Larapinta 15. Wild

It seems an age since I’ve seen you

Count down as the weeks trickle into days

I hope that time hasn’t changed you

All I really want is for you to stay 

My happiness slowly creeping back

 

"My happiness" written and performed by Powderfinger

For the first time on this trail I slept in. All that stargazing put me in a deep recovering sleep I could barely break out of. That finite discipline you need in the morning to pack your bag neatly and get going early was absent. It being the penultimate day on the Larapinta, I seemed to have relaxed almost beyond caring, choosing to join the sweet chatter around the camp.

When my inner starting gun finally went off, I flew up the first hill to see if I would get any reception on my phone and had a long, in my mind, needed conversation with Julie while overlooking a vast open Australian desert with Honeymoon Gap and the Mount Gillen range baked in golden morning light.



The conversation point with Mount Gillen Range on the right

Soon after, I let out an almighty dingo howl to express my happiness and show my appreciation for the beautiful world I was standing in. A reply in the shape of a ‘Coooeee!’ came from one of the two other lone dingoes across the valley. The three of us all waving at each other from afar.

Thursday 28 July 2016

Section 1: Simpsons Gap to Alice Springs Telegraph Station 

Section 1 is a 23.8km section. You will need to camp overnight to finish the section.

It is a long distance with some steep ascents. Section 1 gives you views over Alice Springs and the surrounding lowlands, as well as good bird watching opportunities.

 

Information from the government web-site.

 

This bird was singing its little heart out at Simpsons Gap

 

I spent some time walking with Grant who had suffered from huge blisters on his feet. The gentleman had to stop hiking for many days to recover and take the bus to catch up with his mates who would walk on and complete the Larapinta at blistering speed. How frustrating? I spoke to him at length about the challenging, but very social Camino de Santiago. and hope I have convinced him to walk it solo some time. Grant's feet were obviously healed enough to leave me for dead on the trail. Being slower than others is also something my competitive self has to come to terms with some day. Maybe it is time to get that knee fixed.




Walking on this amazing Larapinta trail

There was only a little bit of suffering to go through before I reached Wallaby Gap where I passed out in my warm, lime green shelter for a couple of hours. How much sleep does one need in this place?

Hiking in the wild makes you stink like an unwashed wheelie bin. Every day I venture out with toiletry bag under my arm and micro-fibre towel slung over the shoulder in search of that ultimate spot of serenity and a quick, but glorious one bottle wash - au naturel. I had just found my shower spot overlooking a small valley and had my hands on my shorts to draw them down, when the sound of a large engine disturbed the peace. A huge 4wd bus pulled up on an access road I had not quite spotted only 50 metres away. A young man carrying a large watermelon jumped out and walked up to me and told me he was working for one of the tour companies and was about to deliver a large quantity of food for a large group of hikers. I told him my purpose of being out there and he laughed. So did the others in the camp when I told them I was nearly sprung in my birthday suit. The fact still remains that standing out in the open of the Australian emptiness without a string of clothing is a total liberation of spirit that I highly recommend. Give it a try, but beware of the bus full of watermelon-wielding day trippers.

Mid-afternoon, the man of the law walked in to the Wallaby Gap campsite. I immediately put the billy on and made a reviving coffee for the three of us. Roz and John joined in and we all shared our food with each other. There was dark chocolate, biscuits and Grant's famous dehydrated hummus with crackers. The Larapinta community spirit was very much alive.

The massive hiking group of mainly ladies with a female guide conquered and left the campsite without giving us much attention or share a bit of that huge watermelon with us real full-time, end to end hikers. Most of us hadn’t seen fresh fruit for two weeks. The conversation reverted to food soon after and what we all were going to eat once we arrived in Alice Springs the next day?

Its going to be yummmm...

A café at the end of the trail - the old Telegraph Station - the finish line.

Looking back to Simpsons Gap

Looking back at all the people that I have crossed paths with on this trail, I had come to a surprising conclusion that, as it was on the Kokoda track, the majority of the hikers on the Larapinta trail were woman. Many of them walked in groups or in organised tours like the one that just left us at Wallaby Gap. Quite a few walked solo through this harsh, desolate country where the nearest point of civilization or help, if you needed it, could be days away. I have seen a woman with a snapped achilles tendon climb through a dangerous narrow gorge, met a young lady who walked the whole 231 kilometres with one shoe and a thong on the other foot.  To top it all off Roz mentioned talking to a ‘hikester’ at Ellery Creek who asked her where the hard part of the trail was as she had called the track including Razorback Ridge ‘easy’???!!! Go figure.

After several discussions with the man of the law as to the reasons behind this phenomena we attributed, to a large extent, this spike in classy, trailblazing broads to the book and the movie Wild. Cheryl Strayed wrote a terrific account of her 94 day, 1000 mile battle on the Pacific Crest Trail in the United States. Starring the beautiful and talented Reese Witherspoon - the story is an intense recount of how an inexperienced hiker overcomes the wild and heals herself in the process.




