Notes from a Trail Head

Finishing off the Great South West Walk

2012-01-11T16:35:00.023+10:30

I may have previously said some evil things about this walk, I take all those things back. Having now completed the 250km trail, it is, upon reflection of its entirety, the Great South West Walk is a fantastic trail. It is spectacular, with good facilities and well maintained.

Great South West Walk, Discovery Bay Conservation Park and Coboboonee Forest

We walked the eastern 100km back in Easter, and have just walked the remaining 150km western section. At Easter we walked from Moleside, down the Glenelg River to Nelson, then along the beaches to Mt Richmond. This time we walked from Mt Richmond, along the coastal cliffs and headlands to Portland, then through the forest back to Moleside.

The coastal section here is spectacular. The coastal section from Nelson to Mt Richmond had been dominated by long walks on the beach, perhaps that sounds like something from a dating website, but about half of the beach is avoidable with alternative inland routes. This trip's section was dominated by clifftop walking along headlands, and short beach sections in small bays. It is spectacular. A narrow national park follows much of the coastline. The waves pound at the base of the cliffs, so there is always something good to watch with awe-filled eyes, until a general giddiness and and lack of head-for-heights drags you back from the cliff edge. Much of this area has been formed by volcanic action, so there are different rock types which add much interest.

Our first campsite, at The Springs on Cape Bridgewater, provided a fascinating insight into local geology. Where were the springs, I wondered. The last place I expected! The fresh water is to be found on the large rock platforms a little above where the waves crash, at the base of the coastal cliffs. Yep! I did wonder how the water got that high. Freshwater seaps out of the cliff onto the rock platforms, some of the volcanic rocks is impenetrable, so it flows out horizontally to the cliff edges.

There are many wind turbines along this coast, but on the upside, and much to Graham's disappointment, popular opinion sees them as better to look at than a coal plant. If you are a bit down on not seeing a coal plant though, take heart, walking into Portland you walk three sides of a large aluminium smelter. Curiously, who knew this, depending on where you read though, this single smelter uses 18-25% of Victoria's electricity. It looms large on the horizon, quite why it is sits on a prominent headland I'm not sure, but clearly it needs to be close to the port facilities of Portland, and the large conveyor belt disguised as a massive pipeline from the port to the smelter gives a few clues as to why I suppose. Don't be discouraged though, it is only seen for one day, and if you pivot your head to the right the coastline is still spectacular, the first half of the walk out of Mallee campsite is stunning, you hardly notice the plant. And it's not like we don't all use aluminium, at the very least much of our hiking gear is made of it.

The track is well maintained. We met quite a few locals who knew someone who got out and maintained the trail. Much of the trail in this area needs to be mowed, yes, that will sound strange to a South Australian, but indeed it is mowed, and foliage cut back. The trail is well signposted, we had no trouble following it. There are many interpretive signs along the way, I really appreciated these, so many fascinating things to learn.

A good map, better than the map on the Great South West Walk website, is the map produced by Cartographics and Meridian Maps. It's 1:50 000 scale, topographic, recent, and very accurate with lots of good info marked. It can be purchased online or locally at Portland at the Portland Visitor Information Centre or Davis Newsagency.

Hikers will be pleased to hear there are two cafes along this coastline, which is not bad for a four day section. One is at the beach and carpark called Cape Bridgewater, and another at the Cape Nelson lighthouse. Yum yum, no objections to supplementing our hiking rations here. The guys out at Cape Nelson lighthouse were so friendly and welcoming to us, even offering to top up our water supplies. Such a hiker-friendly attitude is so rarely seen!

The campsites were superbly set up. Each of the six campsites we stayed at, and the three we walked through, had a good size shelter with table and bench, picnic table in the open (for the sunny days), water tank, fire pit and toilet. Some were grassy, some had plenty of shade and protection from the elements, some tent pads, and one with a coastal viewing platform. Each of the campsites came equipped with several others hikers, which was good, I quite like that feature. It was good to chat to others hiking the trail, some were walking in the same direction, others the opposite, some for four or so days, some the complete trail. For the seven days on the trail we chased someone around the trail, but failed to ever catch them as they were walking super fast it seemed. From what I have read every campsite is being upgraded with shelter installations like these, certainly even back in Easter only half of these campsites were listed as having shelters.

We stayed at a motel in Portland, cheap at $100 per night. The Admella motel was good, it had a catchy tagline emphasing how cheap it was, it was clean and neat and had been renovated. Once again, a friendly crowd. A local told us that Mac's was good to stay at for trail hikers cheap at $70 a night for the older rooms in the motel behind the main pub. On the main esplanade too just off the trail, good if you are walking in from the south, and close to take-away foodies.

Google Map of the recent 7-day walk

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Google Map of the whole Great South West Walk hiking trail

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Download the GPS map files for the Great South West Walk hiking trail

Load the GPX files onto your handheld GPS unit to hike the Great South West Walk. Download the KML files to view the trail in Google Earth.

Download all files:

Download single GPX file with 19 tracks and 16 campsites (unzip file, load GPX file onto your GPS unit)

Download all KML files in a single KML ZIP file

Or, download individual track files:

GSWW 01	Portland to Cubbys Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 02	Cubbys Camp to Cut out Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 03	Cut out Camp to Cobboboonee Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 04	Cobboboonee Camp to Fitzroy Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 05	Fitzroy Camp to Moleside Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 06	Moleside Camp to Post and Rail Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 07	Post and Rail Camp to Pattersons Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 08	Pattersons Camp to Simsons Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 09	Simsons Camp to White Sands Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 10a	White Sands Camp to Monibeong Camp via inland route	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 10b	White Sands Camp to Monibeong Camp via beach	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 11	Monibeong Camp to Swan Lake Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 12a	Swan Lake Camp to Tarragal Camp via Mt Richmond	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 12b	Swan Lake Camp to The Springs Camp via beach	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 13	Tarragal Camp to The Springs Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 14	The Springs Camp to Trewalla Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 15	Trewalla Camp to Mallee Camp	GPX file	KML file
GSWW 16	Mallee Camp to Portland	GPX file	KML file

Or, download just the 16 hike-in campsites along the Great South West Walk:

GPX file

KML file

Stats	Great South West Walk - eastern half
	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
	26/12/11	27/12/11	28/12/11	29/12/11	30/12/11	31/12/11	1/1/12
	Mt Richmond to The Springs campsite	The Springs campsite to Trewalla campsite	Trewalla campsite to Mallee campsite	Mallee campsite to Portland	Portland to Cubbys campsite	Cubbys campsite to Cobbo-boonee campsite	Cobbo-boonee campsite to Moleside
Distance	20.58km	17.43km	17.22km*	23.47km**	21.48km	25.56km	32.66km
Start Time	1.07pm	8.37am	8.16am	7.30am	7.43am	7.52am	7.36am
End Time	6.37pm	2.29pm	2.02pm	2.04pm	1.24pm	2.56pm	4.38pm
Moving Duration	4h02m	3h40m	4h00m	4h39m	4h10m	5h03m	6h25m
Stationary Duration	1h25m	2h12m	1h46m	1h59m	1h29m	1h59m	2h32m
Moving Average	5.1km/h	4.7km/h	4.3km/h	5.0km/h	5.1km/h	5.1km/h	5.1km/h
Overall Average	3.8km/h	3.0km/h	3.0km/h	3.6km/h	3.8km/h	3.6km/h	3.6km/h
Oodometer	20.58km	38.0km	55.3km	78.8km	100.3km	126.0km	158.7km

* Due to the GPS unit being inside at the cafe at Cape Nelson, this figure is probably 1km too high
** This is to our motel in Portland, not the Portland trailhead. The following day we walked back from the motel to the trailhead.
These three things are not corrected for in the above mileage figures. The Google Map and GPS file downloads are corrected.

More info:

Official Great South West Walk website: www.greatsouthwestwalk.com

Great South West Walk Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Great-South-West-Walk-Portland-Vic/192714714081671

The guys at www.southwestadventures.com.au can be booked for a transfer shuttle if need be

Hiking Mt Sonder - the proper true summit

2011-08-29T19:06:00.005+09:30

When I first did the Mt Sonder hike back in August last year, when I reached the top I discovered - much to my horror - that the trail lead to a false summit, not the true summit of Mt Sonder. Initially I figured it was for safety reasons, but later people replied to my blog, informing me that the Arrernte People had special beleifs about Rwetyepme (Mt Sonder), and that was the reason the trail did not reach the true summit.

Mount Sonder (proper), West MacDonnell National Park, Northern Territory

At Glen Helen a few days ago, having traipsed across the countryside for three days in search of Mt Zeil, I had flicked through a collection of newspaper articles in the cafe. I stumbled upon one from the Sydney Morning Herald from back in 2005, when a reporter did a story on the Mt Sonder hike. He had fished around, suspicious of the story of the false summit trail. Interviewing a park ranger, James Pratt, "he shattered one illusion when he explained that the supposed Aboriginal legend was 'just an urban myth'. ... He also confirmed that the official summit was not the real one. 'It was a decision made for safety.'" They held beliefs of the mountain, just not the one that is being thrown around, and it was not the reason the trail did not go to the true summit.

Enough said, I was convinced. We were off to reach the real summit. The newspaper article referenced a Norwegian professor, Petter E. Bjorstad (referenced below). He had climbed many mountains around the world, including the true summit of Mt Sonder. He had some track notes, we were set.

At the campsite on the dry sandy banks of Redbank Gorge the night before our hike, we met Jas and Kev, from Parkham in Melbourne. They had just completed 19 days on the Larapinta Trail, hiking out from Alice Springs. The wildfires had chased them down the trail. They had one final section left, the climb up to Mt Sonder. They were keen to reach the true summit. We shared our track notes.

The next we saw of them was when Graham and myself reached the false summit early the following morning. Off on the distant true summit, we could see a couple of silhouetted people wandering around the summit cairn. They were only about 750m away across the rocky cliff-sided saddle, but we could hear their voices. They had risen at 4.30am, so they could enjoy watching the sunrise from the false summit. We didn't care for the early rise and hike in darkness.

Reaching the false summit is easy, a 7.5km track along the rocky spur from Redbank Gorge. Reaching the true summit was another matter. We headed back along the track, down from the false summit cairn, then headed north to the cliff edge. From here we surveyed possible routes down. The Norwegian professor included a photo of possible routes down from the false summit peak to the saddle below. From there crossing the saddle and then climbing the true summit was straight-forward. We were watching Jas and Kev return down the true summit. We thought we might wait it out for their advice since they had just made the crossing. We shouted out our hellos, and they soon shouted back their directions.

We climbed down the steep slope along the rock strata, heading for the top of the steep gully. Halfway down, we met up. They looked maggotted. Truly. The steep gully was tough work, returning later to make the ascent was even tougher. This was the hardest bit of the climb from the false to the true summit. Having reached the bottom, we contoured around to a small saddle at the base of the true summit, then climbed the rock 'staircase' to the true summit.

Jas was right, it was glorious and well worth the hike over. There was more to see, and unlike the view from the false summit, no thumping big mountain in the way of a 360 degree panorama. We could see wide wildfires burning on the western horizon.

We did a few laps of the stone cairn searching out the illusive logbook. We kept up the search, there must be one. Then I caught a glint of plastic, there, buried deep from the top of the cairn was the logbook. Placed there in 1965, in quite a rustic steel container, we found lots of pieces of paper, no book as such.

Leafing through the papers, I was surprised to find none from this century. That's right, not this decade, but this century. Not for a moment do I think we were the first people up there in 12 years, I mean Jas and Kev had been here moments before. I think it was more a matter that the logbook had been lost deep in the cairn for a number of years. I really was eager to find it, you see, I knew there had to be one lurking around somewhere. The Larapinta Trail was opened in 2002, which would have included that trail up to the false summit. The number of people reaching the true summit probably would have dropped around then, but the sheer number of people who reached the true summit in the '90s was proof enough that many people would have been up here since then.

It's a Tall Story, Sydney Morning Herald, 22/10/05

Petter E. Bjorstad's track notes

Have you hiked up to the true summit of Mt Sonder? What route did you take?
Did you find and sign the logbook?

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View full hike from Redbank Gorge to Mt Sonder South (the false summit) and onto the true Mt Sonder summit in full screen format
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TRACKNOTES - Mt Sonder

Proceed back down the marked trail some 180 metres from the cairn on the false summit. The ridge is wider, the track having just come off from steep north-south cliffs facing the east. There is a number of small paths leading off the north (GR528901), some no doubt in part to take in the view of Mt Sonder proper.

A number of rock stratems lead downwards to the west. 50m to the east there are three pines on the east facing cliff edge mentioned before. Study Petter E. Bjorstad's photo of possible routes, taken from the true Mt Sonder, looking back to the false Mt Sonder summit. It is easy enough to use his red marked route, you can ignore the blue rope-using route. Walking down the steep strata, proceed down the steep gully. Careful, there are lots of loose rocks on the slippery surface, plenty of spinifix and other hostile bushes you will need to be friendly with (they don't really want to be your friends.) The grid reference around this steep gully is 529 903.

From the base of the steep gully, contour around to a small saddle at grid reference 533 904. From here, climb the rocky 'staircase' to the true summit. Return by the same path, being careful to pick out the right steep gully to climb.

It took us 2.5 hours to hike from the false summit to the true summit, and return again. It is 2km return.

