29th August
Leaving the West MacDonnell ranges, we opted to take the unsealed Mereenie Loop Road to Kings Canyon, rather than backtrack to Alice Springs.
Just before the turnoff to the road we went up over Talylor’s Pass where you get fabulous views! The mainly flat plains are broken by what appears to be a mountain range, but is actually a crater from a meteorite that hit millions years of years ago.
The road itself is typical – red dirt, rocky and corrugated. Luckily the road had been recently graded, so although very dusty and corrugated, not as notoriously bad as usual. We just lowered the tyre pressure and took it slow.
The scenery though was quite nice, with rocky outcrops lining the road for most of the way, before heading into flat scrub – with plenty of shredded tyres and a few abandoned cars along the way.
The highlight was overnighting at this free camp at a lookout about 30km before Kings Canyon.
The views out over the valley, looking toward the King’s Canyon were stunning!!
As the sun set, the shadows highlighted the triangular shape of the ranges below.
We had a lovely afternoon, having sundowners with some fellow travellers and later a few more drinks around the fire.
This morning on our drive into King’s Canyon we saw our first dingos in the wild, just casually wandering along the road.
The Travelling Dixons 