My alarm went off at 4, as expected, since that's the time I had set it for! I switched it off, and looked around, noticing that nobody else was up or about. I slowly forced myself to wake up and got out of the swag at 4.10.
By the time I got back from te shower, everyone else was up, and we had breakfast, and sorted out the kit, having to pack everything in to the trailer and truck, so we ended up leaving the campsite at 6am. Apparently, I didn't snore last night, but someone else was making strange sigh/gasp noises, and that was the topic of conversation to start with.
We dozed for the start of the trip, and then Terry stopped in the middle of nowhere at around 7.45am to get us all out to collect some firewood for a bonfire tonight.
We spent about 40 minutes gathering the firewood from the bush, and getting it on to the top of the bus trailer. Some pieces were a team effort, requiring banches to be held while others snapped them, and we got a good amount ready for the night. I managed to get in a "That's what he said" joke when Vanessa mentioned about getting there after much tugging and pulling, which she got instantly despite lacking in coffee!
It still didn't really feel like Christmas at this point, as it was so out of the ordinary for what any of us had done on a christmas day! We continued on the road to Kings Creek, and stopped for duel at our campsite, Kings Creek Station, at around 9.25.
We didn't drop anything off here, but instead headed on to the Kings Canyon park, which was still a bit of a drive away, and were ready to start the rim walk at 10.40am.
Everyone had suitable footwear for the walk today, but it was to be a long hike, so Terry ran through some essentials. The first point was a sign indicating how much water we needed to take and the fact that we should not step beyond the paint markers on the ground. He checked we all understood by asking "Who is responsible for your safety?" and I answered with "You are" which got a laugh from everyone.
The start involved climbing a large number of steps made up from the rocks of the canyon sides, and at the top we were shown a difibrilator, and an emergency call telephone box. There have been cases of people having heart attacks by the effort of climbing up, though I suspect that nobody in our group was at risk of that.
We moved on, while appreciating the vistas and views, and reached an area were Terry advised that we should be very quiet as there was a rare creature that we might get to see. He spotted it in a tree, and indicated to everyone, who began taking photos.
I reached the area myself and was far from convinced of his story about miniature koalas, especially when he went on to say that there was only 3 or 4 left in the world. The ruse was that it was a koala toy that you could clip on to a pencil.
We subsequently advised Terry that he was going to get his Trip Advisor marks deducted again, once for the lack of sun rise and now for the lies about the koala.
We reached a pass which is locally known as Priscilla Gap, as it is the scene near the end of the movie we had watched where the main characters are seen arriving and walking through the canyon in drag. We all posed for photos in various stances, including a group one with tallest to smallest.
Further round and we had some steps and gaps to make it over, I found myself having to help Kathrin as she did not have a rucksack but instead was carrying a handbag, so she was not able to balance well for the more tricky steps.
The views were breath taking, and probably as good as the grand canyon in the USA, and it was dificult to force ourselves to keep on walking. To be honest about it, the camera really failed to do the views any justice, because the views were 360 panoramas all over the place, with steep drop offs, sharp rock/plant juxtaposition, and the fact that we were right in the center of the Australian continent.
Just before the point in the middle, I hit the 'Custom Message' on my Spot Gen GPS tracker device, since it was now officially in to Christmas day in the UK, though really only at half past 2am back in the UK, it was after midday where I was, so more than 12 hours in to Christmas!
We stopped for lunch/snacks at a place called "The Garden of Eden", which was another sacred aboriginal area, a wonderful pool of water, with a waterfall leading to it. There was no obvious exit point for the water, but there must have been one somewhere, most likely via a hole in the rock. There were a few other people there, so we got a group photo without the need of a timer.
We continued on, and again once we hit various places were spellbound by the views of the gorge and cliffs and drop offs. From the vantage point we now had, it was obvious as to why there were marks on the ground advising to not go over, as there were massive overhangs apparent, and we could see people standing effectively on thin air from where we were standing.
About 1km from the end of the loop, we all stopped, as Manon was having some difficulties, and needed to rest. It was only at this point that we realised that despite it being overcast all day with the occassional shower, we were actually being cooked fairly convincingly by the sun. In a futile act of rebellion we started to put on sun cream that should have been applied before the start of the walk!
We made it back to the car park at just before 3pm, and everyone took advantage of the free wi-fi that was available there. I decided that nobody I knew would appreciate being called at 4 o clock in the morning, so went to get a good lens to photograph the orb spider in the information area that I had spotted before the walk.
Vanessa tried to call her family from the area, but the conversation went round in circlesalong the lines of "Hello! Happy Christmas! I can't hear you! What? I said I can't hear you! Hello! Happy Christmas!" so they eventually gave up on that plan!
We made it back to the camp, another hour or so drive, and then, rather than having dinner straight away, we grabbed some snacks and then headed straight for the swimming pool. As it was an open pool there was a lot of leaves and dead insects floating about but we soon got over that, and got involved in a game of "Never have I ever". Since it was in a swimming pool, we made it a score of cuntdown from 5 and the person who reached 0 had to swim two lengths.
This was a great way to break the ice between us even more, though I have to admit that since Shiho and I were older, we swam more lengths than the others!
After the swim we got back to the cooking area and made up salad for everyone and prepared the cold meats left over from the previous nights' barbequeues. At the same time, tinsel and other christmas decorations were put up, and once everything was ready, Vanessa had the honour of opening the champagne.
The sun started to set, and due to the clouds it was quite pretty, so we tried to grab some photos of that, then I had the idea of doing a group photo with the sunset behind us, though that turned in to a group jumping photo, which after several attempts we got a great shot!
We all sat down to enjoy christmas dinner together, and had christmas crackers and the ubiquitous bad jokes to go with them, as well as enjoying the selection of cold meats and salad and fresh prawns. I learned how to more efficiently shell the things, which hopefully will come in handy later on in my tour too!
After the dishes were done, Terry got us all to the fire place where he pretended to light the fire by rubbing two sticks together, making sure that nobody had a torch on him, though everyone could tell he was using a lighter just the same!
As the fire was lit, it started to rain, and we decided that rather than sleep under the stars , we should move the swags to a shed further up the hill - this had the advantage that there were no ants either.
We set the swags up, and Manon and Kathrin decided they were going to try and get some sleep earlier than the rest of us. As I was moving my swag, a centipede ran across the floor, scaring both the girls, and I was sent on a mission to determine firstly what it was (though I was fairly sure it was a centipede), and whether or not it really posed a danger. I was told that if it wasn't bad I could stay, so I made my way down and checked - Terry advised it wasn't a threat so I stayed and had some beers with the rest of the group.
Kathrin moved to the bus for the night shortly after this, and then Bea Justine and Pam retired to the swags, leaving Vanessa, Shiho, Terry and myself talking till 1am when we also called it a night.