Wednesday 08 June 2022
Serpentine Chalet Dam to Serpentine Gorge – Section 8
Distance 15.7km
Moving time 4:03
Track time 5:27
Temp 3′- maybe 17′
Up 517m Down 566m – Tough day!
Camp elevation 760m
Plus food collection 2.3km

Section 8 is a challenging walk and the terrain varies markedly. Counts Point rewards walkers with spectacular views of the surrounding ridge lines and peaks. It has exhilarating views of the high quartzite ridgelines typical of the West MacDonnell Ranges, including Haasts Bluff and Mt Zeil, which is the highest point in the Northern Territory.

It was very cold last night but we both managed ok. We had a group of 5 hikers march through camp at 5am and another 9 at 5.23am. We think they were guided groups.
This morning we enjoyed a chat with Annie 65, Anne 70 and Mary 74. They are such an inspiration. Mary still does solo 5 day treks in the Victorian High Country. Made me feel like we can conquer some more mountains. Yay! I tried to take the load off David’s morning as his foot was sore but not too swollen. So whilst he had breakie, I packed up the mattresses, sleeping bags and tent. Then we did the water and were ready to leave at 9.15am. A solo young guy arrived just as we were leaving which meant we didn’t get on our way until 9.30am but as always he had a great life story and some tips for the trail.
We started with an undulating trail for the first 4 km which we smashed our pretty well. Over the next 2.5km we climbed 300m to Counts Pt over a very rocky track. The last 700m we walked without our pack and just carried our lunch. We enjoyed the most spectacular view seeing the Mt Giles range, the Mt Giles lookout and the Ridge and valley we have walked over the last 2 days. It was really cool. Unfortunately we shared the return walk and lunch time with 3 tour groups. A group of 12 men 75 plus in age. A group of 15 women and one man and the third a group of 11. We were lucky we got about 10 mins at the lookout on our own. One benefit to meeting the tour groups is one of the tour guides gave David a roll of strapping tape to help with his ankle injury. We then hiked across the Ridge for 4km on a very rocky surface, then down steep switch backs for 2.2km down 300m in elevation. So very steep. The next 2.5km was undulating with the last 1km on a much nicer surface. The view was great nearly all day. We arrived at Serpentine Gorge camp at 4pm after a very long lunch, no luck with charging but time to setup, then head back to the container to get our food for the next 7 days. It is going to be a tough day weight wise tomorrow. I will have about 14kg and Dave about 17kg. Lucky it isn’t too hard a day. We enjoyed an interesting chat with a couple of 21 year old boys who may have interested David in doing Annapurna trail. Yippee! Well it looks like Dave survived the day today, he used one of my hiking poles for a little bit of extra support. His foot hurt all the way and he had to walk slower than usual but he made it and thinks he will be ok to continue. We hope the shorter day tomorrow will give him a bit of rest in the afternoon. Fingers crossed.
So far we have walked 106km including the Mt Sonder day.

Tuesday 07 June 2022
Hermits Hideaway to Mt Giles Lookout return
Distance 3.8km
Moving time 0:43
Track time 1:16
Up 68m Down 69

Mt Giles lookout to Serpentine Chalet Dam – Section 9 Part 2
Distance 16.6km
Moving time 4:51
Track time 6:37
Temp 6′- maybe 17′
Up 387m Down 590m
Camp elevation 800m

