Larapinta Trail – Day 2

By Stephen M on July 15, 2014

Date: Tuesday 15/07/2014
Weather: Partly Cloudy and cool
Distance covered 13.4km
Start: Serpentine Gorge (Section 8)
Finish: Serpentine Chalet Dam

Nothing like waking to the sound of howling Dingo’s! Luckily it was just on day break so no worrying about Dingo’s making off with our supplies as we would soon be up and out!

Never having had experience with packing up tents and all the paraphernalia that goes with it, we were, you guessed it, running behind the rest of our party. Not wanting to hold them up and also to remove the time pressure of having to be ready on time, we encouraged them to push off and we’d see if we could catch up with them around lunchtime or later on in the day. In any case, we both had unfinished business to deal with!

We finally got away 40-50min behind the others. What becomes quickly aparent as you walk the Larapinta, is that the West MacDonnell Ranges are in fact Ranges (plural). I had this expectation that it was a couple of ranges out in the middle of a flat desert, when in fact once you climb up high enough, you get 360 deg views of spectacular mountain ranges as far as the eye can see!

 

We had caught up with our party at the tail end of their lunch and would soon catch them later in the afternoon along the trail.

Our campsite tonight was on the sandy banks of a creek bed, so nice clean and dry sandy sites to pitch the tent on. Before long its time to get dinner organised and prepare for bed. A fellow hiker had earlier offered to share his camp fire. I’m sure camp fires are prohibited on the trail, but hey, I wasn’t going to be a wet blanket, might as well enjoy some warmth and company before calling it a night!

Check out the photo gallery – Here!