Before getting into my daily journals from the trail I’d like to share a little of why we decided to do the Larapinta Trail and a little bit of the planning. I have been thinking about doing the trail for a little while and a few people from work had done it and/or worked guiding on it and I loved their photos and stories from it. Last year my sister Angela and I were part of an expedition across the Australian Alps where we met our now good friend Tessa. After the expedition she moved to Alice Springs for work. We decided this would be a great opportunity to catch up with her and do the trail.
As I’ve got a far bit of experience planning for multi-day hikes the planning for this trip was pretty straight forward except for border passes to get there due to Covid. I just used the free maps and information you can download from the NT Government website here. The food drops were also straight forward as there are already spots set up to put them and just needed to decide which spots to have them. Also sorting food was relatively easy as I had stuff left over from the expedition and stuff past the best before date from work. We did however dehydrate a bunch of snacks and lunches. I am endeavouring to write up a blog about what food I take on hikes in the future.
For my blog I have split the whole trail into 3 parts. This part will cover Days 1 to 5, part 2 will cover days 6 to 10 and part 3 days 11 to 14. I’ve split it to almost match our food drops. This is also my first blog I’ve done on one of my trips so please let me know how you like it and if you have any constructive feedback please let me know.
I’ve also put together a quick video overview of the trip which is on youtube.
Day 1
Mt Sonder
Section 12
Distance: 18km
Tessa’s husband dropped us off at Redbank Gorge at about 4pm. On the way out we dropped our two food drops off, one at Standley Chasm and the other at Serpentine Gorge. Our plan was to drop our packs somewhere and just take what we needed up Mt Sonder. So we dropped them at what we thought was the campsite just after the carpark where a few other people had set up their tents near a water tank. We later realised it wasn’t the walkers camp. After we dropped our packs we continued on following the blue arrows however one of the blue arrows was pointed slightly in the wrong direction. It was pointing up along the dry creek bed and in that direction you could see a track from the creek bed heading up along it so we followed it. After a few hundred metres the terrain wasn’t looking right and looked like we were heading to Redbank Gorge instead of Mt Sonder. We turned around and went back to where we first got to the creek bed. We then looked to see if there were any other tracks or signs and saw another sign about 20m back from the creek bed on the other side. We followed it and got to the junction where we turned to head up Mt Sonder. The junction also had a sign to the walkers camp which was pointing to a different spot to where we originally thought it was.
The walk from the junction up to the summit was steep in sections. It was warm to start with but cooled as the sun dropped. We were hoping to get to the top in time for sunset but as we took a wrong turn earlier it put us behind a little. While we missed the sunset from the summit we still got some great light walking up and the sun turned the cliffs red. We finally made it up at last light. Once we got up there we had a snack, talked to a couple of guys that were up there and I took some photos of the milky way/dark emu before heading back down. It was a nice temperature walking back down via torch light. Once we got back down we went back for our packs and headed to the walkers camp. The track markers that we missed in the daylight were much easier to see at night as they reflected off our torch light. As there was no one else sleeping under the shelter at the walkers camp we decided to sleep under it. As it was quite late we set up, had a quick dinner and went to sleep.
Day 2
Redbank Gorge Walkers Camp to Hilltop Lookout
Section 11
Distance: 18.2km
We had a relaxed wake up and morning as it was a late night doing Mt Sonder. While we packed up and had breakfast we talked to some of the other walkers most of which were finishing the trail. One of them recommended staying at as many high camps as we could and told us about Hermit’s Hideaway and that you can camp at Counts Point. We had a look at our maps and plan. We decided we’d be able to camp at Hermit’s Hideaway but weren’t sure about Counts Point as we were going to be getting our food drop that day at Serpentine Gorge.
The track for most of the morning was a little undulating. We stopped a little bit before Rocky Bar Gap for lunch. After lunch we stopped at the camp to fill up our water and go to the toilet. Most of our camp spots didn’t have water or a toilet so this would become a usual task during the day. We then headed through the gap and up to camp at Hilltop Lookout. We were the first ones there so had a good look around before choosing our spot. Since we were there early we had a rest before setting up. We had an early dinner watching the sunset before heading to bed just on dark.
Day 3
Hilltop Lookout to George Creek
Section 11 and 10
Distance: 18km
We woke up early in the hope that the clouds had cleared and I could take some star photos however it was still cloudy. Since we were already awake we decided to have breakfast and then packed up before sunrise. We watched the sunrise before leaving which took longer than expected as there was cloud low on the horizon where the sun was rising so took longer for it to light up Mt Sonder. The morning was mostly downhill coming off the ridge and we had morning tea just before Davenport Creek. The creek surprisingly had a bit of water in it however Finke River shortly afterwards only had a few puddles. We stopped at the Finke River campsite for lunch.
After lunch the track was a little more undulating and we passed another Hilltop Lookout. We got to camp at George Creek early. Since the clouds had cleared we decided to sleep under the stars which we ended up doing for the rest of the trail. I spent most of the rest of the afternoon taking photos of the birds mostly the budgies.
Day 4
George Creek to Hermits Hideaway
Section 10 and 9
Distance: 14km
We left just after sunrise and it didn’t take us long to get to Ormiston Gorge. Before continuing we did a quick detour down to the waterhole. There were heaps of dead fish around the waterhole which occurs naturally usually due to a lack of oxygen in the water and how cold it is. We continued on and stopped for lunch at Base of Hill. That is what it’s called on the map. After lunch we continued on up to camp at Hermits Hideaway. We had great views across to Mt Giles and looking back towards Mt Sonder.
Before going to bed I set my camera up to do star trails and when I got up to go to the toilet during the night I checked on my camera. The battery had gone flat which I was expecting even though I put a new fully charged one in just before setting it up. I put my other camera battery in that still had a bit of charge to see how many photos it had taken and over how long. It had taken over 600 photos over about 3 hours which meant it was the longest star trails I’ve done.
We were originally going to camp at Waterfall Gorge tonight and then at Serpentine Gorge where our first food drop was. Our plan changed and we decided to camp at Hermits Hideaway and then at Counts Point. This meant we weren’t going to get to our food drop when planned. We decided to use our spare meal which we were going to have as a lunch on the next part of the trail for dinner and breakfast at Counts Point. We had another spare meal in the food drop for the next part. When we got to the food drop we had what we were going to have for that night’s dinner for lunch. We also still had plenty of snacks and some leftover dehydrated veges from lunches to add to the meals to bulk them out.
Day 5
Hermits Hideaway to Counts Point
Section 9 and 8
Distance: 24km
This was our longest day so far and our second longest on the trail. We woke up in the dark again and were packed up before sunrise. As soon as I had finished taking photos of sunrise we left. We made it down to Waterfall Gorge in good time and continued making good time until we got to Inarlanga Pass which was a bit slower getting through. I think at our fastest we were doing about 1km in 13 minutes. We got to Serpentine Dam for a slightly later lunch and had done 17kms by then and had 7km to go.
In the morning we also passed a woman who was doing it solo and her water filter was stuck on her bottle. She had tried to cut the bottom of the bottle off but the tip of her knife snapped and was stuck in the bottle. We both tried to get it off but couldn’t so I got my multi-tool out and used the pliers on it and it worked. The bottle wasn’t much use after it but the water filter was fine. I always carry my multi-tool and have lost count of the number of times it has come in useful from fixing tent poles to cutting veges.
We eventually made it up to camp at Counts Point. This was probably our most exposed camp sites but was also one of our favourite camp sites. We had great views from our beds looking down the valley and ridges towards Mt Sonder. This was also the last spot we would see Mt Sonder.
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