I wouldn't tackle this section unless it is in the morning, without a breeze it can be insatiably hot climbing the steep gully with the northern sun.

Stats	Mt Sonder (proper)
	Saturday
	27/8/2011
	Redbank Gorge to Mt Sonder South, then onto Mt Sonder proper
Distance	17.3km
Start Time	am
End Time	12.50pm
Moving Duration	4h26m
Stationary Duration	1h47m
Moving Average	3.9km/h
Overall Average	2.8km/h

Hiking Mt Giles, Ormiston Pound

2011-08-27T19:06:00.004+09:30

With four sets of track notes we were almost assured of success in our plan to climb Mt Giles. The NT's third highest mountain, and as Wild magazine puts it, "For such a prominent peak, with relatively easy access and the best views in the MacDonnell Ranges, it was surprisingly little visited. Not being on the Larapinta Trail had, to a great degree, kept its secrets hidden."

Mount Giles, West MacDonnell National Park, Northern Territory

Over the last two summers it has rained an awful lot out here, unusually so. The rains here come in summer, not winter, the rain from the left-over tropical cyclones from the north. Ormiston Gorge was flooded, people wanting to walk the 7km/3hr Pound Circuit would be rewarded with a very cool swim through the gorge. I gather not many people took that reward, opting to hike in halfway along the circuit, into the pound, then return the same way.

We hiked in halfway, and as the track veered north-east we veered off the track. With Mt Giles in our sights, we trekked across the pound floor, which was by no means flat or easy going. We hopped over rocks, between spinifex and around other more deadly bushes, seeking shade under the occasional tree or, if we were super lucky, stand of trees in a dry creek bed.

Approaching the main Ormiston Creek, which we had not seen up close since our shortcut across the pound, I saw what looked like shimmering water. The mind plays funny tricks, I thought. I gather Graham may have been thinking similar things, neither of us confident enough of our own eyes to make a call about water. Just as I convinced myself the appearance of water was caused by a strange mix of shiny rocks and grasses, a bird landed on this strange surface and caused ripples across it. Strange rocks indeed. We couldn't believe it, none of the track notes we were armed with mentioned water in the creek, quite the opposite, they all mentioned the lack of it. Making a bee-line for the water, we were rewarded with what seemed like endless pools of water. We wouldn't need to search out the illusive springs on the side of Mt Giles, or any lingering pools elsewhere.

Following the creek upstream we got wet, muddy boots, most unexpected. We even caught sight of some fresh foot prints, there were others out here recently. Having chosen a nice campsite out of the hot sun, on the sandy banks of Ormiston Creek, aroundabouts where the national park people recommended you camp (there are no formal campsites out here in the pound), it seems we had lucked on the exact spot specified in the main track notes we were using. With a couple of nice pools of water, we relaxed in the late afternoon shade and contemplated the madness of climbing Mt Giles which dominated the view before us.

The following day, somewhat before sunrise and when it was still cold, we headed off carefully following a set of track notes.We sidled up to the mountain base, and sure enough the spur ahead of us looked like a good option. Up we went, it was very steep to start with, almost scarily so, but the hardest bit was this first section, each higher section was gradually flatter until we eventually came upon the false summit, large and rounded. Now Mt Giles and it's distinct tin-on-a-pole cairn visible in the distance, we strolled along the ridges and saddles and made the final climb up to the summit.

From the top we looked around in every direction, generally ignorant of what we were seeing. I spotted a few landmarks, Mt Sonder, that so illusive Mt Zeil and Gooses Bluff in the distance. Scanning through the logbook, we were only the sixth party up here this season (there seemed to be seven to 11 parties each year), we noticed the many references to the south spur route up. People had been making some pretty quick times up. We had followed John & Lyn Daly's notes, from Take a Walk in Northern Territory's National Parks (referenced below), which could very well be the same route described by John Chapman in his Bushwalking in Australia book, although scanning through the book back in Alice we could find no mention of Mt Giles. A Wild magazine article from last year mentioned a quick, direct route up, but was lacking any good directions to find the base of the spur. Up here though, it seemed all to obvious, so down we went. Indeed it was quick and direct, the grade was steady and unrelenting, but easy enough. Both spurs offer numerous routes forward of each step, but the route up involved quite a few grade changes, flat spots, a false summit and much ridge walking. This southern spur was direct, constant and only 1.45km long (the route up was 2.2km). The grid reference for the base of the quick spur is 793827, for the longer spur 786827, check out the track notes on the topo map below.

Back at our previous night's campsite at lunchtime, Graham didn't take much persuading to convince him of the benefits of laying low in the cool shade under one of the big gums lining Ormiston Creek. So instead of hiking out, or over to Bowmans Gap in the other corner of the pound, we sat and read the afternoon away.

The third day, once again setting off super early, we made excellent time in the cool of the morning and were soon back at the car.

The sun had been bloody hot, the shade refreshingly cool, sometime positively cold. Hiking in the mornings had been a good thing. It seems only too evident now that last time I was here hiking the Larapinta Trail, I had benefited from the two months in the tropics of the Kimberley and the Top End to acclimatize to the heat. Dropped in here from the cool south's winter seemed to make the afternoon heat just a little too much.

Overnight Walks or Ormiston Gorge, official national parks leaflet

Take a Walk in Northern Territory's National Parks, by John & Lyn Daly, Take a Walk Publications 2006, ISBN 0 9577931 5 4. Walk article titled Ormiston Pound, Mt Giles, Bowmans Gap Circuit, pages 224-228

Wild magazine, issue 119 September-October 2010, pages 24-28, article by Michael Giaometti from a hike on 25/7/07

Mt Giles deviation in Ormiston Pound, a subsection of the page titled The Larapinta Trail, Central Australia by Roger Caffin

Have you hiked up Mt Giles? If so, which route did you take?
Where did you find water?

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TRACKNOTES - Mt Giles

The route we took going to the basecamp follows the creek more, this is good for afternoon walking, and to find water.

The route we took returning from basecamp to the carpark is more direct, it is better for the cooler morning as it involves more cross country ups and downs, and less shade.

The down route from Mt Giles to the base is probably the better of the two spur routes to summit the mountain.

Day 1
Ormiston Gorge carpark to Mt Giles basecamp
Waypoint	Comment
1 - Ormiston Gorge carpark	11.20am
2	GR709844 12.30pm/4.3km
3	GR722844 Break (tree) 12.55pm/5.49km
4	GR746843 lunch (trees) 2pm/2.30pm/8.12km
5	GR758842 Ormiston Creek (water pools) 3pm/9.55km
6	GR765831 3.40pm/11.01km
7	GR772822 4.17pm/12.38km
8 - Campsite	National Park recommended campsite Ormiston Creek 4.30pm/12.65km
Day 2
Mt Giles basecamp to Mt Giles summit and return
8 - Campsite	Leave 6.55am with daypack
D2-2	GR783825 7.18am/1.29km
D2-3	Base of mountain and spur GR786827 7.30am/1.72km
Mt Giles summit	9.30am/3.9km
Mt Giles summit	Return downhill, leave 10am
D2-4	Base of direct south spur GR793827 11.20am/5.34km Plenty of suitable campsites here in creek
8 - Campsite	Arrive 12.20pm/7.86km
Day 3
Mt Giles basecamp to Ormiston Gorge carpark
8 - Campsite	Leave at 7.15am
D3-1	GR765829 Fence 7.45am/1.41km
D3-2	GR757836 8.05am/2.58km
D3-3	GR747843 8.30am/4km
2	9.15am/7.8km
Ormiston Gorge carpark	10.50am/12.07km

GPS Stats	Mt Giles
	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
	24/8/2010	25/8/2010	26/8/2010
	Ormiston Gorge carpark to Mt Giles basecamp	Mt Giles basecamp to Mt Giles summit and return	Mt Giles basecamp to Ormiston Gorge carpark
Distance	12.65km	7.86km	12.07km
Start Time	9.07am	6.46am	7.13am
End Time	4.32pm	12.23pm	10.53pm
Moving Duration	3h15m	3h14m	2h51m
Stationary Duration	2h00m	2h21m	44m
Moving Average	3.9km/h	2.4km/h	4.2km/h
Overall Average	2.4km/h	1.4km/h	3.4km/h
Oodometer	12.65km	20.5km	32.6km

Hiking Mt Zeil, one of the State 8

2011-08-24T19:03:00.002+09:30

The wildfires were burning on the Larapinta, even the reopened sections of burnt out, smoke smelling bush didn't seem too attractive to hike. We opted for Plan B. Hike Mt Zeil, maybe Mt Giles and then some more.

Mt Zeil, MacDonnell Ranges National Park, Northern Territory

I have planned to tackle Mt Zeil for a couple of years now. It's in the State 8 - NT's highest peak, the State 8 being the highest peak in each of Australia's states and territories. I was up here this time last year, but I was all lonesome, and that's no condition to set out off the track for a couple of days.

With Graham beside me, Mt Zeil presented a very viable option. Most people used to access the mount from the northern side, driving a 4WD - or a few brave souls 2WDs - along the Tanami Track, then along some isolated bore access roads until they or their cars could drive no more. From here it was a short 6km up to the summit. That route is no longer an option, that pastoral station on that northern side has closed that access route off.

I hadn't yet contacted the ranger here at West MacDonnell National Park, he is widely held to have the access info from Redbank Gorge, I had planned to do that later this year in preparation for a tackling of the summit next year. Plan B was enacted just a day before we left for Alice, so there was no time to contact him then. I had already thought a walk in from Redbank Gorge seemed a much better option than hiring a 4WD and tackling the Tanami Track and bore roads.

We parked our hire car in Redbank Gorge, possibly the world's smallest car, and our packs full of weighty water, we set off through the gorge. Our base load was 11kg each, but adding 9 litre of water too that hefted that weight up somewhat.

Redbank Gorge posed our first problem. It is a narrow gorge, full of water. So we hiked up and around it, quite an adventure in itself, all to avoid getting a bit wet. Next time I thought - why would there be a next time - we should float our packs through and swim for our dear little lives. Surely a refreshing swim in water that never sees the sun, perhaps three or four degrees, would be pleasant enough compared to hiking up a scandalously steep gorge?

Safely through over to the other side, I surveyed the scene before us. Mt Zeil lay well off to the north-west horizon, much as expected, and a series of creek fed into Redbank Gorge. It was crucial we set off up the right one, but really that was a matter of choosing the one that seemed the biggest (it really wasn't that hard.)

Heading upstream, we experimented a little with walking along the grassy banks, which sounds nice enough was seemed fraught with danger. Rock hopping along, we set off to our major creek junction at GR468942. Ahead of me I soon spied what seemed to be water, was it a cesspool full of half dead-fish? The closer I got the less likely that seemed, we were soon upon an expensive pool of lovely clean water. Or course we would have to share it with those ducks, but I think we could deal with that. Walking further upstream towards that before mentioned junction, we came across a few small pools, and another large pool.

These all abruptly ended, perhaps they are semi-permanent, but all much too close to Redbank Gorge to be of that much water resource use for our hike. The creek became wide and flat, much like the super creeks of our homestate Flinders Ranges.

Once we reached the important creek junction, we began following the north-western creek. The hills to the right looked more direct, and we were overcome with temptation to take a shortcut. The scrub was freshly burnt out, it seemed like a good idea at the time. It soon turned outright miserable, as we followed the landscape from one saddle to another, eventually emerging not that far where we would have passed on the longer creek-following route. Lesson learnt, we stuck to our creeks from there on.

It soon became all too apparent though, this was a dismal plan. Our speed was slow, the terrain tough. I'm not sure at our current rate we would make it around to the northern side of Mt Zeil, the best place to attempt a summit from. Enraged with summit fever, or just the sheer stupidity of many "best-laid-plans", a shorter and more viable day's hike to the south-eastern base of the mountain seemed like a viable idea. The summit was still achievable, or so I convinced myself while carefully looking over the broad empty contours of the 1:250 000 topographic map. For you novices back at home, a 1:250 000 doesn't show much, indeed for the most part it allows the cartographer to do some very sloppy work. In an afternoon they could map out much of Australia with a few squiggly lines here and there for the biggest of the mountains. I pity those cartographers assigned to drawing up the 1:50 000 topo maps, they're going to spend the rest of their lives steeped in detail of every hill from here to, well, not Timbuktu but somewhere equally remote in this vast country of ours.

We soon broke out of the creeks, the terrain was flatter and broader now, so we set our sights on distance features and made straight lines to them - thankfully, or we would never have got that bloody far from Redbank Gorge.

The sun setting on our hard day's hike, we set up camp in our dry creekbed. Unbeknownst to us, we were camped within a couple hundred metres of the Tropic of Capricorn, who could imagine that just over that imaginary line lay the glorious wet tropics of our country's north. I guess it doesn't really work like that, and I already knew that.

The followed day we set off on our mad plan, neither of us any the wiser to the madness of it all. Atop the first saddle I was little dismayed to see a few more hills than I expected. On we went, eventually realising our plan was right royally stuffed. The summit cairn of Mt Zeil was clearly visible, but oh so long away. We had to give up, we had three days water with us on this trip, scantly that, stretching it out to cover four days in this heat was just bloody stupid.

A little bit inside me was relieved, managing our water stocks was somewhat stressful anyway. Back at camp we threw everything back in our packs, and set off in the direction of Redbank Gorge, out destination for tonight's campsite would be one of the two major waterholes we found this side of Redbank Gorge.

