We left the camp just as the sun was coming up to travel to Kings Canyon for a sunrise rim hike. But as we pulled in it began pouring rain. We were told these torrential rains were very rare. After waiting for about 45 minutes our guides determined it was too dangerous to hike, so we all piled into our four-wheel drive van and headed out.  We later heard that the camp we stayed in had been flooded by the rain and some of paved roads we had traveled on that morning were impassable because rivers had swelled to over 5 feet.

We stopped for lunch at a roadhouse in Curtin Springs Station which is over a million acres. These roadhouses are literally the only oasis for hours and interesting places the middle of nowhere. Most of these stations have been family owned for generations.

After lunch we headed to The Red Center (Yulara) in the Northern Territory for a few days.