A last minute flurry of decisions, organising, and purchasing saw
Cam and I flying up to Alice Springs with a 7 day window to walk the 220km from
Redbank Gorge back in to Alice Springs.
A few big stars had aligned to make this trip happen, namely me
managing to get leave from work at short notice, Po’s mum being in town to
bravely take up child-minding of the twins, and Po’s dad still being in Alice
and free to help us out with transport and a food drop. A week before leaving I
had suggested the Larapinta to Cam, and that was that – the plan was formed.
We had to cover some distance so it was fast and light in terms of
gear and food. Freeze-dried dinners made up all our dinners, and our gear
selection kept our pack weights (dry) down at around 10kg. We had 6L of water
carrying capacity anticipating some fairly warm (~31deg) weather and dry camps.
Thursday the 10th we found each other in the airport in
Sydney and boarded our final flight to the Red Centre. Dave met us at the
airport and after a little running around town for lunch, water and a
replacement waist buckle, we were pootling down Namatjira Drive with the West
MacDonnells shadowing us on our right. We had a quick repack at Redbank Gorge,
agreed with Dave on a food drop time/place, and were off walking by about
530pm.
We walked a quick 12km in the cool of the evening, and lay out our
bags at Rocky Gap for our coldest night of the trip – dipping to about 3deg
pre-dawn.
Day 1 / 38.6km
The next day was one of two longest days – almost 40km saw us
climb over Hilltop Lookout, pass through Finke River and get to Ormiston Gorge
for lunch. After a good break, but with no sign of the afternoon cooling off,
we continued on, cresting Heavitree Range on dusk. Head torches on, we lay out
the tarp for the night at Waterfall Gorge.
Our second full day saw us walking the rest of the beautiful
valleys of Heavitree to Serpentine Chalet Dam. It was a hot day so the lure of
a swim in the dam at lunch was our carrot. Now while not technically incorrect
– there indeed was a dam – it was more akin to a cold scummy pool populated
with scorpion schwanger-bugs. But a swim is a swim. A few more kms saw us pass
Counts Point and finish the day for a proper swim at Serpentine Gorge. This
ended up being our only night sleeping on one of the 4 new trail shelter
platforms, shared with a nice couple from Scotland and some characters from
Melbourne.
Day 3 / 29.1km
Another hot day was forecast so we got an early start and made
Ellery Creek by about 10. It was an easy decision to while away the hot hours
of the day here – swimming, reading, and chatting to the tourists who endlessly
walked down to photograph the beautiful waterhole. We met some nice people (a
young couple who gifted us some fresh snow peas) and some dickheads (a guy with
a drone, and a drum-and-bass loving git): fun for all! Once the day showed
signs of cooling down, we were on our way to Rocky Gully, 6 hours after arriving
at Ellery.
We only had a short distance on flat terrain before our rendezvous
with Dave and the food drop, but faced with another hot day we got going at our
usual time. We made Hugh Gorge by about 10am and after some wishful searching
for a shady waterhole in which to set up in, we settled for the small
rectangular patch of shade under the information sign. Luckily Dave had been
watching our Spot progress so we only waited 30 minutes before the low drone of
the 4wd could be heard in the distance.
The sections between Hugh Gorge and Standley Chasm rated pretty
highly for us – rocky bluffs, tight gorges, broad valleys, steep climbing and
rocky descending. Very enjoyable walking which made the day tick by quickly. We
had a great lunchtime siesta under the shade of a large Ghost Gum at Birthday
Waterhole, and managed to time the end the day perfectly, summiting Brinkley
Bluff right on sunset. With good phone reception we called home and got the
exciting news that Abbott had been ousted. Winner!
We ‘woke’ after a pretty sleepless night atop Brinkleys, having
been buffeted from all directions throughout the night. Never-the-less, we were
treated to a stunning sunrise as we descended in the cool wind. At Standley
Chasm we treated ourselves to coffee, cake and takeaway lasagne, but didn’t rest
too long as we’d now decided to make Alice by the 17th. We ate the
lasagne at Jay Creek and finished the day in the dark at a nice flat spot a km
or so past Mulga Camp.
Only 37km to go! It was fairly basic walking to Telegraph Station,
made interesting by the very cool Euro Ridge. We motored this bit and made the
finish by about 430pm, making the time cut for a 7 day walk;)
All up it was a comfortable walk. The weather (day
time temps ranged from mid 20’s to max 37degC) largely determined our walking
hours – most days enforcing a long midday siesta, so the books and music Cam brought were
a great move! The tank water located at the trail heads was reliable and clean.
Most times we were only carrying 2L each, but the most we carried was
5L each for the dry camp on Brinkleys. We took a S2S tarp which can pitch as a fly using Cam's walking poles, but we only ever used it as a ground sheet. We burned through about 1 and a third Jetboil cannisters, boiling water for dinners and hot drinks. Lastly, the long pants, long shirts and window licker hats were essential!