Dodging enraged bulls and their fellow cattle, we headed back to our creek system, there would be no shortcuts this time. We discovered these cattle form their own little trails which look every bit like trails designed for people, most are strangely many kilometres long, slowing wandering along creek banks.

We climbed over the fence back into the national park, safe from the crazy bulls, over a somewhat strangely placed chair aside the fence. We weren't the first people to cross here, that much was certain.

That night we were much pleased to reach the first waterhole before sunset, setting up camp after refilling our water bottles. Nine litres each had just got us back here. Sitting back relaxing the local birds put on a show for us, dancing across the surface of the water catching insects, and a couple of willy wagtails doing some kind of foreplay with each other.

Sitting under the cool verandah at Glen Helen Resort, just a few short kilometres drive away, sampling every cool drink we could lay our hands on, we pondered the madness that our scheme was. For one, I really did need to contact the park ranger's name I had been given for Mt Zeil info, there must be water out there somewhere. For one thing, those cattle need to drink something. Being well trained off-track hikers, driving into Glen Helen Resort we spied a small helicopter plying tourists for scenic flights, oh yes, here was another viable option of reaching Mt Zeil at some point in the future. We could charter it to drop us and a whole heap of water out on the northern base of the mountain, summit the mountain on the first day, and enjoy a pleasant day and half's walk back to Redbank Gorge.

Well our reconnaissance to Mt Zeil involved some walking, alas, but many an off-track mountain requires more than one attempt. We are now set to tackle it again with sensible, realistic and achievable plans - a plan that is not the least bit mad.

Have you climbed Mt Zeil? Let us know how.
Have you swam through Redbank Gorge? If so, tell us some info, is it narrow? Too cold? How long?

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TRACKNOTES - Mt Zeil

The return route is the better of the two routes to follow, no bad shortcuts, follows creekbanks rather than creekbeds.

Waypoint	Comment
Day 1
Redbank Gorge carpark to Mt Zeil base
Redbank Gorge	8.30am
Halfway across above gorge	GR469914 9.00am
1	In Redbank Creek having crossed above gorge 9.10am
1-1	First waterhole GR469921 9.50am
1-2	Second waterhole GR467935 10.42am
1-3	Major river junction GR468942 11.00am/5.58km
1-4	First saddle on questionable shortcut 12.00pm
1-5	Lunch on creek GR448975 12.45pm/10.2km
1-6	Open country GR428010 2.45pm/15.25km
1-7	Cattle country GR409032 3.40pm/18.37km
1-8 - base campsite	GR394049 4.45pm/21.4km 5.5+2.5 hrs
Day 2
Mt Zeil base, attempt on Mt Zeil, return to second waterhole
8 - campsite	Leave 6.45am
2-1	GR377067 7.41am/3km
2-2	GR371071 8.07am
2-3	Turn around 8.20am/4.14km
8/2-4	Back at base camp 10.02am/8.85km
2-5	GR423014 12.00pm/14.24km
2-6
2-7	GR744996 1.21pm/17.77km
2-8	GR441965 3pm/21.3km
2-9	4pm
2-10	4.20pm
2/2-11	GR467935 Back at 2nd waterhole for campsite 4.40pm/26.3km
Day 3
2nd Waterhole to Redbank Gorge
2/2-11	Leave campsite at 7.25am
Redbank Gorge carpark	9.05am/3.97km

GPS Stats	Mt Zeil attempted summit
	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday
	21/8/2011	22/8/2011	23/8/2011
	Redbank Gorge carpark to Mt Zeil base	Mt Zeil base to summit attempt, return to 2nd waterhole	2nd waterhole to Redbank Gorge carpark
Distance	21.42km	26.35km	3.97km
Start Time	8.03am	6.45am	7.19am
End Time	4.48pm	4.36pm	9.06pm
Moving Duration	5h38m	6h38m	1h24m
Stationary Duration	2h37m	3h05m	18m
Moving Average	3.8km/h	4.0km/h	2.8km/h
Overall Average	2.6km/h	2.7km/h	2.3km/h
Oodometer	21.5km	47.8km	51.8km

Unfinished Business

2011-07-17T20:44:00.011+09:30

We had unfinished business with Mt Aleck, an attempt to summit it in 2009 had failed.

Mt Aleck, Elders Range, Flinders Ranges

Back in 2009, it was a hot October day, over 30 degrees. Today it was cool, sunny winter’s day. Ideal hiking weather.

Back in 2009, we undertook the hike as a day hike. Leaving the car at 7.30am, we gave up on summiting around 1pm, realising we would run out of time. Today we set out from an elevation of 645 metres, yesterday afternoon we hiked up from 385 metres where the car was to our campsite at 645 metres – with plenty of time allocated to do so. Today we set out at 7.30am from our campsite, we summitted by 10.20am in the cool of the day. As the weather warmed we returned to the car, back by 3.15pm.

Back in 2009, we ran very short on water. This time we took extra water and left it under a tree on the flats, there as a contingency for camping a second night.

Back in 2009 we used a Wild article as a route plan. This time we used that as a broad guideline, and interpreting the contours on the topographic map made our own route plan, shorter and easier.

It’s arguable that 2009 was a reconnaissance trip for today’s hike, what we learned from that we put into a carefully calculated plan with a number of contingencies. We didn’t need to use any of the contingencies, the excellent weather lent itself to pulling the plan off within the allocated timeframes.

By continuing due west from the Umberutna ruins rather than skirting around to the north, we saved some distance in exchange for a short, steep - but quite manageable - climb. This led to a valley in which we selected the best creek to climb from, south of the first saddle. Back in 2009 we had gone up a very steep creek to the north of the first saddle. It had been tough climbing, there couldn’t have been a greater contrast with the creek we went up this time.

We had left Adelaide early Friday morning. Our afternoon plan was to climb that 260 metres above the plains to our chosen campsite. It was cool and windy. In Hawker it had been cold, I feared we would have a miserable night at such an elevation, but we had a fire on the sheltered side of the hill. We could have camped higher, on the first saddle, but it would have been very tough climbing up there each carrying out pack with a tent, sleeping bag and food. Light as they were – around 15kg - it would have been tough. Our campsite had a stunning setting. Behind us lay the sawtooth escarpment cliffs of the Elder Range, before us the valleys between the Elder Range and Wilpena Pound. We were treated to a spectacular sunset, and an equally spectacular sunrise the following morning, albeit after a very cold night.

Early the following morning, with the whole day before us, we started the steep climb, following an escarpment cliff, to the first saddle. In only 20 minutes we were on the saddle, this route was so much quicker than our route of 2009. From here, we climbed and descended each ridge along the sawtooth escarpment, sticking closely to the escarpment edge. We had learned only too well back in 2009 that it was much easier to stick to the open rocky escarpment edge, rising up and down the sawtooth profile, than to try the flatter route contouring around each peak. The vegetation makes it slow going, the spinifex made it quite unpleasant. The vegetation was considerably denser this time compared to 2009, since then there had been two wet summers. Last time there was very little shade on the ridges, this time there was plenty provided by the two to three metre shrubs.

By the time we reached the third saddle, we had spotted a cairn looking structure atop what might be the summit of Mt Aleck. It seemed impossible that the summit was that close. It was a little askew, so we weren't certain it was a summit cairn. However after another tough climb, we could see the unmistakable cairn ahead, and it was an easy to matter to close off that last distance. The cairn was indeed an interesting one, carefully perched atop the highest point of the mountain.

Leafing through the summit logbook, we were only the second group on the summit this year (2011). The previous year, 2010, saw no visitors, and 2009 just one. Yes, there was a pencil in the logbook container.

Our hike times had been perfect to the plan. There were a couple of sections along the sawtooth ridge that were particularly tough, dense vegetation with no escarpment route. We tried one shortcut, but it was woefully time consuming.

We retraced our steps back to the campsite. Even though we summitted by 11am, it was quickly getting warm. Yesterday had been a cloudy day, with strong wind and a few drops of rain. Today had been glorious, clear skies and warm sun, a thankful relief from the winds of the previous day and the cold night. From our campsite we descended back down the steep line to a saddle, down a steep creek onto the flats to collect our water drop. We walked back to Umberutna ruins, and along the Heysen Trail to the car, and on to the pub at Hawker for a celebratory beer and meal.

1st August: Some hikers have since told me of an easier route. Proceed up either of the scree chutes close to the summit. We debated doing this, but we never got close enough to the bottom of the chute to see how it started. It's steep, but quick.

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Track as displayed in map above:
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Track consolidated into best route:
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Download route marked on topo map, including times: PDF map

* The stats for the second day are divided into the ascent and descent.

Stats	Mt Aleck
	Friday	Saturday	Saturday
	15/7/2011	16/7/2011	16/7/2011
	Moralana Scenic Drive up to campsite	campsite up to Mt Aleck summit	Mt Aleck summit down to Moralana Scenic Drive
Start Elevation	385m	645m	1095m
End Elevation	645m	1095m	385m
Distance	7.45km	2.9km	10.49km
Start Time	12.25pm	7.30am	10.50am
End Time	3.15pm	10.20am	3.15pm
Moving Duration	1h51m	1h41m	3h19m
Stationary Duration	59m	1h12m	2h08m
Moving Average	4.0km/h	1.7km/h	3.1km/h
Overall Average	2.6km/h	1.0km/h	1.9km/h
Oodometer	7.45km	10.4km	20.8km

Three lil' hikes

2011-07-11T21:12:00.004+09:30

Three lil' hikes - with steep hills - led by Simon

Three recent afternoon hikes which Simon led, we enjoyed some sunshine and rain and exploring some of the hills, and, of course, some tough hills.

Sturt Gorge

Sunday 19 June 2011

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Cleland Conservation Park

Sunday 26 June 2011
Found a tough new hill.

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Gandys Gully

Saturday 11 July 2011

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Swimming strokes through the scrub

2011-06-13T20:38:00.005+09:30

In the words of our leader Mark, we swam through the dense scrub of Wilpena Pound. Whatever your technique, breaststroke or freestyle, we pushed our way through the scrubby bushes from Rawnsley Bluff to Moonarie Gap, and out to Bridle Gap.

Rawnsley Park Station and Wilpena Pound

Mark from Canada remarked on how well marked the trail from Rawnsley Park Station up to Rawnsley Bluff was, a clear made trail with markers every 100 metres, noting the distance from each end of the trail. Well, was this typical of Australian trails, he asked. Mmm. Well, no. After lunching beside the old survey cairn at Rawnsley Bluff, we started those swimming strokes through the scrub, along the ridge to the north into Moonarie Gap. In the Gap we eventually decided to set down our packs and split up, four to go get water, two to continue to look for the illusive sandy campsites Mark, our leader, had seen on Google Earth, the same that I recalled seeing on a hike up to Iluka Peak a couple of years ago. It took Dave and I just three minutes to find the first of the sandy areas and select a suitable campsite. The following day, hiking up to the base of Iluka Peak, we came across the actual site we both knew of, broad and sandy in the upper reaches of the the Gap.

This was another Adelaide Bushwalkers hike, a trip up to the Flinders. There were three groups, in my group there were six of us - Mark our leader, Trevor, Dave, Mark - recently from Canada, Ben and myself. A great group, sharing leading the way through the scrub bashing, and had no trouble walking together.

Sunday morning we set out to the north, leaving our heavy packs behind, to try Point Bonney. I think we all knew we would did not have the necessary time to reach the summit and return, but hoped we would be able to at least achieve Iluka Peak. Defeated once before, back in 2009, due to a rather half-hearted effort - we were awaiting updated road reports to travel further north to hike - and slow progress. We took a different approach route this time, last time we went west from the Pound rim, following a terrace up to climb over the hill between Moonarie Gap and Iluka Peak. This time we climbed but not as much, following the contour around the rim face into the next saddle. Approaching the saddle a strong wind picked up behind us, warm air being sucked in from the valley floor up to the summits of Iluka Peak and Point Bonney, a fierce cold wind forming dense foggy clouds above us. Although slowly the clouds retreated upwards, revealing the summit of Iluka Peak, we soon realised we had insufficient time to even achieve Iluka Peak. Instead we climbed the hill upon which we had given up our Iluka Peak ascent last time. Unnamed, we decided to name the peak Mark's Nob after our leader. There's a few nobs around the Pound. Although the cloud was slowly receding, we could see new cloud being constantly formed just east of the peaks.

Grabbing our packs from Moonarie Gap, we followed the creek down to Wilpena South Creek. Plenty of water around at the moment, slowly the creek opened up with less dense scrub and the occasional native pine tree. Out on the Pound floor, we strode out to meet up with the Heysen Trail near Bridle Gap, before ascending Dick Nob. We raced the sun down from the Pound rim along the Heysen Trail to Black Gap - the sun won btw, we came a close second. From here Davo was waiting, rather patiently it would seem, with his van to take us back to our campsite. Black Gap is on Arkaba Station, the station was sold a couple of years ago. The new owners have set up a new venture, a luxury top-end resort with luxury safari hikes. There have been a number of changes with the new owner; camping is no longer permitted along Moralana Scenic Drive; the Heysen Trail's Red Range campsite has been moved out of sight of the luxury hikers; bushwalkers are not permitted to camp anywhere on the Arkaba Station property, outside of the Red Range campsite on the Heysen Trail. I can't say I agree with Arkaba's stance. It is a pastoral lease rather than freehold, so they are stakeholder in the property - no doubt though a very important stakeholder. I think it is a loss to the community that camping is no longer permitted on the property. That said though, they are making a good innovative go of turning the property into a profitable one. Its history as a pastoral property has long since shifted to providing tourist accommodation, the new owners have taken that to luxury stance. Make no mistake, accommodation here is luxury with a matching pricetag, on a par with Kangaroo Island's Southern Ocean Lodge. However, they are generous stakeholders in the Heysen Trail, as quite a distance of it traverses their property from north of Hawker to Wilpena Pound.

