Healthy and Reasonably Fit - That's Us

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While in the Northern Territory, Australia, recently, we drove out to King's Canyon. The ancient sandstone cliffs are an important conservation area, giving refuge to over 600 species of native plants and animals. Many of these are unique to the area. The tall red rock faces are part of the Watarrka National Park and sit about midway between Alice Springs and Uluru. We arrived late afternoon and did a short walk following the river-bed, going past a new shelter that is being constructed. The amount of vegetation and trees surprised me and I loved the colour of the trees. I also liked the shape of a little dead tree which can be seen on the video. There were lots of these and they all looked as though their mum had swept their hair up into a peak. The other notable feature on the short walk was seeing tree trunks encased with hessian. I couldn't work out why this had been done but later we found a sign asking people not to deface the trees. Vast tracts of the area are sacred to the indigenous people who are offended and/or very hurt when items that are sacred to them are treated with disrespect. Hence the hessian which you can see on a tree behind the notice. After our walk we camped at the King's Canyon Caravan Park where there were signs warning campers not to leave food around and not to feed the dingoes and/or wild dogs. We didn't see either while we were there which was disappointing in a way as I would have liked a photo of a dingo. Next morning we drove back to the canyon itself. The longer 5.5km rim walk was designated as suitable for 'healthy and reasonably fit' individuals. I wasn't sure we fitted (or is it fat?) that category but we decided we'd have a go at walking the rim. There was much advice and warnings about attempting the walk. It was recommended we take a litre of water each per kilometre and to drink regularly. We were lucky as the weather was very mild. A gentle breeze kept the temperature down. When the breeze dropped we could feel it was much hotter. I soaked my cloth hat in water before we left as doing that helps keep me cool. The first challenge was the 500 steps to the top of the rim. You may be able to see some tourists part way up – you can also see the sun just hitting the top of the rise. We'd been told that once you'd managed the steps the rest of the walk was reasonably flat. The steps were just stones placed or hewn out of the available rock. Some were cemented in. The first few hundred weren't too bad then we stopped for a few moments, did another hundred and stopped again, did fifty more, stopped – do you get the picture? But we made it to the top where there was an emergency phone and a defibrillator. Luckily we didn't need either. The whole canyon was once covered by an inland sea and you can see in the slideshow a rock with wave-like markings on it. We went down a set of wooden stops to get to the Garden of Eden, a sheltered place with its own micro-climate. There are ancient ferns, palms and other grasses here together with a permanent water-hole where I was able to resoak my hat. It really was like a small paradise. We did the walk in slightly over the time estimated on the signs but we did stop for lots of photos – as is our wont! I was surprised to see so many walkers without hats. The ozone depletion over the southern hemisphere means that wearing a hat is a very sensible idea 'down under' but we still saw a lot without including an English girl with a very peaches-and-cream complexion. I hope she didn't burn too badly. Anyway after our successful completion of that walk, we now feel justified in calling ourselves 'healthy and reasonably fit'. I'm still having trouble trying to preview my slideshow before publishing so I hope you like the funky music!