Well the wind howled last night but we were quite protected at Hermits Hideaway. It was a lovely little camp we had all to ourselves. At 6.30am we got up and headed up to Mt Giles lookout for sunrise. It was about 1km of quite rocky terrain by torchlight but we made it to enjoy a beautiful sunrise. It was a lovely morning. We then headed back down to camp for breakie and to pack up. We were on our way again by 9.20am back up to Mt Giles lookout which had phone service. We made a few calls and were just about to leave at 10.15am when Jim plonked himself down for a chat. He had got a little lost yesterday and that’s why he stayed down the base of the hill last night. He is still hoping to make it to Serpentine Chalet Dam but that is another 16km so we will be surprised if he makes it. We did find out that he had an Eperb so we don’t need to worry about him again. So off we went again at 10.45am. A lot later than we hoped as today’s walk is about 5.5 hours.
Well the first section was down down, down. Mostly on switchbacks but there were a few rocky climb downs. All in all it was a pretty pleasant walk down and then across to Waterfall Gorge. Then it was undulating on varying terrain and through a valley. It was very beautiful with high escarpment on either side. It was also very green. We then went through Inarlanga Pass which was some of our favourite types of walking, rock scrambles and riverbed rock hopping. Whilst walking through the rock scramble David twisted his ankle whilst taking a photo. Eekk! We still had about 3 km of the walk to complete and he soldiered on in a bit of pain. We think that may have helped him keep the blood flowing through the injury. The last 6km were very tiring and we are both feeling the affects of the 5 days walk so far. Even David is happy with the slower schedule we have organised.
We arrived at camp a little later than normal about 4pm. David’s ankle is quite sore, he has it bandaged with a snake bandage and Annie a lady at the camp gave him some Physio cream which hopefully will help. She also offered Nurofen and Voltaren tablets which he declined.
I learnt how to set up the tent by instruction today which was really good, so David could rest his foot. We are hoping David will be ok to walk in the morning. If not we will work out our plan of attack then.
We had a pleasant afternoon/evening talking to Anne 70, Mary 74 and Annie 65. These three ladies are friends with Frances who we met at Ormiston Gorge. i thought they were in their early to mid sixties. They are doing the track over 20 days, having a couple of days rest along the way. Well DB was able to hang our packs and food bags because the mice are really bad here. We even saw an owl swoop in to the shelter to catch his dinner. They are having a field day. I tried to do the rest of the setup so David could rest his foot. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.
Jim hasn’t made it here tonight as expected.

Monday 06 June 2022
Ormiston Gorge to Mt Giles lookout – Section 9 Part 1
Distance 14km
Moving time 3:48
Track time 5:20
Temp 8′- maybe 19′
Up 562m Down 182m

Happy birthday Gavin!

We endeavoured to get an early start. We got up at 6.30am and started packing up, we were going really well but once again got chatting which is all part of the journey. You meet some really interesting characters along the way. We have been travelling along with an older guy named Jim meeting him at camp each night. He sets out before us. We catch up to him at lunch time and then he gets in a little later than us. We also met a couple of older ladies who have had to stop with injuries. Frances walked 29km with sprained feet and can now hardly walk, she is waiting for a friend to go home. Jocelyn has hurt her back but is hoping to continue slowly west tomorrow. Penny and Eric from the bus arrived last night so we caught up with them as well. So we set off at 9.15 am. Closer to 8 but not quite. Anyway it was better than 9.50am so we are improving. It is a big day. New food supply – 3 days, extra water as we have a dry camp tonight and a huge climb. DBs pack is 17kg and mine is about 14kg. It is amazing when we both put them on they didn’t feel too heavy. We must be getting some conditioning. Anyway, off we went, firstly along the sandy river bed, then we slowly started to ascend over undulating terrain for the first 9km but still ascending all the same. From the base of the hill up it was about 333m in elevation over 5 km. It was quite tricky, there were rocks to climb over, layers of loose shale and a continuous up, up and up. I seemed to power up the hills today. Just moving along with smaller steps but stopping a lot less and keeping my heart rate quite low. My fitness must be improving which is great because the next few sections are very tough. Today’s was up 562m and down 182m. We had a couple of stops, one for hydralyte about 11am, 2km from the base of the hill and then about 2km from camp which was almost at the top at 950m. We then struggled a little to climb the last 50m on wobbly legs. This always happens after a break but we couldn’t wait. We were starving. We did really well arriving at Hermits Hideaway camp at about 2.45pm. This section was labelled Difficult and about 6.5hrs. So we are really happy with our progress. Hermits Hideaway has about 8-010 camp spots mostly protected from the wind with great views of Mt Giles.

We only passed 3 End 2 End hikers and a tour group of 6. They are doing the E2E over 14 days with a guide, transfer support, permanent campsites with stretcher beds, gourmet food and showers. At a small fee of $4000.

We had a lovely afternoon setting up camp and as it started to get late we began to worry about Jim who still hadn’t turned up. Hopefully he had stopped at an earlier camp but we were a bit concerned as his plan was to hike further than us today. At 5pm David decided to do a quick walk before sunset to see if he could find him as it had been a really hard day. So off he set with first aid, sat phone and warm clothes. He is only going for 30 mins and then turning so he gets back in daylight. Well, true to his word he is back at 6pm after running part of the 2.5km each way, he managed to see Jim’s tent set up about 2/3rds of the way down the descent. At least he is safe. We can continue without worrying now. DB may be injured from his run but hopefully he will have good karma and will be fine. We ate dinner watching the sun set over Mt Sonder and then for another hour after that, then headed to bed as the temp is already only 10′. Hopefully it doesn’t get too cold tonight as we are at 1015m above sea level. We are on our own on the mountain tonight which is so much better than last night where there were many tour groups and about 20 self reliant E2E hikers.

