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Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Climbing Valley of the Wind

Today is another power walk pack day. We are going to walk the Valley of the Wind at Kata Tjuta area. Its a moderate 7.4km walk that is estimated to take 3 hours.

On the way there, we saw clouds over shadowing Uluru and it was really pretty. The sky is extremely blue today and I reckon it will be another hot day.




Karu (1st) Lookout is 1.1 km from the carpark. The track to Karingana (2nd) Lookout is challenging but worthwhile. Honestly, if one isnt fit or used to trekking, I really wont recommend this walk due to the at times steep slopes and you are really out there without safety nets or ropes to hold on to. You have to navigate and make sure you step on solid rocks and avoid the loose gravels as much as possible to avoid accidental fall. People have injured themselves before, and some were dehydrated from forgetting to drink water. But when you made it to the stop, it was absolutely worthwhile for me.

Our guide for the day was a really small built girl named Leah, leading the way.




My poor camera dropped off my bag while i was making my way up the slope to the 2nd lookout! Luckily I was in front of the pack and so the people at the back managed to grab hold of it and pass it to me as we reached the top. And phew, the camera was still working after the minor tumble down.....well, better the camera than me down the steep slope! As we made our return trip, i took a pix to rem the spot where my camera fell off this more than 45 degree steep slope...

The walk to 2nd lookout is much tougher than the first. However, the view is much nicer too!


This is the last stretch climb of steps to the 2nd lookout point.


The view from 2nd lookout point


After tacking in all the beauty, it was time to make our way down. We had to rush down and beat the clock. We need to get onto the bus by 6pm so that we wont miss our sunset of Kata Tjuta.

View on way down.

Wanted to rem the sun that shone on us the whole day
Noticed the change in colour of the same spot between 2 different time. First was taken at 3.30pm and the other at 6pm. See how red the sand looked.... amazing

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