I love the term for hiking here: bushwalking. We did the Grand Canyon Track today, and it was amazing. We overprepared for it with tons of water and snacks, many layers of clothes (which we greatly appreciated given that it was just 7C when we started), and a snakebite kit. Our friends insisted we bring it, even though this time of year it's not very likely to encounter snakes.
I'm happy to report that we emerged snake-free.
The hike was listed as a 3-4 hour hike, but we finished it in just over 2 hours, including a lunch break. It was about 6.5 km with a LOT of elevation change. From the top, the Grand Canyon looks like big uniform hills. But as soon as you start to descend, you realize that the area is riddled with deep canyons, sometimes just 5 feet wide but hundreds of feet deep. It's astounding.
There was so much water that the huge stepping stones across the creeks were submerged in a few places. No big deal--it felt great to take our shoes off and wade across! We were muddy by the end of the hike because it's been raining in this area for the last week or more. Today was just a light drizzle towards the end of the hike, plus lots of falling water from the cliffs.
We had some down time after we got home. Zari read a book (Cloud Atlas) and I did several hours of video editing. My friend brought us on a lovely drive through the western Blue Mountains, showing us her previous house (straw bale house, off-grid). We saw many kangaroos and wallabies, although the emus weren't visible tonight.
We ate kangaroo for dinner. Yum!
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