Next morning Davo dropped us back, and we set off to complete our circuit back to Rawnsley Park. Following the valley between Wilpena Pound and the much smaller Ulowdna Range we strode across the open plains, finishing our hike by mid-morning. A fantastic weekend.

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Stats	Wilpena Pound
	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
	11/06/2011	12/06/2011	13/06/2011
	Rawnsley Station to Moonarie Gap	Moonarie Gap to Black Gap	Black Gap to Rawnsley Station
Distance	12.55km	18.94km	8.86km
Start Time	8.36am	8.08am	8.12am
End Time	4.11pm	5.39pm	10.44am
Moving Duration	4h10m	6h11m	1h57m
Stationary Duration	3h26m	3h24m	35m
Moving Average	3.0km/h	3.1km/h	4.5km/h
Overall Average	1.6km/h	2.0km/h	3.5km/h
Oodometer	12.5km	31.5km	40.3km

Using a GPS on a Hike: A How-To Guide

2011-05-11T20:31:00.047+09:30

GPS units have become quite affordable over the past few years. They can be a useful tool for hiking, but they can also be a little overwhelming. What are they useful for? Can they be useful along the Heysen Trail?

An article prepared for the Friends of the Heysen Trail Trailwalker magazine

Let’s Distinguish GPS Units

There are hundreds of GPS units on the market, and not all will be useful to hikers. We need to make a distinction between the handheld portable receivers for hikers, and the myriad of GPS units for other uses such as car navigation. A GPS unit filled with road maps and driving directions isn’t going to be very useful when you are out hiking in the bush. GPS units suitable for hiking tend to be small, fit in the hand, contain a map screen, and be waterproof and durable.

What is the GPS System?

How does Trilateration work?

Imagine you are somewhere in Australia and you are TOTALLY lost - for whatever reason, you have absolutely no clue where you are. You find a friendly local and ask, “Where am I?” He says, “You are 1290 km from Adelaide.”

This is a nice, hard fact, but it is not particularly useful by itself. You could be anywhere on a circle around Adelaide that has a radius of 1290 km, you could be in Newcastle, Towoomba, Alice Springs or on the Nullabor.

You ask somebody else where you are, and she says, “You are 1451 km from Cairns.” Now you’re getting somewhere. If you combine this information with the Adelaide information, you have two circles that intersect. You now know that you must be at one of these two intersection points.

If a third person tells you that you are 1368 km from Broome, you can eliminate one of the possibilities, because the third circle will only intersect with one of these points. You now know exactly where you are - Alice Springs.

The example uses only three locations - not four - because it is only working in two dimensions. GPS uses a fourth location to determine the elevation, and to improve accuracy.

Source: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/travel/gps.htm

GPS stands for Global Position System. It is a system of orbiting satellites that a GPS unit, or more accurately, a GPS receiver, will use to find its position anywhere on the surface of the planet. GPS is a US military application developed in the 1970s. A network of 24 core satellites with six additional satellites orbit the planet, each completing two orbits of the planet a day. A GPS receiver needs to have an unobstructed line of sight with four satellites in order to find its position. Each satellite has an atomic clock installed - a very accurate clock. The GPS receiver compares the time a signal left the satellite to when it arrived at the receiver in the hand, the time difference is used to calculate the distance. Receiving signals from four or more satellites, the GPS receiver can determine its x, y and z coordinate (longitude, latitude, elevation.) This is called 3D Trilateration - don’t worry, you never need to remember that term or understand how it works in order to use GPS. The panel on the right explains trilateration in more detail.

Other Satellite Systems

You’d be right wonder about long term access to a US military application. During times of war or conflict the US could disable or suppress the GPS system for non-US military use. Indeed, prior to 2000 the signal was encoded so only the US military could accurately use it. US military GPS receivers are far more accurate, and less prone to interference than the civilian GPS receivers available to the public.

Other countries have sought to secure their own satellite navigation network, the Russians have built the GLObal NAvigation Satellite System (GLONASS), which was opened to the public in 2007. The European Union is developing the Galileo positioning system, due to commence in 2014, and the Chinese the Compass navigation system, which will consist of 75 satellites.

Three Basic Ways for a Hiker to use a GPS Receiver

There are three basic ways to use a GPS receiver when hiking, you could use one, two or all three:
1. Use the Trip Computer to display how far you have walked, and for how long.
2. Use the coordinates to find your location on a paper topographic map.
3. Load a GPS file onto the GPS receiver and use it to navigate along a trail, or to a known place.

The first is easy, the second a little more complex, the third even more so. Let’s look at each one in detail, and how you could use them on the Heysen Trail.

1. Use the Trip Computer to display how far you have walked, and for how long

This is similar to how a dashboard in a car will display the speedo and odometer. You can see how long you have been moving for, and how long you have been resting. If you know how long the hike is you can work out how much is left and estimate how long it will take.

You will need to reset the Trip Computer at the start of each hike. On most receivers you can customise which fields are displayed, and sometimes how large or how many fields appear.

2. Use the coordinates to find your location on a topographic map

By default GPS receivers report their location in longitude and latitude. Whilst some topographic maps include some references to longitude and latitude, generally it would be very difficult to find your precise location on the map using these figures. Much easier is to use grid references. Grids overlay topographic maps, including the maps in the Heysen Trail guidebooks. On paper we often refer to grid references in six digits, ie

This system is called UTM for short. UTM covers the planet with a grid, each grid line at a 1000m (1km) spacing.

However GPS receivers will display each of these UTM fields as a seven digit field (as in the photo above right), not the two sets of three digits as seen on the GR note above. The seven digits are a measurement in metres, and is too accurate for our needs. 2cm on our topographic maps represents 1000m, or 1km - this is true of all 1:50 000 topographic maps, including the Heysen Trail guidebook maps. A single metre will appear as only 0.02mm, 10 metres will appear as 0.2mm. 100 metres will appear as 2mm. So of the seven digits, the last two digits are of little use, we can discard them. We really only need the middle three digits of each set of six digits. The first two of these three digits are the numbers seen on topographic maps. The third digit you will need to measure off on the map yourself.

The two 7-digit numbers in the Location field represent a measurement on that map. The Grid Reference here is 810 220 (ie xx810xx and xx220xx)

You will need to set the GPS receiver to display UTM coordinates. Usually found in the settings menu, you’ll see formats like hddd°mm’ss.s” and New Zealand TM - choose UTM UPS - this is what we use on Australian topographic maps.

3. Load a GPS file onto the GPS receiver and use it to navigate along a trail, or to a known place

This is the most complex of the three basic ways to use a GPS receiver. There are files on the Heysen Trail website you can download onto your GPS receiver and use to navigate along the trail, or to find campsites. Depending on the brand or model of GPS receiver, it could be an easy or complex task to load the file onto the GPS receiver from your computer.

To download the file, visit www.heysentrail.asn.au/heysen_trail/maps.php.

The files are in GPX format, a universal file format which can be used on most GPS receivers. Once you have connected the GPS receiver to the computer, you can save the GPX file onto the GPS receiver via Windows Explorer (for PCs). In the case of Garmin receivers, you would save it onto the drive of the GPS receiver, not the drive of the SD card (the SD card is only for background topographic maps.) Place the file in the GPX folder.

Older GPS receivers, like some of the Garmin eTrex series, will not accept this format. They require files to be loaded in their native file format, in the case of the Garmin eTrex this is usually Garmin Mapsource program - GDB files, or Garmin Trip and Waypoint Manager program. You will need to use a program to convert the GPX file to the GDB format. GPSBabel is a free/donation piece of software for converting files from GPX files to GDB files (it can convert to and from almost any GPS file type.) You can then open the converted file in the Garmin Mapsource program/Trip and Waypoint Manager program and send it to the GPS receiver.

The GPX file on the Heysen website contains the entire Heysen Trail as a Track. Track is a GPS receiver term, and differs from route and waypoint. Track, route and waypoint are the only possible things a GPX file can contain. You will often see these terms used on GPS receivers. Each Heysen Trail guidebook chapter is a different track - so six chapters in each of the two guidebooks equals 12 tracks.

The GPX file on the Heysen Trail website also contains waypoints of campsites, shelters and huts along or near the Heysen Trail.

3.1 Navigating Using a Track

Once loaded onto the GPS receiver, you will see the 12 tracks under the Track Manager menu. For Garmin receivers, if you select the relevant track and select ‘Show on Map’ you will see the track on the map screen. When you are out hiking, you can use the TrackBack feature on Garmin receivers to navigate - access this feature via the Where To menu or Track Manager menu. The GPS receiver will already know where you are, you might be at the start of the chapter track, somewhere along it, or at the end. Each Heysen Trail chapter track heads in a south to north direction. Activating the TrackBack feature, some GPS receivers will ask if you which direction you wish to head, ie from start to end, or end to start, others will work it out for you. If you are heading northwards along the trail, it will be start to end. If you start somewhere along the chapter track - not at the chapter end, this is not a problem, select the TrackBack direction and navigation will begin from where you are. If you move over to the compass screen, the arrow will now point you in the right direction to walk, and may show you a few extra fields like distance to destination (which is the end of that chapter track - it might be many days walk away), and may as you walk attempt to provide an estimated arrival time.

This can be very useful as it can save you from getting lost when you can’t see any Heysen Trail markers (the white posts with red markers, this isn’t another GPS term.) I’ve used this feature before on many trails, including the Heysen Trail, and I’ve met plenty of independent hikers using it. Generally you follow the Heysen Trail markers, also reading the map from the guidebook. If you come to a Y-junction on the trail, and can find no marker, or stumble off the trail, or just haven’t seen a marker in a while, this is where the TrackBack feature and the compass screen will be so useful. Head just four or five metres down the wrong trail from a Y-junction and the compass arrow will move from pointing straight ahead to pointing to the other trail, the arrow being left or right rather than upwards. Continue merrily in the wrong direction, the compass will eventually point downwards, instructing you to turn around go back. Continue a long way off the trail it will start to recalculate the shortest distance to get back onto the trail, which it might not necessarily be backtracking but be a straight line which might not passable.

3.2 Navigating to a Waypoint

GPS Receiver Advanced Use

Further to the three basic ways to use a GPS receiver, there are more advanced uses. You could find and download GPX files containing tracks or campsite waypoints of other walking trails. Firstly, try visiting the official website of the trail as the files may be available there. Sometimes published as KML or KMZ files - these are the native file types of Google Earth - you can use GPSBabel to convert these KML/KMZ files to GPX files.

If you can’t find an official file, try doing an internet search for other people who have walked the trail and published files. Be wary of following their track too closely, you could end up wandering off the trail where they did.

In turn you could share your GPX files with others. Many people publish their GPX files on www.everytrail.com.

Software programs are available which automatically assign the longitude and latitude to each photo. Comparing the photos you have taken on your hike with the GPX file, the program can add the position data to the metadata of the photo file. This means when you upload the photo to say, Picasa Web Albums, you can view on a Google Map where the photo was taken. Using such a program though relies upon you synchronising your camera date and time with your GPS receiver.

You could also self-publish files on your own website via the Google Maps Javascript API interface. This involves code programming, visit http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/javascript/

Once the GPX file is loaded onto the GPS receiver, you can also see all the waypoints, one for each campsite, shelter and hut along or near the Heysen Trail. With Garmin receivers, these will all appear on the map screen by default - unlike the chapter tracks in which you need to select ‘Show on Map’. In the Waypoint Manager the waypoints will appear in a list, sorted by how close they are to your current location.

Using the Where To or Go To function, select to navigate to a specific waypoint. The arrow on the compass screen will point you in the correct direction, and inform you how far away that waypoint is. The map screen will also show you a straight line between your current point and your waypoint.

It may not be as useful as it first seems, as the distance to the waypoint will be in a straight line, rarely are trails straight paths. However this can be very useful for finding the camp site when you are close by, but can’t see the camp site.

You could create a waypoint at the start of the walk. If you have already been to the end of the walk, say when you left a car there, you could have created one there too. This can help you to return to the same place later, and know how far the end of the walk is (as the crow flies.)

3.3 Navigating using a Route

Route is the third item that can appear in a GPX file. Creating and using a route is much more complex than navigating along a track or to a waypoint. A route is a series of waypoints you create on a computer, placing them at significant junctions along a map. You then navigate along the route, from one waypoint to another. You don’t need to do this on the Heysen Trail as you can navigate along the track provided in the Heysen Trail GPX file.

Walking with a GPS Receiver

The GPS receiver should always be left on while you are walking, including breaks. When the GPS receiver is on it saves your path to a track, sometimes referred to as a breadcrumb. In the Track Manager it is often referred to as the Current track. If you get lost, you can use this track to navigate back along your path to a previous known place (refer to the instructions on the previous page - 3.1 Navigating Using a Track.)

