Yippee!! Bushwalking Season is Finally Here!
Amanda April 13th, 2009
Why am I smirking? Because finally we can go bush again!!
This summer seemed to be the longest I’ve spent in Alice Springs so far. No camping, no bushwalking and only a little bit of Geocaching… Ok. A fair bit of Geocaching both in South Australia, in Darwin and plus a few more hides put out by us Lost Souls in Central Australia.
The good news is that Gadget and I pulled on our hiking boots over Easter and got out on Section 4 of the Larapinta Trail. The Larapinta Trail is 223 kilometres long, stretching from the Alice Springs Telegraph Station to Mount Sonder in the west. It follows the line of the West MacDonnell Ranges. If you’d like to learn more about the Larapinta Trail, look here.
Section 4 is one of the hardest sections of the trail, starting from Standley Chasm and heading up over Brinkley’s Bluff. It’s 17.5 km section of trail that varies from very rough at the start (mind you, I detest walking in creekbeds so I am not a good person to report on the beginning of the trail) to a wonderful slow climb (Gadget will tell you it’s a big climb, but then, I love going up) and a very, very difficult descent along shaley scree from the Bluff to the Hugh River. Whilst I would happily do this section as a day walk, we decided to do it as an overnight hike and take our time.
To inspire you here’s a photo of the view if your choose to take on Section 4:
One thing we weren’t counting on was the temperature. It was still 32 degrees, which is just bearable for us Centralians to walk in (if you’re from elsewhere and not used to the heat, I wouldn’t recommend it). We did, however, need to stop and have a few rests:
Some of the descents were very steep and shaley and I was really glad that I had trekking pole with me. However, I am NOT a fan of steep, slippery descents with a heavy pack.
There were rewards for the steep descents, though. More rests and the best cuppa in the entire history of the world on top of Brinkley’s Bluff, before another long 1.5 hour descent to our campsite at Stuart’s Pass.
And two last photos of the view in case we haven’t convinced you that it’s worth the effort:
Interesting to read, it has been almost 20 years since I was in Central Australia and there wasn’t the Larapinta Trail back then. We are planning to visit about July and hope to do some walking on the track, but maybe not the section you have described. We are from Tasmania so would have found 32 hard going.
Have enjoyed your blog since discovering it a year or so ago