Photo courtesy of Word Press

 

Maybe none of the woman on the track have ever read the book or watched the movie. Maybe they just have a healthy sense of adventure. Either way I still have to say – power to the 'wild woman' - kudos by the bucket load.

 

Grey Bits

 The movie and book Wild is available in all bookstores. You cant miss it.

One of the many thought provoking quotes from the
movie Wild

Find more quotes here
http://thoughtcatalog.com/koty-neelis/2014/12/19-life-changing-quotes-from-cheryl-strayeds-wild-that-will-inspire-you-to-take-a-journey-of-your-own/

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Do you want to become a guest blogger, write your own story and publish on my blog? I would love to hear from you. Email me at storiesfrommars@gmail.com

 

Larapinta 14. Three Lone Dingos and a Black Dog

 

 

That night I was suddenly woken by a blood-curdling scream of a child. I opened the tent noisily and looked around for a small person in trouble or maybe even Azaria Chamberlain. Nothing!!

Sometime later I heard the sound and felt the vibrations of a heavy hooved animal.  Fearing for my own safety in my tent I lay nailed to the ground, holding my breath with the headline running through my head "Hiker Trampled by Bull" until the sound disappeared in the distance. Pheeww!!!

Much later on, during one of my visits to Desert Park, (only twenty kilometres from where I was lying), I was told the nocturnal bush-stone curlew or bush thick-knee screams out like a child in distress. A good explanation for the spine-chilling sound I heard. I also learnt at the park that the curlew (see photo above) freezes and stands completely still, relying on its camouflage, when it feels threatened. In the vain of "I am not really here you know" or "I am really a tree". 

As for the hooved experience, we are now walking close to cattle stations and judging by the shit on the track it spells only one thing. Welcome to civilization!

 

Wednesday  27 July 2016

 

Slow but steady progress put me in an almost unbelievable position. I was walking towards the trail-head of section 1. The job almost done, a couple of nights to go. All big hills conquered, only relatively flat and comparatively easy terrain left to walk.

Walking the planes towards Simpsons Gap

 

I barely wrote any notes on the track for this day. Sometimes, someone can say something to you, maybe a well-meant criticism, a flapped-out comment or a joke that skirts around the edge of a hard truth. A throw-away comment, that has a profound effect on your state of mind.

  

I don’t understand how the brain fabricates this gnawing negativity that appears to be stuck on repeat. The whole day was spent looking inward, trying to iron out the character flaws that may annoy someone else enough to mention them to you. Then the questions came in my head: Who the hell are you to tell me that? What is your problem? In true 'poor me' style, unjustifiable rage wells up.

 

Anger is such a useless emotion. Where do you go with it and what can you possibly do that makes any sense? Slowly, the anger mixed with an occasional dip in mood here and there until the core of my soul was swallowed up whole by the black dog of howling self-doubt, negativism and self loathing.

Out on the Larapinta I just limped along the small winding track trying to find a seed of reassurance or a little inner pep-talk that appears in my grey matter like magic - but it just didn't. 

 

A colourful Spinifex Pigeon

 

It can be tough out there!

 

At Simpsons Gap I felt weirdly out of place and tried to call Julie with my non-Telstra phone in a mobile hot-spot station that did not work. In frustration I explored the magnificent rock walls around Simpsons Gap; walked along the water’s edge of the still water and sat down in a dry part of the creek bed. I caught up with my writing but sure as hell I wasn’t going to give you, dear reader, my inner, most darkest thoughts of the day. Nahhh!!!

Everything is hunky dory right?

The rock walls of Simpsons Gap

 

 

I chatted with Grant over a cuppa when late in the afternoon, completely exhausted, my lawyer stumbled  into the hut. My mood was slowly released from the heavy veil of depression by the same species that unintentionally triggered it.

 

Simpsons Gap

When it was dark and the air had changed to a light, biting chill my lawyer decided to lay down on his back between the hut and the toilet in the dirt for a spot of star gazing. After the initial "I am not laying down there" feeling, both Grant and I relented and took a spot either side of the notary.

It was incredible.

Here we were - three lone dingos of the Larapinta Trail – laying on our backs covered in dust - holding hands (only joking) -  galaxy stretched out in front of us with glorious clarity – space junk passing by rapidly – tail trailing shooting stars lighting up the black amphitheatre disappearing in a flash – infinite stars, planets and space – a world so much bigger than us.



A "grand design" galaxy like ours called M81.
Photo courtesy of National Geographic



The night sky provided a shimmer of light. 

 

Grey Bits


The photo of the Chamberlain bird or curlew was taken at the amazing bird show at Desert Park. If you like birds 'this' is the place to hang out. www.alicespringsdesertpark.com.au


I have absolutely no cure for the Black Dog and do not profess to be an expert on the subject. This time I just waited it out and the company of others seemed to help. I know many people suffer from depression. If you feel the need to talk to anyone, Google 'depression' and you will find many agencies that could help out. Here is one of them; click on this link  www.blackdoginstitute.org.au

 

Section 2 done. One to come