King's Canyon
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Day 10, Thursday, 1/17/03
Today was another day driving in the bus. We got to sit in the front seat behind Scotty. Scotty thought of all the disgusting things and would say them in Sams direction to make him even more sick to his stomach. It didnt work on Sam, but Chris was sure getting grossed out.

Paul put on Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Its an Australian Outback. They climbed Kings Canyon in drag, which was hilarious.

We got to the campsite at lunchtime and had lunch. After lunch, we went to unpack all the swags and sleeping bags. It looked like there were enough there for 100 people, but it turned out that we were going to use some of the blankets for pillows. We hung out there for a while, then got back on the bus to drive out for our hike at Kings Canyon. Some people stayed behind.

The hike through the canyon was really cool. Its hard to describe anything as awesome after climbing Ayers Rock, but this was pretty cool on its own merit. The first 10 minutes were very steep stone stair steps. We were all breathing pretty heavy after that part. But, luckily, after we started, the sun mostly stayed behind clouds, so it cooled down (relatively). The rest of the hike wasnt that steep. It was just a lot of walking on rocks and being very careful not to twist your ankle.

We saw the Garden of Eden, an oasis of water and palm trees and green foliage in the middle of this rock canyon. We also saw some incredible gradiation of color on the face of some of the rock cliffs. The power of an echo was tested and I did a cartwheel at the top, just to say that I did something other than just stand there. After our climb the day before and the fact that this hike was 6 kilometers and took almost 3 hours, our legs were pretty tired toward the end. We all just kind of collapsed onto the bus, where we met up with the people, who went on the short walk.

When we all got back to the campground, we sat down in the dining area and devoured our dinner. It was nice light meal with salad, pasta salad and sandwiches. It felt really good to not be eating something greasy.

*Aussies call Orions belt the saucepan, but theyve never heard of the big or little dipper. (Well, Paul hadnt)

After dinner, some people went to take showers. I sat by the campfire because even though I was sticky and dirty. I knew I would be going quad biking in the morning and I would get filthy doing that. Most people sat down with beers, but I didnt feel like drinking, so I nursed my yummy warm water.

A lot of people went to bed early, while others stayed up and got trashed. We sat around and played Chinese Whispers or telephone. One time Heikel started it in German and somehow it got changed to Kangaroos and orgies.

People started getting loud and we started getting complaints, so I went to bed. Cory was already a sleep. I fell asleep the minute my head hit the pillow. I was actually surprised by the brightness of the moon. You didnt even need a torch b/c it was full.


Setting up our sleeping bags for the campout


Jim and Laura during the hike at King's Canyon


Cory and Eric on top of King's Canyon

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