Trips

Larapinta trail July 2004.

Although this was not actually an LBC trip, that was a possibility. We (the Grubs) did it with Alison Downard, who walked with the LBC during her visit to Australia, and her partner, Keith Baronian. We walk with Alison and Keith almost annually, in NZ and so for something completely different we tried the Larapinta trail. The trail is about 220 km long and goes from Alice Springs to Redbank Gorge, near Mt Sonder. We only did the most distant 85 km of the walk, a six day segment during which we had a food and water drop, at Ormiston Gorge, which has car access. We were lucky that it had rained recently and there was water at Waterfall Gorge, which in spite of its name is usually dry. That would have meant carrying water for the overnight camp, a thought which we did not relish. Our trip was from Redbank Gorge towards Alice Springs to Serpentine Gorge. This is opposite to the "official" direction but it is a good way to go since you don't walk with the afternoon sun in your face.

Rocky Bar Gap

Most of the time the track was very well marked and graded and was easy walking. The temperatures were very comfortable, in the low 20s during the day. It was very nippy at night, around zero to 5 degrees, but with good sleeping bags it wasn't a problem.

Mt Sonder

On the Heavitree Range

On the ridgetops at times the track did strange things - sometimes it would be well marked and obvious and then would suddenly disappear - to reappear somewhere, 100 metres, maybe to the left or right, or further on. I think it was built by a number of teams who really didn't talk to each other. In the lower areas, the track was if anything over-marked and graded. On the whole, it worked quite well.
Davenport Creek had a beautiful waterhole where we went for a swim, albeit a very short one. The water was pretty cold.

Davenport Creek

The Finke River

The campsites were mostly pretty good but is some spots, rather tight, especially if you had a few tents. On the Finke River they were plentiful and large. At Waterfall gorge the spots only took two tents, although there were a number of them.

Waterfall Gorge

Inarlunga Pass

Inarlunga Gorge was an unexpected, spectacular gorge with numerous Cycads and river red gums. Unfortunately this was near the end of a beautiful walk. It took 6 days to do a third of the walk and would be great to do the rest some time.