Larapinta Trail - Day 10 - Rocky Gully to Ellery Creek

Leaving Rocky Gully, heading out alongside this ridgeline before closing in on the waterhole

I didn’t shoot that sunrise from Rocky Gully. The area didn’t excite me in terms of photographic opportunities!

Leaving Rocky Gully that morning I had to wear the fly net again - the second time during the trip. I really think it’s something to do with cattle - the stronger the evidence of cattle (including being able to smell them!), the higher the prevalence of flies! After an hour or so of wearing it, I’d decided it was safe to remove it….. and then proceeded to swallow a fly. Haha!

My day of hiking was a simple one. I basically ran parallel to the Heavitree Range for the first few kilometres, before being given the option of either crossing over the range at a saddle to reach Ellery Creek South (accessible to day trippers by sealed road), or, to continue on the northern side of the range to use the new Ellery Creek North trail shelter.

I chose the latter. I was looking forward to seeing Ellery Creek from a different vantage point, having visited the main “big hole” in the south many times over the years. There are pros and cons to each campsite as to why people might choose the south.

Ellery Creek South has the food storage option for those who need to use it. It also obviously has vehicle access and so is a popular start or end point for those not hiking end-to-end.

I was using the food drop location at the next opportunity instead - the temporary shipping container at Serpentine Gorge, and was looking forward to using a more remote campsite on the northern side that evening! It was going to be a different side to Ellery Creek that I hadn’t seen!

The main trail joins a creek for a short wile, before turning south to head closer to the ranges - either crossing at the saddle to head to the southern side, or turning west to continue along the northern side of the range - as per the below map.

I had made good time - I was at the East junction by 11am - 10.3km that morning, with only 3km to go.

I’d passed another solo hiker that day who was on his first day from Ellery heading back to Alice. We had a quick chat before I continued on.

This map shows the new trail choices and can be found via the URL if you click on the image

I’m now on the new trail!

I was heading for this gap in the ranges

Coming in to Ellery Creek north

The new northern trail crosses Ellery Creek just before coming in to the shelter. Although I could cross with my pack, it was still a fairly deep crossing when I was there - thigh deep!

I could see the shelter, so I went and dumped my pack and boots, had a big drink and went straight back to the creek for a good wash and swim! I was pleasantly suprised to find a USB charge port here (which wasn’t labelled on any of the maps), and I did have multiple flat camera batteries, so I set it to good use for the afternoon! I had lunch and decided to camp down in the creek away from the main shelter. The campsite locations were very limited due to a huge amount of weed growth with the rain. You could see plenty of flat ground, but all the cleared sites were weedy and Central Australian weeds include many sharp spiky bits that I didn’t fancy sticking through my air mattress!

I had later spoken to the ranger from the area, who explained the new sites were pristine until all the rain and cattle managed to litter the ground with weeds. Due to flooding the rangers had been unable to access the area to spray and clear sites. So, when that’s been done, there would be plenty of nice spots to camp here! As it happens I much prefer to camp away from the shelter in my own little patch of wilderness anyway - so here’s my chosen camp for the night!

I had a beautiful afternoon at Ellery Creek - swimming, relaxing and shooting sooo much! I knew I was going to enjoy Ellery Creek. I’m a water person and love taking photos when water is involved! I spent hours shooting that afternoon - here’s a few of my favourites.

Ellery Creek North - looking to the south

Golden light

As the evening came closer, another couple of end to end hikers joined my camp! They probably arrived around 4 or 5pm that day, having walked from Ghost Gum Flat that morning. They were a couple from Melbourne, and we had a good chat about our experience so far!

Last light hitting Ellery Creek north

What a difference a few minutes makes! The same scene 20 minutes after sunset

My tent is just behind me to the right of this shot - dusk approaching

Heading from the north side to the south side of Ellery Creek Big Hole

Just another note about the decision between using Ellery North versus South, if you’re on an end-to-end hike like I was.

Having visited Ellery Creek Big Hole many times (also now known as Ellery Creek South), it’s not somewhere I would choose to stay again in a hurry. The facilities there are in dire need of upgrade for the volume of people that go through there. The campsites are very close together, become overcrowded with people who don’t go elsewhere when the camp is full - instead they park all around the roads… and being such a short distance from Alice Springs attracts every sort of person, including those who have little campers etiquette - it is noisy, there’s a lot of rubbish as people for some reason seem unable to cope with putting rubbish in their car to take away with them (there are no bins here). Therefore, they leave rubbish strewn everywhere for the poor rangers to clean up .

I spent a night here after my hike as I wanted to shoot astro over the iconic waterhole - there were dirty nappies and sanitary waste strewn across the female toilets because people had obviously decided that disposing of their McDonalds rubbish was a more important use of the sanitary waste bins provided in the composting toilet block. The campsite was full of people screaming at each other, drinking late in to the night and I could also hear kids watching movies or playing games on their ipads up full volume in the campground.

Anyway, rant over - if you have the opportunity to camp at Ellery Creek NORTH, I highly recommend it! This is the newest trail shelter along the Larapinta trail. It’s well equipped, with tanks, toilet and USB charging points. It’s much quieter away from the other tourists! The swimming hole is also easily accessible by swimming through from the north side to the south. (If you camp at the north side, you won’t be able to access the food drop location without swimming your gear across). Ellery Creek South is beautiful - definitely worth a visit. It’s easy to do from the north side and so nice to return to a quiet bush camp.

Pre dawn stars over Ellery Creek Big Hole

I had a week to explore the West Macs by car and short walks, after my hike. So, I returned for a night at Ellery Creek Big Hole (Ellery Creek South), to shoot the main waterhole. I’d decided I wanted to do some astro shots over the gorge, so it made sense to camp at the main campground so I’d only have to do a short walk down a paved pathway in the middle of the night! These cliffs are quite iconic and recognisable to anyone who’s visited here - I thought they’d make a great silhouette for a milky way shot!

The above shot was taken at around 4am. I walked down to the waterhole with my camera gear and my stove so I could make coffee at breakfast whilst I was shooting! As I approached the waterhole I saw a couple of green-yellow eyes watching me through the grass. The only thing it could have been was a dingo. I stopped in my tracks - if I’d contiued further I would have cornered it and I didn’t want to do that! Sure enough, he ran straight across my path a few metres in front of me, to freedom!

I spent an hour or so shooting the milky way over the cliffs in various compositions, all the while keeping an eye on my pack and bag of breakfast gear behind me! I did not want a dingo to run off with my oats! Hahaha.

Eventually there became too much ambient light to shoot stars, but it was too dark to shoot sunrise - the perfect time to cook up coffee and breakfast… ready for a sunrise shoot!

I love shooting sunrises.

There’s something so uplifting about shooting the first light of the day. The best light is around 20 minutes before sunrise - that pink red glow is the best for this environment! Even the most popular tourist spots are always quiet at this time, so it’s a really great time to see these natural spots at their best. I didn’t see any people until I was walking out, probably close to 7:30am/8am.

First light over Ellery Creek Big Hole

Reflections of Ellery’s Ghost Gums

Ellery Creek Big Hole