Larapinta Trail - Day 16 - Redbank Gorge to Mount Sonder return
This was it! The last 14km of the trail!
My day began with a 2:45am alarm.
I made a coffee as quietly as I could so as not to wake the others. I wasn’t having breakfast before leaving camp, but I had a couple of museli bars and carried snacks up with me. I’d guess we’d be back at camp by around 9:30am ish ready for the 11am pick up.
My bag was already packed and organised the day before. I did have a sea-to-summit day pack with me, but I decided to use my main pack for better comfort and support - I still needed to carry a bit of weight with the 5kg of camera equipment and a couple of litres of water and snacks.
Larapinta Trail - Day 14 - Ormiston Gorge to Hilltop Lookout
I sacrificed my rest day at Ormiston Gorge, to return at a later date to shoot it fully with my full kit. I’d also do the Pound Walk whilst there.
Larapinta Trail - Day 12 - Counts Point to Mt Giles Lookout
Dawn on the top of Count’s Point was incredible - definitely one of my trip highlights. I felt like I was on top of the world! And I really felt like I was on the homeward stretch now - I could see the end in sight!
Larapinta Trail - Day 11 - Ellery Creek North to Counts Point
I was feeling great after a successful afternoon’s shooting the previous day, a relax and a great couple of swims… I was up early and managed to pack up most of my camp at around 5am. I started making coffee and breakfast but decided to set up the camera for a little bit of pre-dawn astro photography as I was so early! I drank coffee and snacked whilst I was shooting several long exposures waiting for the sun to come up.
Larapinta Trail - Day 10 - Rocky Gully to Ellery Creek
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!
Larapinta Trail - Day 9 - Hugh Gorge Junction to Rocky Gully
I was right about the light being better from my camp at sunrise! That first morning glow was so pretty - I loved capturing it within the gorge.
Larapinta Trail - Day 8 - Fringe Lily Creek to Hugh Gorge Junction
This was a super short day in terms of hiking. I knew it would be! Section 5 is known for being one of the most unique and spectacular sections along the trail, and I’d planned to spend extra time in this section to make the most of the photography!
Larapinta Trail - Day 4 - Pravda Spur to Standley Chasm
Originally I had planned to hike from Pravda Spur, down to Standley Chasm to collect my food drop box, and then continue straight on up another mountain to spend the night at Brinkley Bluff.
However, this would have been a huge challenge. On the advice from LTTS I’d need to be leaving Standley Chasm by 1pm at the latest, to ensure I had enough time to walk and photograph the ascent up to Brinkley Bluff. It would have meant my day would have exceeded a total of 20km, through one of the hardest sections to hike (a LOT of up and down!), but also one of the most photogenic places along the trail.
Larapinta Trail - Day 2 - Wallaby Gap to Arenge Bluff
Day 2 - from the designated campsite of Wallaby Gap to my proposed (non-designated) campsite near Arenge View was a distance of approx 24km.
Larapinta Trail - Day 1 - Telegraph Station to Wallaby Gap
It’s so hard to know where to start talking about such an amazing experience!
Hopefully you’ve seen the Introduction and Itinerary posts which give a bit of a general overview of my experience.
On day 1 I hiked Alice Springs Telegraph Station to Wallaby Gap which totaled 13.7km.
Day 1 was a strange day for me, in that it did not reflect my experience of the trail very well at all!
Larapinta Trail - My itinerary
Before I launch in to a day by day “story” of my Larapinta Trail experience, here’s an overview of my trip as completed:
Day 1: Alice Springs to Wallaby Gap = 13.7km
Day 2: Wallaby Gap to Arenge View = 24km
Day 3: Arenge View to Pravda Spur = 18.6km
Larapinta Trail - Introduction - A photographer's hike!
Last year, April 2020, I had planned to hike the Larapinta Trail when COVID-19 hit Australia and the whole country went in to lockdown. I had already left Darwin for Alice Springs, and was in Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park when the chaos fully hit. I was a few days out from my hike start date and was told the trail (and all national parks in Australia), were closed. People were being told to go home and stay home. So, I left Uluru and drove straight home to Darwin in one day. (That’s a long drive! I left Uluru at 5am and ended up arriving home at 1am).
Anyway, long story short, I managed to make the hike happen the following year. My new start date was March 25th 2021. And I am SO glad I was