King's Canyon

Monday 28^th August

An early start saw us well on the way by 9am but it’s such a bloody long way! We didn’t arrive until midday and were in 2 minds about going to the gorge straight away. We did eventually mooch down there though and decided that we had time to do the walk around the gorge. What a beautiful place this is. The gorge was formed by a stream that over the millennia had worn away a route through the rock, which over time, cracked and fell into the gorge to create the route now, complete with ledges, lookouts and gorgeous rock pools. We were advised that the walk would take us 2½ hours which we thought we could do so we fairly bounded up the steep climb at the start. A good workout rewarded by some cracking views at the summit. There were lots of places to go to, lots of nooks and crannies and one thing that I found really amazing was the stress lines in the rock face opposite where I stood at the throat of the gorge.

The weight of unsupported rock had caused a rockfall in which the stresses along the fault had caused a rippling effect in the surviving face. To appreciate the forces involved is really something when you consider it’s visible to the naked eye from nearly 100m away. The heat, friction and shearing stresses were such that the rock became almost fluid, like a plastic, during the fall. The deformity is forever engraved on the stone following cooling. Imagine the noise of that deformation. Best thunder ever! The white bits are the bird poop where the Osprey and Falcons perch scoping for something tasty to pounce on.

Unfortunately we didn’t see anything like that but we did find this crazy looking lizard who obligingly performed for the camera in running around like a muppet – I love the feet on this guy though.

The rest of the walk was pretty uneventful although the rock pool, styled ‘Eden’ was very picturesque.

Back at base camp, we were just readying ourselves for dinner and debating whether to check out the boozer when a lady from the band came up and asked us if we’d be interested in checking out the entertainment that night. The deal of 2-4-1 pizza’s convinced us and we mooched down there with an open mind. Another bonus was 2 families we met who had travelled over from Brissy for a week checking the sights. They were on their way to Ayers and what not the next day whereas we were heading the other way but we were all mates for the evening. It might surprise you to learn that we got quite puddled and ended up having a good yarn. Interestingly, they asked me my thoughts on the ‘Abbo problem’ as they liked to term it and after clarifying some reference points, in that it’s all our problems, not just the ‘Abbo’s’, we had a real good chat. It seems to me that the generation of Aussies over 40 on the whole are anti-aboriginal. They disliked who and what the Aboriginals were when they were an unrepresented minority with no rights (Aboriginals weren’t even classed as Australian citizens and protected by law until the 50’s and 60’s!) Now that there are some attempts at mediation and reparation by state governments, these same people resent the ‘welfare culture’ that they see towards Aboriginals and are still very anti. I agreed with their point that a Welfare state doesn’t work and added my thoughts that both white and black Australians need to work harder to integrate, bearing in mind that the way we live as post industrial revolution Europeans, is completely different to the hunter-gatherer and nomadic existence of traditional aboriginal culture. I guess there’s no easy way, but my belief is that we, new immigrants, cannot ignore completely the old Aboriginal customs and way of life and should try to accommodate their culture where possible, but within the framework of the culture and legal system of the Australian majority. I’ve heard many times that the ‘Aborigine’s’ just want to be left as they were before whites came but this is as naïve as it is impractical. Similarly, just doling out cash without training and integrating the two societies is equally as short sighted. Sadly, I’d heard stories before of Aborigine elders castigating younger members of their tribes on gaining degrees and what not as becoming ‘like the white man’, which causes them to withdraw and it’s these people who are part of our bridge to each other. I don’t know how truthful it is but it sounds believable.

I even went as far as to say maybe we should consider teaching the local Aboriginal language to all kids at school, or providing it as an option for post-14 year olds although I’ve no idea how impractical it may be. The guys were quite dismissive, preferring to castigate all Aboriginals as lazy ‘ne’er do wells’, but their wives were actually forthcoming and quite open minded about the subject so the chat was good fun. I guess it is easy to ‘judge’ as an outsider but there’s a lot of denial going on with both sides and it’s quite sad. The fact is, the Aboriginals were conquered and displaced by a technologically more advanced race and there were many atrocities committed in that process. Both sides need to recognise where the status quo lies and work forward from there and if I’m honest, I think there’s a lot of willingness to do so, but like most things, it takes a couple of generations to get through to people. There’s a lot of white guilt at the moment, a lot of it justified as we were horrible, but that’s just what happened and needs to be acknowledged in order to move on. I hope we all get there!

Anyway, full of beer and bullshit, I tottered off to bed with the hope of a fairly early start the next morning as we were going to try an unsealed road to Alice, called the Meereenie Loop. Sadly though, it proved too much and the trip back to Alice was made via the longer road loop, where we landed about 5pm.