Larapinta Trail

The Larapinta trail is a long (hundreds of kilometres) walk divided into 12 sections. We tackled two of them, 2 and 3. With the assistance of Doig, we dropped our little Rav at Standley Chasm and got a lift back to Simpson's Gap. In total, to get back to the car we had to walk 37km through the West MacDonnell Ranges. With limited pack-carrying fitness it proved to be a little more challenging than we had expected. Flopsy, the impractical "sun-smart" hat which Peta is sporting above, became the source of frustration due to its "flopsy-ness" spending most of its time in her eyes (at least somewhat usefull at guarding her face from flies).

Mulga Camp, the first night's campsite, we had all to ourselves. In the black of night that you can only get in the bush, we did a bit of star gazing before realising how icy-cold the nights get in central Australia. We had packed thermals, but these seemed incapable of keeping us Darwinians warm! Luckily, the sun came out in the morning.

Throughout the walk the flora and fauna (although most was tiny) was spectacular. Due to the record breaking rains of the summer of 2010/11 the wildflowers were in abundance. Above are some good examples of things we took in. The birds on the right hand side were tiny. We've zoomed in (loving our super-zoom lens) to get a better shot. They duck and weave in flocks around the bush and across roads. Sadly, an entire flock can't escape the basket on the roof racks of a Rav4, but we don't talk about that...

The view from the top of the mountain that we climbed on the second day can't really be explained in a photo (although we've tried above). It was 1100m above sea level and about 350m above the main trail. Unfortunately, what goes up (lungs burning) must come down (knees jarring, quads straining). With 350 metres of descent covered in about 500 metres of trail, Peta's bung knees were feeling the pain.

Although we enjoyed the walk, we were happy to be walking out at Standley Chasm. Pictured here, we thought we were at the last summit, only to be smacked across the face with another two sharp inclines and their corresponding descents.

After the Larapinta Trail we popped into Ormiston Gorge where we thought we might do another trek, although this time without the packs. We were foiled by flood waters so instead, we settled for hot showers in the camp area. We didn't escape the camp ranger's detection, who pounced on us to collect her $6.60 fee each (a night's camp fee). The tiny bit we saw of the gorge looked spectacular. It's definitely on the list for the next time we decide to pass through central Australia. We pushed on to King's Canyon that night for our first night of dodgy road-side camping. Saved camp fees = more beer (Lachlan says).