Larapinta 6. How to Survive Minus Five



 

 It was so cold that night politicians began to talk about the homeless.

 

In my wind-pierced shelter I suffered in silence. I managed to sleep intermittently between gusts of freezing air that found a way through the zipper of my sleeping bag. My exhaled breath was clearly visible when I finally popped my head out of the tent finding the world champ competitors had left to chase their gold medals.

 

My lawyer, who you will meet later in this story, told me the temperature, according to his reliable watch, dropped to a snappy minus five during the night. To add insult to injury,  the gasburner/ bottle refused to provide me with that all important, soul warming cup of home brand Earl Grey. I am sure some random scientist, some day, will explain to me at what temperature gas freezes.

 Saturday 16 July 2016

Another discovery I made that morning was that I don’t function at all well in the cold. After saying goodbye to Grant and stumbling the last kilometre over the rocks to the top of Hill Top, I found myself lost a couple of times. A cliff face suddenly presenting itself and my frozen windswept brain, did not register this was not the Larapinta track, but a treacherous overhang poised to kill or maim. Resorting to lowering myself down, my legs were absolutely shattered when I made it to the bottom of the hill. After this physical endeavour, I became almost indifferent to the stunning beauty of the world around me.

 

 

A peak into the valley just before the steep descent

 

 

Luckily, after sweeping around I found the track back at the bottom. In a dreamlike state Waterfall Gorge Campsite passed - a tiny, cold gorge floated by – there were several waterholes drifting through my line of sight – somewhere was a large dried waterfall but I was unsure of the order of these events.

Four or five hikers came past from the other direction. Again, they were mainly woman who told me temperatures over the next couple of days were on the rise. They wore hiking shirts and broad smiles as compared to my rain jacket and miserable grimace. How is that possible? Then I noticed the wind slapping like dry ice straight into my noggen. My eyes were continuously tearing up and, excuse me, my nose was in a continues state of leakage. Walking with the wind and in the shelter of your pack is obviously way more comfortable.

How to survive minus five??? 

Rug up, walk on and keep smiling!!!

 



The dried up waterfall with plenty of water for drinking



 

The track spilled out into this giant half-pipe valley where the sun attempted to thaw me out unsuccessfully. Flanked by two enormous ridges, my hands came back to life enough to take some photos of this moonlike landscape. 
 

 

The moonlike half-pipe

For five hours I walked through this valley in the sun with my jacket on, still cold.

 

The Inarlanga Pass was an exquisite, thin cut through the range with beautiful gumtrees and psychads growing over a rocky creek bed.

 

 

Inarlanga Pass

 

For the last five kilometres I pretended I was at the Canning River parkrun in Perth again. The wishful fantasy falling over badly with the pack cutting into my shoulders and the rocks strewn around randomly, killing the urge to run. It did bring back some great memories. Memories that helped to ignore the aches and pains of hiking. Distract me brain, Please!!!!

 

 

The view from my tent at Serpentine Chalet Dam with the kitchen
 set up for easy access in the morning

I found nine hikers in the Serpentine Chalet Dam Campsite to chat to. If you are a compulsive, high on life, social animal as I am, hiking solo is a great way to get to talk to people whether you like it or not. I met two guys called Rod and Geoff who told me they were dawdling along on the trail. In my mind I baptised them Dawdle One and Dawdle Two. A couple of hikers I had met before, Rosalind and John, were already setting up on the other side of the creek. One of the other hikers in camp had a bandaged  wrist - fractured during a fall in a completely innocuous spot. A reminder of our frailty in such isolated, desolate country and how in one bad moment it can be all over. After three days, a hospital visit and stacks of painkillers he and his two mates returned to the Larapinta track.  

 

'Someone else is always doing it tougher'.

 

Grey Bits

 

Water cannot be shipped into a tank at the confusingly named Waterfall Gorge Campsite between Ormiston Gorge and Serpentine Dam Chalet. You can carry a water supply for one and a half days with you or can ask oncoming hikers whether there is water available in the waterholes in the gorge or at the waterfall. This water needs to be treated by boiling it and using purifying tablets. I carried five litres of water in and nearly ran out the next day.

The Serpentine Dam Chalet was the first attempt at building a tourist facility in the West Macs - it is now an old ruin of a dam and a building.

If you want to find out more about the Canning parkrun click on this link
https://semigreynomad.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/not-just-walk-in-park.html

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