Sunday 05 June 2022
Finke River Camp to Ormiston Gorge – Section 10
Distance 8.82km
Moving time 2:19
Track time 2:46
Temp 10′- 22′

We had an easy day today. We tried to set out early but only managed 9:50. We will try again tomorrow. The hike was only up 168m down 139m over 8.9km. So a short day. It was picturesque. The scenery changed often and was quite beautiful most of the walk. The up was steep but only for a short distance to another Hilltop Lookout. We arrived at Ormiston Gorge about lunch time. David was quite happy with that as his legs are a little tired today, he didn’t even want to do the extra walk, he said we can do the extra when we come back to collect our food boxes. He is also happy with the extended schedule we have set as he now thinks the 12 days he thought we could do is definitely unrealistic. He wanted to rest. So we had a cafe lunch which was really weird. Way too many people and it just didn’t feel right. We also got a bonus hot shower. We enjoyed a lovely walk to Ormiston Gorge at twilight. It is very beautiful. We got our new supply of food from our drop boxes with our special treats for today. Coke, gatorade, aero chocolate and peaches for breaky besides the daily food rations for the next 3 days. And we saw our first mice so we hung our food and water bladders from the rafters on fishing line again tonight.
We have a big day tomorrow as we have to carry 2 days water so 4 litres for me and 5 litres for DB and climb 562m up. Eek!

Saturday 04 June 2022
Rocky Bar Gap to Finke River camp
Section 11 Part 2
Distance 16.43km
Moving time 4:30
Track time 6:05
Temp 6′- 23′
Well last night was a big learning curve. We set the poles at 120, 120, 105. It was very snug but gave us a large footprint. Downside was the ceiling was too low and every time I rolled over which was often, my sleeping bag gathered some of the condensation as it rubbed against the ceiling. Result. Very wet sleeping bag. We slept quite well for a first night and so just a few teething issues to iron out. Apparently this is the first night of really heavy dew in weeks because of the water in the ground from the rain. Anyway we will learn as we go.
We finally set off at 10.10am after mucking around for ages, with wet tent and sleeping bag and DB being his usual social butterfly. It was a tough gig this morning after a short walk through varied terrain at the 3km mark we went up 300m in elevation over 2km. Half way up I had my first moment, just trying to hard to go fast, once I slowed my pace down I was ok. It took about 2 hours to do the first 5 km but at 1015m elevation we had the most amazing view at Hilltop Lookout. We enjoyed a lovely hour or so having lunch and thankfully don’t my sleeping bag. Mt Sonder looked amazing is the background.
We got going again at about 1.15pm for the remaining 10 km. The first 3km took about an hour and we descended over 400m. The remaining 7km we paced our out doing about 15min kms until we can to the Davenport creek crossing. Time to take off our shoes and wage across. Luckily it was only one deep. Boy was it nice to get your feet wet in the icy cold water. We finally reached Finke River camp at 4.30 after avoiding 2 more Creek crossings by walking up stream 100m both times. Then she soon as we were just shy of the camp the river we avoided beckoned me for a swim. It was icy cold and I had to be quick so I could be dry and dressed before the sun went down. We decided to sleep in the river bed as the camp sites left were really rocky.
We enjoyed a social dinner with a couple from Tassie near Stanley and a young couple from Melbourne. After dinner, doing our dinner, hanging out food bags, we headed to bed at about 8.40pm. The sunset and stars were amazing tonight. Hopefully the tent goes a little better tonight. We set the poles at 120, 120, 120, fingers crossed for a drier night.

Friday 03 June 2022
Redbank Gorge to Rocky Bar Gap – Section 11 Part 1
Distance 12km
Moving time 3hrs 1mins
Track time 4hrs 11mins
Max temp 19-20′

“The 230km long Larapinta Trail is one of Australia’s most spectacular bushwalking and trekking experiences. It is also one Australia’s newest trails and is quickly emerging as one of the
most popular trails in Australia and the world. The trail ranges from grade 3 – moderate, to grade 4 – moderate to difficult and 5 – difficult. You should allow 20 days for this remote and difficult walk, taking into account rest stops, side trips and time to restock food supplies.”