Why Different Results?

Why do people report different walk lengths when they have undertaken the same day walk? No two GPS receivers will report exactly the same figure, the same GPS receiver will often not record the same figure if the trail is followed again. I have tested out someone else’s GPS receiver alongside my own - almost identical models. I placed them hanging vertically side-by-side in my pack, yet they slightly yielded different results. Why?

GPS receivers are complex devices performing many calculations on signals from many satellites (up to 12 at a time.)
Poor stowing of the GPS receiver in or on your pack will affect its ability to receive satellite signals.
Newer GPS receivers generally provide far more accurate results than older receivers.
Old GPS receiver software may contain bugs which cause over or under reporting of walk lengths. For instance, Garmin Oregon receivers (the x50t models) with early software under report the walk length on-screen by around 20%.
Different GPS receivers update their position more often than others - between one and perhaps 15 times a minute. The more often, the more accurate the overall walk length.
The more satellites visible to the GPS receiver the more accurate the tracking - the signal from the satellites is weak, dense foliage, tree trunks or narrow gorges will block signals.
Although the GPS receiver attempts to compensate, the signal from a satellite slows the further it travels through the atmosphere - particularly affecting signals from satellites close to the horizon.
The signal from a satellite can be reflected off objects such as large rock surfaces and buildings.
Each GPS receiver is using its own internal clock to measure the length of time since a signal has left a satellite. When four or more satellites are locked in, it can start checking the accuracy of its clock, but regardless its clock is not anywhere near as accurate as the atomic clocks on board the satellites.

The signal from satellites can still be received through your backpack material, so you can place it in a pocket close to the edge of the pack. The signal can travel through fabric, canvas, plastic, glass, clouds - but not metal, brick, rock, wood or heavy foliage. However, poor placement of the GPS receiver in or on your pack can affect its ability to receive satellite signals. This is particularly true of older GPS receivers. If the GPS chip faces upwards when you are looking at the screen (parallel plane to the screen) - as with many older GPS receivers - but you stow the receiver vertically, it can only ever see up to 50% of the sky and available satellites. You should stow such a GPS receiver near the top of your pack, preferably laying flat in a top pocket - not side pocket - or attached to a shoulder strap. Newer GPS receivers are often designed to hang vertically, and with significantly improved reception are less prone to make errors like in the above diagram.

An example of a track from poor placement of a GPS receiver. The two tracks overlaying each other are from the same GPS receiver, but on different days. The bolder track is when the GPS receiver has been poorly placed, in this case a Garmin eTrex receiver in a side pocket of a backpack. The track points fluctuate, successive points taken just a few seconds apart are some distance apart. The light track in the background is from the same receiver, but when it has been placed lying flat in the top pocket of the backpack. It shows a consistent smooth path, the points appearing at regular distances and times apart - providing a much more accurate track and overall hike distance.

What to Look for When Purchasing a GPS Receiver

Determining which of the three basic uses of a GPS receiver you will use can help determine which features to look for in a GPS receiver. GPS receivers can cost as little as $100 for an entry level unit, receivers with more features up to a $1000.

Most newer GPS receivers are easy to use with large colour screens. Some have touchscreens, memory cards, compasses (that function even when stationary), altimeters (using barometric pressure to improve elevation accuracy and monitor weather changes) and cameras.

Know what you are purchasing, check the manufacturer’s website for the model details, you might find the model you thought was quite new is a discontinued model.

On-Screen Maps

Most GPS receivers come with a map screen, but some do not. Navigating along a track or to a waypoint will be much more difficult without an on-screen map, and easier with a larger rather than smaller screen, and easier on a colour screen than a black and white screen. Some GPS receivers have a map screen but come with no maps, or come with very basic maps. A very basic map can be of little use to hikers. Often called a Base World Map, it includes broad detail of country boundaries and major highways - but none of this will be very accurate as a minimum number of points make up each object.

Most GPS receivers allow this map to be upgraded. There are a number of options, ranging from free open source software, to expensive highly detailed topographic maps.

A GPS Receiver or a Paper Topographic Map?

Debate raged for several years as to whether a GPS receiver, loaded with topographic maps, could negate the need to carry paper topographic maps. People discussed the pros and cons of relying on an electronic receiver that could break, fail or run flat, or relying upon paper maps that could be lost or water damaged. However the debate has long been settled - neither is the clear winner. If you carry a GPS receiver you’ll still need your paper topographic map. For one, most on-screen topographic maps available for Australia are based upon 1:250 000 scale topographic maps - the Heysen Trail guidebook uses the more detailed 1:50 000 topographic maps (around 5 times more detail.) Secondly, even the larger GPS receiver screens still can’t parallel unfolding a large topographic map to get a sense of where you are walking over several days.

Both Garmin and Magellan sell GPS receivers with preloaded 1:250 000 topographic maps - if purchasing one of these receivers ensure you buy from an Australian retailer and double check that you are receiving Australian topographic maps. Highly detailed topographic maps of the US or Europe may not be of much use to you in Australia. This can often be a very cost effective way of getting on-screen topographic maps.

You can also purchase topographic maps from a third party and load them onto your GPS receiver. These start from several hundred dollars. They come supplied on a DVD and you will need to use a program to upload the maps onto your GPS receiver. Some retailers offer preloaded SD cards as an alternative, this is a no-fuss solution, you simply insert the SD card into your GPS receiver and it is ready to use. OzTopo sell Australian topographic maps for Garmin receivers - visit www.oztopo.com.au. These maps are based on 1:250 000 topographic maps.

A free option for Garmin receivers is ShonkyMaps - visit www.shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/ Allegedly based upon GeoScience Australia’s 1:250 000 topographic maps, there are reports that the level of detail is not the same as that offered by Garmin or OzTopo.

Another free option is to use the Open Source Map of each Australian state - anyone can update these maps online. These maps are not topographic, but show highways, roads, dirt roads and some tracks. Visit www.osmaustralia.org/garmin.php, you may need to use something like Img2gps to upload the map onto your GPS receiver.

Whether topographic maps are preloaded or not can significantly affect the price - if you intend to purchase topographic maps factor this in.

Battery Life

Some feature rich receivers can use a lot of battery power. 20 to 30 hours of battery life is good. Battery life could be more important if you undertake multi-day hikes where you won’t have the opportunity to recharge or replace batteries. Lithium batteries tend to last the longest amount of time, followed by alkaline, and rechargeable batteries the shortest. Lithium batteries are much more expensive, but can last up to a week - however some GPS receivers will not permit lithium batteries as they may interfere with the screen display.

Track & Waypoint Memory

Some older GPS receivers can only store a small number of tracks and waypoints. The Heysen Trail GPX file contains 31 tracks (12 chapter tracks and 19 spur and alternate trail tracks) and 135 waypoints. Some devices can store as little as 20 tracks.

Smart Phones

A smart phone (an iPhone or Android phone) may offer a viable GPS receiver alternative. There are apps available that function as trip computers, showing your track on the map and allowing you to add waypoints. Weatherproofness and battery life could be issues. A fully charged smartphone may last as little as three hours whilst running a hiking GPS app. Also, the basemap is likely to be Google Maps - principally a road navigation map - and only visible where there is mobile phone coverage, however there are some topographic maps coming onto the market which complement Google Maps.

Further reading for smart phone users can be found by purchasing (from $4.99) a copy of this BackPackingLight article.

A Note on a Popular, but Old, Model

Garmin’s basic eTrex, the yellow one, although once trusted amongst walkers, is fairly old technology now - first produced in 1998. Unless your computer is a decade old you will need to buy a serial to USB connector for your computer. Saving waypoint names is limited to 8 character names. No maps are displayed and its accuracy level is not as good as others, despite the “Now with high signal capability” stickers on the box. It doesn’t record as many points in its breadcrumb track as other GPS receivers, and there isn’t a setting to adjust this. The eTrex receivers also use a joystick control, phased out in laptops and other devices as they were notoriously unreliable.

In mid-2011 Garmin upgraded their eTrex range of receivers, releasing a new, updated version of the yellow eTrex.

An example of two different GPS receivers, one recording its position more often than the other. The bolder track shows the less often recorded track, recording just 20% of the points. This has resulted in a shorter distance being measured - 3.3km compared to the more detailed receiver’s 3.7km - amounting to 3km over a 25km hike. The problem is more pronounced when the track meanders over short distances, and could be barely discernible on long road walks.

Where to Purchase

Purchasing online could save you money, but be wary of preloaded maps that might be for the US or Europe. It could be reasonable for a shop to assist you in setting some of the basic receiver settings for Australia so it is ready for you to use.

Product Reviews

Excellent non-biased, thorough product reviews can be found in BackPackingLight articles. Single articles can be purchased for $4.99, or by annual article subscription. Conduct an Advanced Search for articles with your GPS brand and model.

Run the Latest Software

GPS receivers operate on software, much like your PC needs Windows to run. You should periodically check you have the latest software version, manufacturers may release software updates to fix bugs - visit the support section of your manufacturer’s website.

Want to Comment on this Article?

If you want to comment on this article, clarify a point or ask further questions, please leave a comment below.

Beyond the Heysen Trail: Parahilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless

2011-05-10T14:06:00.000+09:30

A page on the Heysen Trail website has been made available collating some of the experiences of the walkers who have tackled the walk north of the Heysen Trail trailhead at Parachilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless or Mt Babbage.

Beyond the Heysen Trail: Parahilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless

The page can be viewed at http://www.heysentrail.asn.au/beyond_the_heysen/

We would be keen to hear from anyone has has tackled walking in this area, we'd love to be able to add some more details to the above page. Also if you see any information that is incorrect, or incomplete, do let me know.

Great South West Walk - western half

2011-04-26T20:28:00.012+09:30

The Glenelg River in Victoria is gorgeous, a wide river meandering it's way through a gorge, limestone cliffs, surrounded by dense eucalypt forest and pine forest - and - barely a building or road in sight. It's here that we spent the Easter, walking the western half of the Great South West Walk.

Great South West Walk, Lower Glenelg National Park and Discovery Bay Conservation Park

UPDATE January 2012

I've now completed the whole Great South West Walk hiking trail. Read the second blog entry about the eastern half from Mt Richmond to Portland and back to the Glenelg River.

View Google Map of entire Great South West Walk trail

Download the Great South West Walk GPX map files for your handheld GPS unit as a navigational aid to hike the trail

Download the Great South West Walk KML files to view the trail in Google Earth.

I've paddled down the river three times before, I never imagined that dense eucalypt forest also held a walking trail and walker's campsites.

We walked from Moleside Picnic Area down to Murrells walk-in campsite, up, down, and along the meandering trail. The following day we pushed out the kilometres to reach Simsons walk-in campsite - not quite the isolated campsite that Moleside was, this one is only three kilometres from Nelson. People wandered past walking their dogs, a few 4WDs drove past on the dirt track. Dissapointingly - because I thought I had seen this campsite whilst paddling down the river before - there was no river view for this campsite.

The following day we divided into two groups, Graham and myself pushing out along the beach - after a stopover at the Nelson General Store - to Mo M Beong Lake campsite (also spent Mombeong, or Monibeong). Steve and Krystyna took a more leisurely pace, camping at a campsite midway along the beach. The beach walking was long but beautiful. The guidebook described the sand as "pleasurably hard" which sounds somewhat erotic - I can assure you it wasnt, erotic that is. We took the inland route into Mo M Beong Lake and the campsite, we really enjoyed that route and coming up to the lake. A swim was prevented by the lack of appropriate underwear or all the other car campers around (ok so that hiking underwear went in the bin after this walk).

We made the fourth day our final. We sat eating lunch at Swan Lake campsite, beside the lake, well we think, the location of the actual hike-in campsite was ambiguous, certainly of the campsites we had seen this one had the poorest facilities - all the others we had seen were very good. The nearby car based campsite and surrounding sand dunes were trashed by the tyres of dune buggies. Never have I seen this kinda of wanton damage to a national park from vehicles. We walked on, towards Mt Richmond. We were to camp somewhere ad hoc, to balance the days a little. As we decided to focus on the hours left to walk to the car at Mt Richmond, rather than the kilometres left, we were easily able to make it back to the car by around 4pm, and make that drive into Portland for a pub meal.

Someone asked how it compared with the Great Ocean Walk, well, it may not be a fair comparison. They are different environments. The Great Ocean Road didn't get that name by accident. I love the Glenelg River, but this walk comprises maybe four elements: river; beach; coastal cliffs; forest. In the western half of the trail we did, we walked the river and beach sections. The Great Ocean Walk passes through a more diverse range range of ecosystems, but Great South West Walk is still worth doing, perhaps just not something to rage about. It is much easier walking as the terrain is generally flatter. Despite being on my "To Do List" for a long time, we were only doing this walk now because we couldn't access Wilsons Promontory due to flooding. We met and camped with other walkers, they had intended to do some of the Grampians over Easter, but likewise, couldn't due to flooding. We will get back to finish the eastern half, but being so close to Adelaide I'm not sure when, Christmas maybe (being so close to home it isn't hard to organise a trip there, so I would prefer to use annual leave on trails further away.)

