We stopped for a bit of a rest as by now we had been walking for over 2 hours and we were all very hot. Some people were swimming in the pool, it looked so refreshing as we were all so sweaty but none of us had brought swim stuff so unless we fancied publicly skinny dipping we were unable to! The rest was much needed though and did us good and we then headed on our way as we now had to get back up the stairs to get to the top of the canyon . Once back to the top we had to start our journey towards the car. We were all getting pretty tired by now and mine and Matt's knees were starting to hurt so we weren't wandering around as much as we did the first half but there wasn't as much to see this side anyway. It was all very interesting and lovely to see but the best bit was a view point where we got to stand and look right off the edge. It's very strange how the walls to the canyon here are literally a sheer drop, but so smooth it almost looks as if something has cut it off rather than it just breaking off. I really don't understand how it has got like that. We took lots of pictures but a lot of them really don't do the area justice as to how impressive it is. We did get nice pictures of us stood right by the edge, well as close as we dared stand anyway! The next hour and a half were spent almost marching back to the car as we were all running out of water, it was nearly 40 degrees and we were all pretty tired. Not only that, we had a 6 and a half hour drive to get on with to Alice Springs straight after . The last kilometre or 2 felt never ending so the sight of the car park in the distance was a beautiful thing. Of course we got the welcome party of thousands of flies which made us walk even quicker. As much as we didn't want to leave we were nearly dying of exhaustion from the heat now. We finally made it back, finishing the whole walk in 4 and a half hours. We were pretty pleased with the time we had managed it in as it was really hard work and, at about 7km long, one of the longest we had done. 
 
To say we all collapsed into the car is an understatement. After prising our boots off and having a drink we sorted ourselves out and decided to hit the road to get to Alice Spring before it got dark. It's quite a funny drive from the Kings Canyon to Alice Springs. The only way to describe it is if you imagine a square and Kings Canyon and Alice Springs are in the top 2 corners, there's a road that joins them nearly directly across the top but you need a 4x4 to go that way, which we didn't have. Otherwise you have to go 2 hours back the way you came, then 2 hours across followed by another 2 and a half hours back up to Alice! Although its over 6 hours, you only actually use 3 long straight roads. With this ahead of us, we refuelled treated ourselves to ice creams and headed off. 
We really really enjoyed Kings Canyon. Although it may sound like we moaned a lot about the flies and the heat, it really is an incredible place and it wasn't until we were in the car that we discovered all 3 of us had actually preferred being here to Uluru as there was just so much to see and do!