We started out early this morning. Up at 6.15 am and ready and waiting for our transport at the caravan park entrance at 7.40 am. Pick was for 7.45 but they arrived about 8.
We had a lovely chat with Penny and Eric from Manly who are also doing west to east. They will start with Mt Sonder today and will probably catch us along the way over the next few days.
There were so many people at Redbank Gorge. Day trippers, people who had finished the end to end from the east (one last east in her mid 70s and had completed the full trail), and people who do the highlight your of the trail. Walking about 8 days in the most picturesque sections. Some of these are probably the toughest as well but they only have a day pack. As always David spent many minutes talking to the people who were finished. Some of them had already done Mt Sonder this morning for sunrise and they were back down by 10am. Unfortunately no sunrise but a lovely walk back down all the same. You will not believe it but we saw Liza from the Surf Club at Avoca and Jodi who is Lisa Swan’s cousin. They were doing the highlight package.
It was a lovely first day walk. My pack weighing in at 12kg and David’s is 13.
We talked to many people until we passed the Redbank Summit trail turn off and then we only crossed paths with one other girl who was heading west on her 2nd last day. More notes taken and while we were standing there she notice about a 3m snake, DB thinks a python of some kind, but as yet to be identified. Stay posted. From then on we didn’t see anyone else until we got to camp. We walked through picturesque countryside and as the day progressed the slight sprinkling rain we drove through stopped, the clouds parted and we ended up with blue skies. Besides the snake we only saw a few birds but it is amazing how green the countryside is. We said goodbye to Mt Sonder after about 6km. We had lunch in a lovely spot looking out over the range at about the 6.5km mark. The morning had gone very well but after lunch we both had sore shoulders so we are very grateful to only be doing a short day today. So we stopped at 2.30pm and set up our new tent, dried my socks, bra and long sleeve shirt on a tree, had a wash. It is amazing how long this takes. David sourced some ideas for protecting food from the mice, shoes from the dingoes and general track information. He really is a social butterfly. Our new water filters and bags are awesome. We treated 5 litres of water from the tanks with minimum effort. It started getting cool at about 5pm and I had most of my clothes on. Skins, 200 thermals, my hiking pants and clean socks on the bottom half and 200 thermal top, 150 t-shirt, polar fleece and puffer. We had an early dinner at 5pm and I am in bed snug as a bug in a rug at 5.48. I have managed to remove a couple of layers – hiking pants and puffer jacket. Let’s see how our first night in our squibby new 2 person Zpack duplex tent goes. I think we are going to be ok. Night night. Xx

Thursday 2nd June 2022
We have had another hectic day of organisation.

Firstly a quick check that all the boxes are sorted, then I needed to pack my backpack so I could relax because as per usual I am a little edgy and stressed with the new challenge we are undertaking. I know that once I am packed I will be OK and will settle down.

A quick trip to Alice Springs for a couple of things we forgot, a takeaway lunch and then we have to drive the 30km to drop off our food boxes at Ormiston Gorge, Serpentine Gorge and Standley Chasm. It was great to drop them ourselves as this meant we would know where they are when we are walking. Also it gave us the chance to make some last minute changes.

We finally got home about 6pm. Now I thought whilst I was packing my backpack this morning David was doing the same thing but he was just trialling different ways to pack, so whilst I got dinner he did his backpack. Then after dinner we still had to pack up the gazebo and all our other stuff so we are ready to go by 7.15am in the morning. We have been very lucky that we can leave our car here for $30 and the driver is picking us up at the front gate in the morning. 

Well we were finally organised at 9pm. Wish us luck. I am really looking forward to the hike and am feeling quite relaxed about it now that I am ready. We will be uncontactable for about 17 days. Kristen can contact us if necessary. Take care everyone and I will blog when we get back. xxx

Wednesday 1st June 2022
Boy did it rain last night and unfortunately it continued throughout the day making it very difficult to get organised. I spent the morning packing my snack pack which includes nuts, M&Ms and sultanas and then my daily food parcels. Cereal pack, Wrap for lunch, Freeze dried dinner, chips, snack pack and snickers x 17 a very arduous task. Especially in the rain, thank goodness for the gazebo, but it was very cold working outside as it was only 10°. Then I organised David’s breakfast pack x 17.

We then headed after lunch to pick up the things I was short off, the other things we didn’t manage to get and the storage boxes. We finally got back to camp at 5pm and the rain was still coming down. After dinner David then had to organise his 17 days food packs. We are all packed into our 3 food drop boxes. We have one section where we have to carry 7 days food, for me this is 525g per day. So over 3.5kg of food at the start of this section. This is on day 7 so hopefully I am more conditioned by then. Day 1 we have three days food and day 4 we have three days food. So we will be easing in to the weight. On day 13 we have 4 days food. Luckily if we realised we have too much of anything we can leave it in the food boxes at the different food drops as we have to collect them after the walk.

Well I am totally shattered now, so off to bed for me. We still have to deliver the boxes over 150km tomorrow and pack our backpacks.