Kings Canyon (Northern Territory)

Kings Canyon is part of the Watarrka National Park in Northern Territory, Australia. Sitting at the western end of the George Gill Range, it is 323 km southwest of Alice Springs and 1316 km south of Darwin. The walls of Kings Canyon are over 300 metres high, with Kings Creek at the bottom.
The 6 km (loop) and 3-4 hour Kings Canyon Rim Walk traces the top of the canyon. A steep climb at the beginning of the walk, which locals call "Heartbreak Hill" (or "Heart Attack Hill", due to its steepness), takes visitors up to the top, with spectacular views of the gorge below and of the surrounding landscape.

This has once been sea bottom. Years ago. The ripples of the seabed turned into stone and are now on top of the canyon in the middle of a desert. Fascinating!

About half way during the walk, a detour descends to Garden of Eden, a permanent waterhole surrounded by lush plant life.

See the person in the top left side of the photo? Gives you an impression of the size.

The stairs nearly killed me - they should call them the devil's staircase if they do not already do that anyway!

The last half of the walk passes through a large maze of weathered sandstone domes, reminiscent of the Bungle Bungle.

Wow - not more you can think about it!

The striking North and South Walls. you can stand right next to the brim. No rail prevent you to. The one and only moment our tour guide got really nervous. He reminded us a couple of times, that it would not fair against him to fall into the canyon. He would have to fill out all that paperwork which is quite a pain.

After enjoying a last lunch we travelled back through sand dune country and saw wild horses, camels and a couple of white wild donkeys.

Australia's striking beauty.

Back in Alice Springs our 1500km journey which took us around the Red Canter of Australia came sadly to an end.

LEAVING ADELAIDE BEHIND

Cool car isn't it?

Yo - the mighty Eagle.

Red Seater Service - that's me!

The symbol of the Gahn is a camel and its handler in recognition of the pioneering Afghan cameleers.

Australia or Schleswig-Holstein in spring they look just the same.

Hm, here they must have taken the picture for Microsoft XP.

Ganola - Looks just like Fehmarn. Granny + Grandy I love you!

Wow - we go around a bend so I can see the train front.

ON THE WAY TO ALICE

Hm, sorry, got the picture order mixed up.

Anyway - the ocen in twilight.

Powerconection

A Saltlake - even though it is hard to see with the sun reflected by the salt cristals.

"Two weeks away it feels like the whole world should've changed

But I'm home now

And things still look the same

I think I'll leave it till tomorrow to unpack

Try to forget for one more night

That I'm back in my flat on the road

Where the cars never stop going through the night

To a life where I can't watch sunset

I don't have time

I don't have time"

"I've still got sand in my shoes

And I can't shake the thought of you

I should get on, forget you

But why would I want toI know we said goodbye

Anything else would've been confused but I wanna see you again"

Tomorrow's back to work and down to sanity

Should run a bath and then clear up the mess I made before I left here

Try to remind myself that I was happy here

Before I knew that I could get on the plane and fly away

From the road where the cars never stop going through the night

To a life where I can watch sunset and take my time,

Take all our time

Mooo - cattle im Outback!

A river - of course - can't see that? In winter it is!

THE GAHN to ALICE SPRINGS

I stayed one night in Adelaide and caught the Gahn, another train which connects Adelaide and Darwin via Alice Springs. The journey takes three days and two nights one way to cover a distance of 2979km with a speed of 85 km/hour. But I only stayed on until Alice Springs. The train goes twice weekly in both directions, is approx. 1km long (including 2 Locomotives and Motorail) and can accommodate up to 500 customer.

The town of Alice Springs straddles the usually dry Todd River on the northern side of the MacDonnell Ranges. The region where Alice Springs is located is known as Central Australia, or the Red Centre, and is an arid environment consisting of several different deserts.
In Alice Springs, temperatures can vary by up to 28°C and rainfall can vary quite dramatically from year to year. In summer, the average maximum temperature is in the high 30s, where as in winter the average minimum temperature can be 7.5C.

The symbol of the Gahn is a camel and its handler in recognition of the pioneering Afghan cameleers.

Aren't they the most wierd-looking plants?

The car parks in Alice Springs are under umbrellas to protect the vehicles from the sun.

BERLIN

ADELAIDE - BOTANIC GARDENS

Yay - I am in Adelaide. Have a REAL bed and a shower. Man you learn to appreciate those things real quick if they are denied.

Look like those Asian Balls with something in it which makes music. You roll them around in one hand to calm yourself down.

The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a 125-acre (51 ha) public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden and Botanic Park near the Adelaide Zoo. Adelaide Botanic Garden is one of three gardens that comprise the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide.

First set aside in Colonel William Light's city plan for Adelaide in 1838, it wasn't until 1854, after a public appeal to Governor Sir Henry Young that gardens were established at the current location. They were founded the following year and officially opened in 1857. The garden's design was influenced by the Royal Gardens at Kew, England and Versailles, France.
One of the garden's nineteenth-century directors was the botanist Dr Richard Moritz Schomburgk, brother to the German naturalist Robert Hermann Schomburgk. He was a major advocate for the establishment of forest reserves in the increasingly denuded South Australian countryside.[1]
Amongst other scientific and educational displays of native and international horticulture, the gardens hold one of the world's only propagated Wollemi Pine trees.

Empty - but oh so romantic. Imagine a couple in love in an moonlit night in it.

The Palm, or tropical, house is a Victorian glasshouse located to the west of the main lake. It was imported from Bremen, Germany in 1875 , opened in 1877 and restored in 1995. As of 2007 it held a collection of Malagasy arid flora.

Isn't it beautiful?

Wow - these are a kind of rare Asian water Lily's. Really special. They like it humid.

Wow - architecture which dares to dream.
As part of Adelaide's celebration of the Australian Bicentenary the conservatory was constructed in 1987 and opened in late 1989. The building was designed by local architect Guy Maron and has won awards for its design, engineering and landscaping. It is 100 metres (328 ft) long, 47 metres (154 ft) wide and 27 metres (89 ft) high making it the largest single span conservatory in the southern hemisphere. The conservatory houses at risk or endangered tropical rainforest plants from northern Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and south Pacific Islands. The conservatory is sometimes affectionately called "The Pasty" by locals, because of its resemblance to a massive semicircular stuffed pastry.