David and the Red Centre trip! part 4

The next day we got up early again (5:15) and had brekkie and drove to King's Canyon, we got there about at sunrise. The first part of the hike is nick-named "heart-attack hill" because it's the hardest bit, but it felt good. King's Canyon was gorgeous too! Every now and then Sheldon would stop and wait for people to catch up then do a little talk on something (plant...). Inside King's Canyon is a place called "the Garden of Eden" because it's this beautiful remnant of the area back when it used to be a fertile verdant land. There are pools of water that you are allowed to swim in (no one was, in the shade it was a bit chilly), and trees, birds, frogs... It was amazing! It was named by an explorer who by the time he got to King's Canyon was almost completely dehydrated, and if he didn't find water soon he would have died. He happened upon the Garden of Eden, and you tell me what else you would call it?! ;P On more of the walk we saw beautiful rounded rocks, which you will see a pic of below. After King's Canyon we ate lunch (tuna fish sandwiches) at a tourist stop (pretty much any stop out there is a tourist stop cause that's really the only people that go out there! ;P). It's really expensive to buy things out there cause for one, there's nothing else around so they can up the prices, but mainly it's because freight costs more to get it out there. Needless to say we didn't buy anything. We drove a lot more that day, stopped and got some pics of the (dried up) salt lake and the giant toothbrush. We got back to Alice Springs in time to see the sunset. :) Sheldon booked two tables for us at a pub/restaurant called Bogangles for those who wanted to go that night. Only 7 of us showed up (out of 18, David and I included) but it was fun. We got to choose from the group special dinners, David and I had the kangaroo, and one of the Dutch guys had a camel pie. It was really yummy, the kangaroo was served in a native plum sauce, very yummy, actually tasted a lot like BBQ sauce. Oh, also, that night right before dinner, a aboriginal woman came up to David and I and motioned for us to follow her. There were two other aboriginal women and an older white guy sitting on a bench, he told us they were all sisters, and they one we followed was "deaf and dumb". She was showing us a painting and on the back it had the explanation (about dreamtime), I had to ask what she was trying to tell us, her sister said "$40." I felt bad, I said it was beautiful (it really was, better than some I had seen in shops) but I couldn't. The lady showing us it seemed really sad, but the other three seemed ok with that. They were all very nice people though, it was just a very interesting experience. If I wasn't a poor Uni student I might have bought it cause it was very pretty. David and I went back to the hostel after dinner, where we found we were sharing out room with some Germans. I mentioned that I spoke some German and they held a little mini conversation with me in German and I understood everything!! I was so excited! Anyway, here's some pics again. :) P.S. Daytime was really quite warm, especially the last day. Usually between 60-60˚F (16-20˚C).