Ayers rock Resort to Kings Canyon Resort, 23/9/11 & 24/9/11

We left Ayers Rock resort in the same smokey haze that we had arrived in. I spent a.bit of time looking over my wiring of the charging lines back to the camper before packing up the night prior. I didn't think that I had resolved anything but as time would have it I actually did! The road back past Curtin Springs was very un-eventful; once we turned off to the Ernest Giles Hwy, things were a bit different. Half an hour up the road we noticed that there was a lot of smoldering trees, and scorched earth. Things got worse as we approached kings Creek Station. The station seemed un.touched; it was a bit of an Oasis as many people had stopped there for a break even though we were only 40km's from Kings Canyon. We had lunch at Kings Creek Station, and visited the 'gift shop' before leaving. Things seemed busy at the resort campground including another three more school groups on camp. It was then that we found out that these people were trapped by the fires and it was a close call for a school group in a coach, I.e. Whether to proceed to the resort or head back to Alice. Apparently the campground was full overnight, then many left as soon as the road was re-opened. We were oblivious to all this. We set our selves up for a overnight stop and planned to get up early to do the rim top walk around Kings Canyon in the morning, before returning to pack up and leave.
Up at six after a extremely windy night. Paula couldn't sleep, I couldn't work out whether she was more concerned about the wind, fires or the washing on the line!
We drove out the 6 km's to Kings Canyon and started the rim top walk. It was truly spectacular. Many a photo was taken, even by the kids. John even had a crack at taking photos of himself using the self timer function on his camera. Pay as comment was that the walk was more spectacular than the view from Ayers Rock. The rim walk took two hours exactly, then it was a quick dash back to the resort to pack up the camper. Upon leaving, we stopped at reception to see if all roads were still open, as we could see the smoke billowing when we were up on the rim walk.
Five hours on sealed road to Alice or three and a half on the loop road, being nearly 200 km's unsealed. Loop road won! It wasn't too bad but I was amazed at the many fools that were driving it in 2 wheel drives! Probably hire cars I would guess. Let's just say they were traveling at 40 km's per hour, we averaged 80 km's per hour. Right vehicle for the right road I guess. Those other fools would still be looking for their teeth fillings from their car mats!
we reached Alice in three and a half hours, and were glad to get here. We did pass a few trees stumps still burning out but that wasn't too bad.
We have decided to make Alice our base for a few nights and do day trips out to the Western and Eastern Macdonell Ranges.