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

View in full screen format
Download GPX file - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit
Download KML file - view in Google Earth

Stats	Great South West Walk - western half
	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
	22/04/2011	23/04/2011	24/04/2011	25/04/2011
	Moleside Creek Picnic Area to Murrells Hike-In Campsite	Murrells Hike-In Campsite to Simsons Hike-In Campsite	Simsons Hike-In Campsite to Lake Mo M Beong Campsite	Lake Mo M Beong Campsite to Mt Richmond
Distance	25.15km	27.01km	25.62km	32.1km*
Start Time	9.16am	7.52am	7.43am	7.49am
End Time	3.52pm	2.55pm	2.53pm	4.13pm
Moving Duration	4h38m	5h10m	4h52m	6h08m
Stationary Duration	1h24m	1h22m	1h48m	1h52m
Moving Average	5.4km/h	5.3km/h	5.3km/h	5.2km/h
Overall Average	4.2km/h	4.1km/h	3.8km/h	4.0km/h
Oodometer	25.1km	52.2km	77.8km	109.9km*
*About 600m longer than actual trail, meadering around Swan Lake campsite looking for water

Beyond the Heysen: Stage 3, Mt Hopeless to Arkaroola

2011-04-10T14:13:00.017+09:30

Like last year, the La Nina weather effect transformed this hike - flowing creeks, full waterholes, green vegetation.

Mt Hopeless to Arkaroola, 7 days - 2/4/11 to 8/4/11

The average rainfall for Arkaroola for January through to March is 99mm, 375mm fell in that same period this year, and that on top of high rainfalls late last year, and a wet season the year before. Rain falls in this area during the summer months, the weather the left-overs of the wet season from the northern tropics of the continent.

This was a difficult walk, walking across gibber plain, along creeks, bush bashing along steep hills, hard to follow tracks and several summit climbs - difficult but all good.

The start point was Mt Hopeless, so named not due to it's diminitive size, but because the explorer Eyre declared it a hopeless situation. A giant horseshoe shaped lake surrounded the northern Flinders Ranges, blocking access to the north of the contintent. He was wrong, but it was a good while before anyone discovered that. It was not a continuous lake stretching for many hundreds of kilometres, but a series of lakes, which would have allowed Eyre to travel through them to the north of the continent. Alas, perhaps the mirage of a hot day tricked him. He had named Mt Hopeless before he even climbed it, it rises just 50 odd metres above the surrounding gibber plain, the last bastion of the Flinders Ranges. Arguably, it could be Mt Babbage to the south, I'm no geologist expert on these matters.

Access to Mt Hopeless was difficult, it is not that far off the Strzelecki Track, but due to the recent heavy rains it was only partially open. We had planned to charter a plane from Arkaroola to Moolawatana Station, just a day's hike south of Mt Hopeless, but their runway was rain damaged. A tourist helicopter service has just resumed it's season up at Arkaroola a couple of weeks ago, so we chartered that to fly us out to Mt Hopeless, which also saved a day, albeit at a greater cost - in part due to the two trips required, it was only a four seater, there were four of us and the pilot of course. We could have walked from Arkaroola north to Mt Hopeless, this finishing our six year adventure at the northernmost point of the Flinders Ranges, but it would be difficult for the helicopter to find us out there on the open gibber plain.

From 2006 through to 2008 I walked the entire Heysen Trail from Cape Jervis, south of Adelaide, to the start of the Flinders Ranges in Crystal Brook, through to the end of the trail at Parachilna Gorge. A week in 2009 we walked from Parachilna Gorge to Angepena Station, a week the following year we walked to Arkaroola, and now, we have completed that walk all the way to Mt Hopeless, a distance of some 1,500 kilometres.

The first three days walking was on a 1:250,000 scale map. It took some used to getting used the map reading, the map being five times smaller than the regular 1:50,000 most of the southern and more populated part of the state is mapped out in. The contours are only shown at 50 metre increments, I tell you, at that separation mountain peaks can hide in between those contours lines. The 1:50,000 map has 10 metre contour increments. It took us a day and a bit to reach the real mountains of the Flinders Ranges, those easily discernable from the gibber plains. Mt Babbbage, once suggested as the northern trailhead of the Heysen Trail - it was far too remote for that - was hidden between some of these contour lines. We realised this when we summited a false summit, which we knew to be a false summit, to see not one but two possibilities before us that might be the actual Mt Babbage summit, only one clearly shown on the map.

Mt Hopeless and Mt Babbage both had stone cairns on them, but both had collapsed. Photos from the 1960s showed the Mt Hopeless cairn as being taller than a man, now it was just a collapsed heap of loose stones. The logbooks for both, of which we know Mt Hopeless certainly had one, lay buried deep under the fallen stones. Dissapointing for us not to be able to write such an important entry into them. Later in the week we climbed the Armchair and Mt Painter, both had logbooks, although interestingly no-one had written in the Armchair logbook since 2006, indeed there were only three entries - all from 2005 or 2006, and no-one had written in the Mt Painter logbook at all last year, and we were the first for 2011. There were pens in the logbook box, so no excuse for someone who summited not to sign it.

The Armchair was a challenging hike, from the base it was difficult to establish how we would reach the summit at the top of the large bell-top that was the top of the mountain. Getting to the ridge a hundred metres from the summit seemed possible, if it were not for knowing that other people had climbed it I'm not sure I would have been keen to even try. When we reached the ridge, the base of the bell-top, we could zigzag up the bell-top, slowly spiralling around to the very top.

Hamilton Creek, which we walked along for three days, was flowing, a real treat that made our hike logistically easy. Not just that, but also very enjoyable, we swam in the cold, rock bounded waters of Terrapinna Springs, camping and swimming beside a waterhole. In Yudnamutana Gorge we camped beside a waterfall, the water flowing strong well above our heads. Each night, and often during the day's hike, we could easily find good water to refill our water stocks with. Others who have undertaken this hike before have had to rely on bores and either driven or flown in water drops.

We walked into Arkaroola after seven days, having seen no-one, not even footprints, no cars, just a single plane. The first person we saw, just as we walked in with our large packs, asked us if an old lady like herself could undertake a hike like we just did. I rather suspect she thought we had spent a couple of hours wandering out to the nearby Arkaroola waterhole, and not 130 kilometres from Mt Hopeless.

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

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Download GPX file - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit
Download KML file - view in Google Earth

Download our walking route drawn onto topographic maps.

Stats	Northern Flinders Ranges
	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
	2/4/11	3/4/11	4/4/11	5/4/11	6/4/11	7/4/11	8/4/11
	Mt Hopeless to Twelfth Station Creek	Twelfth Station Creek to Brindana Springs	Brindana Springs to Mt Shanahan	Mt Shanahan to Greenhill Well	Greenhill Well to Clean Chaps Waterfall	Clean Chaps Waterfall to Mt Gee/Mt Painter	Mt Gee/Mt Painter to Arkaroola
Distance	19.53km	20.19km	17.16km	21.94km	18.67km	12.42km	18.71km
Start Time	8.30am	7.19am	7.37am	8.01am	8.02am	7.43am	7.48am
End Time	5.02pm	4.10pm	3.15pm	4.47pm	3.46pm	4.41pm	3.37pm
Moving Duration	4h31m	4h51m	4h34m	5h33m	4h44m	4h45m	4h59m
Stationary Duration	2h25m	3h58m	3h03m	3h08m	2h56m	4h11m	2h59m
Moving Average	4.3km/h	4.2km/h	3.8km/h	3.9km/h	3.9km/h	2.6km/h	3.8km/h
Overall Average	2.8km/h	2.3km/h	2.2km/h	2.5km/h	2.4km/h	1.4km/h	2.4km/h
Oodometer	20.2km	40.4km	57.5km	79.5km	98.2km	110.6km	129.3km
Temperature	21.7	21.8	22.4	25.4	26.9	27.8	28.9

Julian's tour of Gandys Gully

2011-03-17T21:13:00.003+10:30

Another Thursday night, another tour, this time by Julian around Gandys Gully.

Gandys Gully

A gentle but steady climb up to the stone cairn on the summmit near Coach Road, then wander back down the fire track to the other stone cairn and down the hill. We've often done this hike in reverse, doing the steep walking track up to the first peak and cairn, then down the gentle descet in the valley. Again, plenty of blackberries and the odd koala.

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

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Download GPX file - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit
Download KML file - view in Google Earth

Stats	Gandys Gully
	Thursday
	17/03/2011
Distance	6.17km
Start Time	6.01pm
End Time	7.39pm
Moving Duration	1h38m
Overall Average	4.0km/h

Quiet here? No way!

2011-03-16T18:20:00.008+10:30

Well, it might have seemed from how quiet things were around here that I hadn't been doing much hiking. That's not so!

I've done plenty of hikes, and even a two day kayak trek, since returning from my four month Magnetic North trip around WA and the NT.

Here are all the hikes and trips I have just added:

In addition to the one blog post I did make since returning:

Water at home - Mt Remarkable National Park

Hot, hot, hot

2011-03-13T19:30:00.008+10:30

The hottest day ever? Well, hiking maybe. It was hot out in the sun and there were plenty of hills. By midday though it came over with full cloud, and a light rain started. Soon the temperature had dropped by eight or nine degrees, oh the relief.

Kersbrook, Mt Crawford Forest

This hike from the Push the Bush book is very good. Apart from a little main bitumen road walking at the start, it is almost entirely in native bushland or plantation forest, with the occasional small dirt road.

We only got a little lost once, and it was easily overcome. We got lost just before Point 3, we were following the creek from the main fire track which we had left at the first valley. After a 200 hundred metres, there was no obvious tributary turning sharp right. Consulting the GPS, we decided to make the short climb up out the valley onto the parallel fire track which we think is where the tributary would have led (if it existed.)

In this same area, on this warm, early Sunday morning, and off of any tracks, we saw small group of hikers battling their way through the undergrowth. It turned out to be Julian and Colin walking with some friends doing a reccie walk for ARPA. So funny to meet them not on a track.

Due to the heat, we didn't do Point 12, we stuck to the main bitumen road back into Kersbrook.

Have you walked here before?
Have you done any other walks in the Push the Bush book?

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

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Stats	Kersbrook - Push the Bush
	Sunday
	13/3/2011
	Kersbrook loop, Mt Crawford Forest
Distance	23.6km
Start Time	8.36am
End Time	2.37pm
Moving Duration	4h33m
Stationary Duration	1h19m
Moving Average	5.2km/h
Overall Average	4.0km/h

Chambers Gully

2011-03-10T21:15:00.005+10:30

Back to Chambers Gully with the Thursday group. A couple of good hills and bush bashing, some of it made up as we went.

Cleland Conservation Park

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

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Download GPX file - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit
Download KML file - view in Google Earth

Stats	Chambers Gully
	Thursday
	10/03/2011
Distance	8.01km
Start Time	5.59pm
End Time	7.42pm
Moving Duration	1h35m
Stationary Duration	6m
Moving Average	5.0km/h
Overall Average	4.7km/h

Kayaking on the Coorong

2011-03-06T20:35:00.008+10:30

The water is up, the birds are in. With water flows in the Murray up, the Murray Mouth is open, and the Coorong full. There are birds everywhere.

The Coorong, Coorong National Park

We hired a couple of sea kayaks from Adelaide Canoe Works, chucked them up on the roof racks and headed down to the Coorong for the weekend. Camping at Marks Point, on a dirt road south of Meningie and the Narrung ferry, we set off out on the water bright and early. Already, we had been treated to a gorgeous sunrise with pelicans and many other birds flying overhead.

Much of Saturday was tough paddling, it was a head wind. We made quick work of getting to the far side of the Coorong, into the shelter of Younghusband Peninsula. We paddled in 45 minute blocks, pulling up on a beach or reed bank to rest at the end of each block. It was hard, we certainly couldn't just stop paddling, the current and wind would take us downstream too quick. We managed about 3.5km/h, our first leg crossing the open Coorong we had only achieved 3.0km/h.

Water was lapping at the very edges of the banks, there were no salt plains to be seen, no dry crusty stuff - contrasting sharply with scenes we saw in 2008 (here and here.)

We camped on the Younghusband Peninsula, a nice campsite beside the Coorong. We wandered the kilometre or so over the sand dunes to the beach, the long, windy and isolated beach beside the rough Southern Ocean.

Sunday we awoke to a calm day, which made the work of paddling much easier and more enjoyable as we glided easily through the water. We crossed back to the mainland side of the water. I didn't realise much of this coastline is also included in the national park, I had always thought that the farmland abutted the water, but in many places it does not. There were many beaches, cliff headlands - it was all pretty interesting stuff.

The calm day did not last though, the wind picked up, this time we had warm northerlies - rather than yesterdays cool southerlies - and yep, that meant once again we were battling a headwind. We were pretty glad to make it back to Marks Point and the car. A single kayaker there was just coming back in, he had been out for a few minutes but the waves and wind were too much for him, so he was heading back home to his nearby farmhouse.

We'd only managed to get 16km down the Coorong, we'll have to come back another time to explore further south, I think it would get more interesting as the Coorong narrows.

Have you paddled on the Coorong before? Where?
Have you done a multi-day trek on the Coorong or Murray before? Did you do a there-and-back or in one direction only?

