Vol 31 No 3 - Confederation of Bushwalking Clubs

Walk Safely—Walk with a ClubWombats do like the snow, but there areother places in Australia as well. Placeslike the centre of Australia, where there issand and spinifex and ancient rocks andwaterholes and, well, new things to see.Things like the Larapinta Trail which wandersalong through the West MacDonnellRanges for some 230 km. And so planswere made for a winter trip.In a spirit of indulgence the Wombat decidedto travel by train: the Indian Pacificand Ghan trains. There is effectively noluggage limit on the train, and gas canisterscould be carried, discretely tucked away atthe bottom of the pack, to be sure.Only an hour late in arriving at AliceSprings, the Wombat tumbled out onto theplatform complete with packs, food dropsetc. Redbank Gorge at the far end of theTrail is hundreds of kilometres away, butthere are several companies offering transportand assistance with food drops: even aWombat is not going to carry food for 230km if alternatives exist. A car was waiting.Water and food dropsThe Larapinta Trail runs along several rangeswithin the West MacDonnells, but manypoints can be accessed from a road of somesort. The NT Parks rangers have placed watertanks at these points.At some of the tourist-accessible points fooddrops can be left. More details will be foundunder Expeditions in the FAQ soon.The ride along the asphalt Larapinta Drivewas exciting in a high speed 4WD. A fooddrop was made at Ellery Ck in a lockedsteel box, and the key was carefully packedaway. The luxury tourist resort of GlenHelen further on was visited briefly – theaccommodation there looked like convertedshipping containers. Then the corrugateddirt road to Redbank Gorge was tackled– still at high speed. But the car parks at theend were reached safely, and the WombatVol31 Issue 3 Winter 2006happily bade farewell to wheels.The car parks had cars and car campers inthem, so the Wombat headed off towardsthe Redbank Creek below to camp. TheWombat was moved to comment that it wasnow clear why people camp in the creekbeds here: soft smooth clean sand abounds,rather than the harsh jagged rock of theridges. What about the river you might ask?A river of sand most of the year, only showingwater during the wet season – if lucky.And there was a water tank down by theriver too, out of sight of the car campers.But the Wombat was reminded of the lawsof physics here. Wind blowing through anarrow wet gorge and then expanding onthe downwind side gets cold. Never mindthe desert, it was -4 C overnight, and thetent was well frosted inside. This was ofsome concern the Wombat’s gear wasall ultra-lightweight, including the 300 gsleeping bag. A reasonable night was had,but only by wearing all available clothing.Was each night going to be this cold? Bettercamp sites were chosen hereafter.The books say climbing Mt Sonder takes 8hours, but the Wombat thought this excessive,and was back at the bottom for lunch.You might think that ‘Mt Sonder’ would bethe highest point around, but think again.The real peak has a metal trig tower on it,but is separated from the main ridge by avery complex route down across a narrowscarp. Mountain range? These are the erodedremnants of multiple layers of rocks,laid down 800 MYears ago and uplifted350 MYears ago. Allow an hour each waymaybe to get to the metal trig, and bring ahand line too. Ah well, the tourist summithad a fine cairn and good views all around.After this jaunt up onto the rocky ridges thetrack along the flat valley below was explored.The topo maps suggest the valleyfloor is flat, but the topo maps have rathercoarse contour intervals and many smallups and downs are simply not shown. Butthe Wombat was glad to be travelling, andthe way was easy. Water was picked up atthe Rocky Bar Gap tank and the climb tothe campsite at the Lookout above started.The sun was low and falling fast when thesign-board at the Lookout was reached.Oops – where is the campsite? The top ofthe ridge was covered in sharp rock andthick spinifex: hardly good camping. But acouple of scattered small cleared tent siteswere found and the best was enlarged a little.Here the Wombat found something interesting:the spinifex is very poorly rooted,and large clumps can be removed witha heel. Also the rock protruding from theground is very shattered, and lumps can behammered out with another rock. A good,and much warmer, night was had, with aspectacular view of Mt Sonder at dawn.The next stop was at Ormiston Gorge,where there is a Ranger station and suppliesof Coke and ice cream. The Wombatwas not ashamed to indulge. The Gorge itselfwas impressive and the walk throughit enjoyed. Out in the Ormiston Pound theTrail was left for a cross-country route toMt Giles. The Wombat was not sure aboutthis at the start: pushing through thickspinifex didn’t seem like a great idea. Forthose who have never met spinifex grass,just think of round tufts up to half a metretall of lengths of sharp high-tensile steelwire radiating outwards. It goes straightthrough gaiters, and likes to stick in. Butthe land in the Pound had more vegetationand less spinifex, and was easy enough towalk across.As the sun set a dive was made for the bankof Ormiston Creek, where a waterhole anda sandy bank were found. A swim was considered,but the air was cold and the watercolder. The Wombat settled for a brief washbefore dinner, which was eaten while theducks quacked on the waterhole.The Bushwalker | 11