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Stats	Coorong National Park
	Saturday	Sunday
	05/03/2011	06/03/2011
	Marks Point to beyond Long Point	Beyond Long Point back to Marks Point
Distance	16.7km	15.7km
Start Time	8.02am	7.55am
End Time	3.51pm	12.49pm
Moving Duration	4h45m	3h19m
Stationary Duration	3h07m	1h29m
Moving Average	3.5km/h	4.7km/h
Overall Average	2.1km/h	3.2km/h
Oodometer	16.7km	32.4km

Gandys Gully

2011-02-24T20:58:00.005+10:30

It's been awhile since I have walked with the Thursday evening group, this time it was over to Gandys Gully.

Gandys Gully

Good hiking, lots of tracks I have never been on before, this is an area I have only done a couple of short walks in. Good, steep hills, lots of blackberries in season.

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Stats	Gandys Gully
	Thursday
	24/02/2011
Distance	7.23km
Start Time	5.57pm
End Time	8.01pm
Moving Duration	1h44m
Stationary Duration	19m
Moving Average	4.1km/h
Overall Average	3.5km/h

Montacute Conservation Park

2011-02-20T20:53:00.012+10:30

A short but steep hike, a good test of hills-fitness.

Montacute Conservation Park

It's only a month until our next instalment in the Beyond the Heysen trek, eight days hiking from Arkaroola to Mt Hopeless - the northern end of the Flinders Ranges. Good to know the hills are still quick and easy.

This hike is from 50 Real Bushwalks Around Adelaide by the late George Driscoll. It is hike number 42, titled 'ead for the 'ills - for whatever crazy reason.

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Stats	Montacute Conservation Park
	Sunday
	20/02/2011
Distance	6.23km
Start Time	8.35am
End Time	10.07pm
Moving Duration	1h20m
Stationary Duration	8m
Moving Average	4.7km/h
Overall Average	4.2km/h

Mylor to Aldgate circuit

2011-02-06T19:30:00.005+10:30

A great half-day circuit, much of it within reserves, reserves I had no idea existed.

Mylor to Aldgate circuit

I had seen this walk on Everytrail by HeysenBarry. The photos showed a lot of reserve walking, I couldn't quite figure out how, but true enough, after following his GPS trace into a small path off of Stock Road, we were led through a long, peaceful reserve - the Valley of the Bandicoots (and more here) A few other dirt tracks, side roads, and then back along the Heysen Trail to Mylor. A good loop.

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Stats	Mylor to Aldgate circuit
	Sunday
	6/2/2011
Distance	10.9km
Start Time	8.28am
End Time	11.02am
Moving Duration	2h14m
Stationary Duration	10m
Moving Average	4.9km/h
Overall Average	4.5km/h

Tackling the Peaks of Wilpena

2010-11-14T19:17:00.007+10:30

The plan was a simple one, walk into Pound, tackle some of the peaks on the south-western rim - pack light so we could camp at the summit or saddle. Easy. Flexible.

Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges National Park

The southern side of Wilpena Pound taken in 2009. This drought ravaged scene contrasts with 2010's very green season.

Photographer: The Sentimental Bloke

However. Simple it did not turn out to be. Our packs only weighed in around 13 kilos, we had some basic light-weight wet weather gear just in case of rain. But rain it did not, pour it did. On the Friday night, we camped in the carpark near Arkoo Rock. Some hours into the night the heavens opened and it rained, a lot. Unfortunately, one of our party's tents failed. It had had a long reliable life, but I guess the water proofing had just worn out, the heavy rain causing a dramatic equipment failure.

Not detered, we continued with our plan. We had some notes from others who had tackled the peaks - Beatrice Hill (1148m), Pompey Pillar (1168m), Dorothy Peak (1016m), Harold Hill (1073m) and Greig Peak (1044m). Most had tackled them from the inside, one from the outside of the pound. As it turns out, perhaps we too should have tackled it from the outside. The vegetation was dense, very dense, progress was slow - around 1km/h. From the track near Cooinda Camp we followed a creek west, then a ridge south, but I think it was more an exercise is slapping each other with wet laden branches in each other's faces than it was in hiking. By lunch time we had made little progress, the peaks around the rim of the pound were still shrouded in mist, there was no hope of drying out the wet sleeping bag. Our light weight weather gear hadn't feared too well either, it wasn't cold, but it could be a cold night if you have wet gear.

All these factors combined, it was unanimous, we retreated. We would return another time, better prepared. For one thing, it seemed prudent in future to bring other wet weather gear in the car, and leave it there, but have it there just in case the weather turns prior to leaving the carpark. Further research showed that people who had used the in-pound route had done so years ago, in drier seasons where vegetation had not had the opportunity to grow so thick, or where fire had cleared the vegetation.

Sorry, no GPS map this time around, no photos. Had a house break-in, lost it. Pity. Below is a generic map of the peaks of Wilpena Pound.

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Pewsey Vale to Greenock

2010-10-17T19:19:00.005+10:30

A catch-up walk with Hilary, she is set to complete the Heysen Trail for a second time next year. We finished the Trail together back in 2008.

Pewsey Vale to Greenock

Today's walk was a sharp contrast to the conditions we did the original walk in back in December of 2007 when it was very hot.

Sorry, no photos or GPS map, stuff was stolen.

Grampians - Mt Difficult and Briggs Bluff Circuit

2010-10-04T19:00:00.005+10:30

The climb up to Mt Difficult from Troopers Creek is a tough one, but rewarding. The loop around to Briggs Bluff via Long Point is also beautiful - all a very rewarding walk.

Grampians National Park

The 470m climb up to Mt Difficult, is, um, difficult. The trail follows follows the cliff face up. I guess it is a long, steep climb, which is where the difficulty comes in.

We hiked the circuit out to Long Point and around to Briggs Bluff, then back to Mt Difficult, in one day. It was a long weekend, there were many people out, some doing day walks, others camping overnight.

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Stats	Grampians National Park
	Sunday	Monday
	03/10/2010	04/10/2010
	Troopers Creek to Mt Difficult via Long Point and Briggs Bluff	Mt Difficult to Troopers Creek
Distance	19.2km	3.8km
Start Time	7.38am	6.52am
End Time	4.33pm	8.26am
Overall Average	2.0km/h	2.0km/h
Oodometer	19.2km	23.0km

Grampians - Mt Stapylton and Mt Zero

2010-10-02T19:00:00.007+09:30

A day walk up to the summit of Mt Stapylton and over to Mt Zero.

Grampians National Park

The track ends just below the summit of Mt Stapylton.

We followed up the day hike by a two day hike up to Mt Difficult and Briggs Bluff.

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Stats	Grampians National Park
	Saturday
	02/10/2010
	Mt Stapylton and Mt Zero circuit from Mt Stapylton campground
Distance	16.8km
Start Time	7.14am
End Time	1.29pm
Overall Average	3.0km/h

Mt Bryan

2010-09-26T19:40:00.006+09:30

Just a short wander up to the summit of Mt Bryan, doing some reconnaissance for another hike, so just drove along the roads at each end from Hallett and the old schoolhouse at Mt Bryan East.

Heysen Trail, Mt Bryan

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Stats	Mt Bryan
	Sunday
	26/09/2010
Distance	7.86km
Start Time	9.48am
End Time	12.22pm
Moving Duration	1h49m
Stationary Duration	39m
Moving Average	4.3km/h
Overall Average	3.2km/h

Blocked by the South Para River

2010-09-18T19:26:00.006+09:30

We had planned to cross the South Para River and walk into Hale Conservation Park, but the river was swollen and a little too difficult to get over, especially since we would have to return by the same route later in the day.

Warren Conservation Park

I have crossed the river here before, what a delightful surprise to see it so full of water. We walked up and down the river a little, by now sign of an easy way to cross it.

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Stats	Warren Conservation Park
	Saturday
	18/09/2010
Distance	13.26km
Start Time	8.50am
End Time	1.12pm
Moving Duration	3h05m
Stationary Duration	1h14m
Moving Average	4.3km/h
Overall Average	3.1km/h

Mt Lofty circuit

2010-09-12T19:21:00.003+09:30

A classic walk from Chambers Gully up to Mt Lofty summit, then back down the Pioneer Women's Trail.

Cleland Conservation Park

A good catch-up with Vicki, we spied a group of walkers from the Heysen walking club.

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Stats	Mt Lofty circuit
	Sunday
	12/09/2010
Distance	16.48km
Start Time	8.55am
End Time	2.03pm
Moving Duration	3h24m
Stationary Duration	1h44m
Moving Average	4.8km/h
Overall Average	3.2km/h

Water at home

2010-08-29T19:08:00.005+09:30

Having just returned from four months travelling around Western Australia and the Northern Territory - hiking over 600km of trail through gorges with waterfalls - I was a little surprised by how much water we saw in Mt Remarkable National Park, and, by how much I enjoyed this hike near home.

Mt Remarkable National Park

I have hiked here three or four times over the past five years. I was impressed. Green was everywhere, the creeks flowing, even large waterfalls. Lots of roos munching on green grass. A winter wonderland.

A great weekend hiking a track I had wanted to do for a number of years. We hiked from Mambray Creek campground along Mambray Creek Track, over Black Range - climbing up 500 metres - through to the Racecourse Track in the shadow of Mt Remarkable summit. We walked along Spring Creek, strongly flowing, we crossed the creek more than a dozen times. In all, we did water crossings over twenty times, far more than I had done in the entire 1,200 kilometre Heysen Trail.

We spent the night at the very nice Grays Hut, in the Racecourse clearing. A modern hut built around the ruins of an old dairy farmer's hut.

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Stats	Black Range Trek, Mt Remarkable National Park
	Saturday	Sunday
	28/08/2010	29/08/2010
	Mambray Creek campground to Grays Hut via Sping Creek	Grays Hut to Mambray Creek campground
Distance	22.1km	16.1km
Start Time	8.15am	8.20am
End Time	3.30pm	12.25pm
Moving Duration	4h50m	3h24m
Stationary Duration	2h30m	41m
Moving Average	4.2km/h	4.5km/h
Overall Average	2.8km/h	3.7km/h
Oodometer	22.1km	38.2km

Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park

2010-08-17T11:04:00.000+09:30

It's an image every Australian has been overexposed to. Uluru. The Rock. I didn't have high expectations, but when I first saw it on the horizon, I was still left breathless. It really is awe insprining.

Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park, NT

The rock climb. I'd be interested to know, how many Australians who visit the park do the climb. Is it mostly internationals? The climb is not noted on the map amongst the other walks, the distances and times are not mentioned. There is no information on how to access the walk, only a request not to climb it, and safety advice should you wish to, including listing the symptoms of a heart attack.

The national park was created in the 1950s, the land excised from the adjoining Aboriginal reserves created in the early 1920s. In 1983 the federal government agreed to close the climb. In 1985 the park was returned to the local indig people, on the condition the land be leased to the government - to be jointly managed as a national park - and they reneged on the climb - it was to remain open. There is no longer any real discussion as to whether the climb should be open or not, it now a matter of when it will be permanently closed. Last year, in a draft of the next 10 year management plan, it was recommended that the climb should be permanently closed.

Uluru or Ayers Rock? Well, since dual naming was officially adopted in Australia in 1993, either, both. So in December 1993 Ayers Rock was renamed Ayers Rock / Uluru. Then, in 2002, the order was reversed, Uluru / Ayers Rock. Most Australians though simply refer to it as Uluru. The road signs are a real mixture, near Alice, Uluru or the dual name. Closer to the rock, they revert to using Ayers Rock. In the national park, exclusively Uluru.

Then there is Yulara, the town created in 1984 some 20 kilometres from the rock. When it opened, all the existing motels, airstrip and other buildings at the base of the rock were demolished and the land remediated. The road signs point to Yulara, but when you get there, you are left wondering if you are about to turn off into the town or not. There is no mention of the Yulara name, it is called Ayers Rock Resort. The town was created by the NT government - hotels, motels, caravan park, supermarket, all the hallmarks of a designer town. When the town in it's enterity was divested of by the government to a private company in 1997, that company adpoted the name Ayers Rock Resort. No Uluru, no Yulara.

Modelling the socks and sandals look, my feet were too injured for those hiking boots, I hiked the short circuits of Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta / The Olgas, and a walk I was particularly looking forward to, the base walk around Uluru.

The Valley of the Winds walk, through Kata Tjuta / The Olgas, is pretty special. We are not overexposed to images of the Kata Tjuta, so it is all a pleasant surprise. Just 30 kilometres from Uluru, each visible from the other, they are similar, yet very distinct from each other. Uluru is an inselberg, the term monolith now frowned upon. Contrary to popular belief, it is not Australia's largest inselberg. Just down the road, it number three, Mt Cromer. Think western movie, Utah, the granite plug look. Over in WA, Mt Augustus claims the first prize. 1,000 kilometres inland from the coast, it looks every part a mountain, covered in trees and plants, and nothing like a single rock. Uluru, the second biggest, but every bit rock. Kata Tjuta is a different type of rock to Uluru, Uluru being granite, Kata Tjuta being conglomerate. It is a a series of 36 steep-sided domes, plenty of trees and grasses spread throughout it. Pretty special walking.

I saved the best till last for my four month holiday. I had been looking forward to this, the 10 kilometre base walk around Uluru. To see it close up, to see the waterfalls and vegetation that benefits from the rainfall running off the steep sides.

Uluru Base Walk map
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The Valley of the Winds Walk, Kata Tjuta
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An abrupt end at Ellery Creek

2010-08-15T17:44:00.000+09:30

Like I said, my hike of the Larapinta Trail (see earlier blog post) came to rather an abrupt end midway along it, at Ellery Creek. I'm at pains to describe exactly what happened, but one moment I was excitingly opening my food drop package, and moments later it seemed to game over.

Larapinta Trail, West Macdonnell Ranges, Alice Springs

I didn't want to taint my previous post about the Larapinta Trail with this ending. It was with great reluctance and disappointment that I decided to exit the trail here, at Ellery Creek. I had hiked five days and 100 kilometres, six days and 120 kilometres remained.

At the campsite, the open food drop box beside me, I removed all my various foot bandages, some merely for protection, others for injuries. What I saw had me a little gob smacked, for I knew this could only mean the end of my hike. As some of you know, my immune system conspires against me. One author of a novel I read when talking of a similar condition, described the double edged sword that medication treatment held, "it was not so much pain relief with side effects, but effects with side relief."

Ellery Creek was a good spot to exit the trail, the main bitumen road lay just one and half kilometres to the south. The following morning, I bid farewell to my new trail friends, as they continued on eastwards. I plugged in my iPod, I hate it when I see hikers walking with iPods, but my hike was over and I needed cheering up. If anything, it helped me remove myself from the natural world, an attempt to pull me back to our world of cars and cold supermarkets. I walked slowly, hiking boots carefully attached to my pack, crocs on my feet, out to the bitumen road. I stopped by the emergency phone, checking out the criteria for it's use. On the road I hitched a ride into Alice Springs with a local retired butcher doing some plumbing work for his son. He had spent almost his whole life in Alice, he had seen it transformed from a town of 1,500 people with an unreliable railway to the south, and a hastily constructed world war two single lane bitumen road to the north, to a town with 25,000 people. He recalled from his childhood how the train came almost to the main street, how there was just one house on the other side of the Todd River, now there is urban sprawl.

In Alice I phoned each of the four medical clinics in town. None could fit me in for a further five days. One rather hopefully offered me an appointment on August 26, some 14 days away. In terms of infections, five days was an eternity, 14, well, at least four times an eternity. So I had no choice but to wait four hours in Emergency, simply to get some antibiotics.

The following day I decided I would pay a little visit to the Old Telegraph Station, which is where I would have finished hiking the Larapinta Trail. The trailhead stood some distance from, and well out of sight, of the Old Telegraph Station. Shunned to a obscure corner of the carpark, the trail's presence was left unmentioned amongst the short walks trailhead in the Old Telegraph Station's grounds.

On that sunny afternoon I gave up the idea of completing the trail. When I exited the trail, I thought I would spend a week recovering, checking out some Alice sights and the distant Uluru and Kings Canyon, but having partook of the convenience of the supermarket with it's boundless food choices, and realistically assessing the health of my feet, I realised returning to the trail in seven days time was impossible. I tallied up my time spent on hiking trails in the previous four months of travel, and it rather neatly totalled 600 kilometres. It had been, in anyone's book, an excellent hiking season.

Hopefully a few kilometres remain in my feet, I want to walk around Uluru and Kings Canyon, but we shall see. What else could anyone do. The Larapinta Trail will wait for me.

The Larapinta Trail

2010-08-15T17:33:00.000+09:30

This is my first trip to the Red Centre Green Centre. Yup, very green Centre. This has been an excellent season for rainfall in central Australia, the infamously dry Todd River in Alice Springs has flowed five times already. Everywhere is green, and desert wildflowers are in bloom.

Larapinta Trail, West Macdonnell Ranges, Alice Springs

On the second day of the Larapinta Trail hike I met two girls from Alice. They were hiking the Trail because it had been such an excellent season. They assured me the landscape was covered in green plants, normally it was dominated by dry spinifex and red rock. One had lived in Alice for 20 years and knew her flowers well, some of the ones we were seeing are so rare she did not know what they were. They only flower after consistent rains, and that hasn't happened in twenty years. In the first four months of this year, it rained 372mm, last year only 116mm of rain fell, 302mm the year before that.

Almost every day I saw flowers I did not recall seeing previously. Some on mountain tops - many, some in open country, some only in sheltered gorges. They came in every colour: red, purple, yellow, pink, blue.

The Larapinta Trail took me somewhat by surprise, not least because of how green it was and the flowers, but also how magnificent the landscape was. It struck me as a kind of mixture between the Flinders Ranges and New Zealand. Dramatic red parallel mountain ranges, rocky outcrops, gum lined creeks - some with large pools of water, some dry. New Zealand? The mountain tops, vast windswept valleys with small, almost alpine like plants.

The weather in the desert winter is perfect for hiking. Warm, sunny days, between 18 and 20 degrees. Cold nights, about zero to five degrees. Nice for a small campfire, although, of course, we didn't have any, the collection of firewood is not permitted in national parks.

There are a few curiosities along the trail. Firstly, the debacle of Mt Sonder. All the literature and signage suggests you climb to the summit, when you do not. The cairn, marking the alleged summit, even states it is Mt Sonder summit, 1380m above sea level. You can't miss the Mt Sonder proper summit, laying immediately in front of you, across a small gully some 750m or so to the north east. The false summit is about 30 metres lower than the proper summit. This theme is continued, between Serpentine Gorge and Ellery Creek lies a trig, with a somewhat homemade look about it, which it would have, since it doesn't even mark the highest point of the low rocky outcrop, surrounded by larger mountains.

One website describes this section as "This is arguably the most boring section of the entire trail." Going further, "prepare to tear your hair out in frustration," referring to the constant hills and ridges the track follows, when there is a seemingly good route a few hundred metres to the south over flat land. "If you are a bird watcher or bushwalker this section may not be too bad," they state. Too right. Didn't mind a bit.

The trail regularly went up to the top of a hill or mountain, providing wonderfully scenic spots for breaks. From many of these Mt Sonder, and further beyond it, Mt Zeil, Northern Territory's highest peak, dominated the distant west.

I started from the western end of the trail, the alleged end of the trail. The trail starts just four kilometres north of Alice Springs at the Old Telegraph Station, running 223km westwards along the West Macdonnell Ranges to Mt Sonder. It made more logistical sense for me to start from the western end. I paid Alice Wanderer, a local bus company, $400 to transfer me from Alice Springs to the western end, which included two food drops along the way. The food drops are securely stowed in locked rooms, and they provided me with a plastic tub for each drop. If I hiked the trail out from Alice Springs, I would have to pay for the food drops to be driven out, and pay to be collected from the end. This would have cost something like $580, and I would have a schedule to meet.

I met several parties of hikers on the first day and night. The Mt Sonder summit (read false summit) hike is popular amongst day hikers. As it is a return hike, the campsite near the trailhead often has more people camping there: those starting out on the trail and about to undertake the summit hike, those just completed the summit hike, and those completing the trail and waiting for a lift back to Alice Springs. The campsite is not marked on the 2006 map edition, but is located just 200 metres from the trailhead, on the banks of Redbank Creek.

On the second night, at the excellent Finke River campsite, I was enjoying the free gas hotplates in the evening light, the sun having set just moments before, when a solitary hiker stumbled in. Cutting it fine, he had only left Redbank Gorge to hike the 26 kilometres at 11am. He had to catch up with his son, who had started out three days previously. I met the son the following day as i passed through a campsite, and the pair of them stumbled into a my campsite further down the trail just moments after the sun sunk over the horizon. We had similar hiking schedules, so hiked and camped together for the following days.

The trail is well marked with blue arrows, and generally well formed. Only on the rocky mountain tops did I ever stray from the trail, and usually it was just a matter of looking for the rocks crushed underfoot, or the white dust from within the crushed rocks.

Trail facilities are generally good. The shelter at Finke River was particularly impressive, of a similar standard to the Bibblimun Track and Munda Biddi Tracks in Western Australia. It included ample roofing, sleeping platforms, a vermin proof cupboard for food, multiple water tanks, a picnic table and benches, and, yes wait for it, a couple of gas hotplates. This shelter isn't shown on the 2006 edition maps, so a little research pays off. A good website for that would be the larapintatrail.com website, look at the Sections page for details of camp facilities and an honest, if not brutal, appraisal of the trail terrain. A little overwhelming perhaps to sort through before hiking any of the trail, but regardless a good supplement to the maps.

Water seems readily available at water tanks, and we had to drink none of the bore water that was about. Naturally, with so much rain, there was ample flowing water in the creeks. Many of the larger rivers required detours of several hundred metres to skirt around the widest, muddiest sections of the large pools.

I wasn't sure how long the trail would take me. The trail is divided into 12 sections, but some of these are defined as two day sections, with campsite options midway. That said, they didn't seem to be uncheckable far apart for a hiker like myself, so I used that as my template. So the trail could be hiked in as little as 11 or 12 days, but many hikers take their time, using up to 19 or 20 days. I had food for 16 days, and a few options to spread that food further, and there was kiosk near the end with a few basic supplies.

That said, my hike came to rather an abrupt end at Ellery Creek. I had hiked five days and 100 kilometres, six days and 120 kilometres remained.

There are two albums this time, one general album, and one devoted to all the desert wildflowers I saw.

General album:

Desert wildflowers album:

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Tracks and waypoints sourced from two sources. Source 1: Sections 7 through to 11 (excluding the last 6km of Section 11) - handheld GPS device. Source 2:- sections 1 through to 6 and Section 12 - from www.larapintatrail.com

Stats	The Larapinta Trail
	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
	07/08/2010	08/08/2010	09/08/2010	10/08/2010	11/08/2010
	Redbank Gorge to Mt Sonder and return	Redbank Gorge to Finke River	Finke River to Waterfall Gorge	Waterfall Gorge to Counts Point	Counts Point to Ellery Creek
Distance	14.55km	25.91km	22.86km	17.68km	18.97km
Start Time	10.36am	7.41am	7.51am	8.11am	7.10am
End Time	3.15pm	3.27pm	3.56pm	5.46pm	2.57pm
Moving Duration	3h14m	5h21m	5h35m	5h38m	5h24m
Stationary Duration	1h25m	2h27m	2h38m	3h57m	2h23m
Moving Average	4.5km/h	4.8km/h	4.1km/h	3.1km/h	3.5km/h
Overall Average	3.1km/h	3.3km/h	2.8km/h	1.8km/h	2.4km/h
Oodometer	14.5km	40.5km	63.3km	81.0km	100.0km
Overnight Low	-0.2C	1.1C	0.9C	2.6C	-0.4C

Um...

2010-08-12T11:02:00.000+09:30

It is with great relunctance and dissapointment that I have been forced to exit the Larapinta Trail early. I have walked five days and 100km, six days and 120km remain.

Larapinta Trail, West Macdonnell Ranges, Alice Springs

A blog post of those five days to come...

The Jatbula Trail

2010-08-03T20:44:00.000+09:30

"It's a tough track ya know." The ranger was scrutinizing my walking plan for the 58 kilometre Jatbula Trail. Four days seemed reasonable to me, but the Jatbula Trail is a trail that demands that you take your time. This is what I, like many others who have walked it, have learnt on the trail.

Jatbula Trail, Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge), Northern Territory

The comments book at the kiosk at the end of the walk reads the same, again and again - "It took a couple of days before we worked it out." Rising early - before first light, walking - preferably slowly - in the morning, swimming and relaxing in the shade of a tree in the afternoons. I even got up at 6am once or twice, Graham you would be proud. The terrain is not difficult, it is the tropical heat that beats you into submission. Venturing into the sun, away from the water's edge, you suddenly realise just how hot the afternoon has become.

The Jatbula Trail starts from the Katherine River in the Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park, 30 kilometres east of Katherine, in the Northern Territory. It follows the escarpment across the park to Leliyn (Edith Falls). The campsites are ideally spread about 10 kilometres apart, each beside a picturesque waterfall, creek or rockhole.

In the queue for the ferry at Katherine Gorge, I met two fellow walkers, two women who had escaped their partners and children in Melbourne for a week walking. We looked around for the other seven hikers who would be beginning on the same day, only to see none of them. How odd, we thought. The trail, or so we thought, was limited to 10 hikers starting out per day. We soon learnt though, that this was not the case. We saw no-one else on the trail until the fifth and final night, at Sweetwater Pool, where anyone can hike the four kilometres in from the end of the trail at Leliyn. Perhaps it was limited to 10 hikers on the trail. We had both had trouble booking a place on the trail months beforehand, it certainly seemed to be fully booked.

My four day hike turned into a six day hike. It was so relaxing just to take it easy and relax each afternoon. I spent six days - six hilarious days - with Kris and Kristen, who I had met on that first day, hiking, swimming, relaxing and playing cards on our makeshift picnic rug. We exchanged tales of our hiking adventures, all of us becoming converts to hiking in the previous five to ten years.

Our first campsite, at Biddlecombe Cascades, was the entree of what the Jatbula Trail held in store for us. Water flowed from the escarpment over the terraces into large rock pools. Being swamp fed the water was deliciously cool, warmer than other nearby pools.

Crystal Falls is on a river, seemingly unnamed, so much water is there. Flowing over rocks creating eddies in the many rock pools. The shady trees on the bank offered numerous choices to set-up camp. Glorious riverside camping, the afternoon spent dipping ourselves in the rockpools or relaxing in the shade, as we pleased. The Crystal Falls themselves remained hidden down the valley, the following day we saw the falls plunging far off the escarpment into a narrow chasm below.

The falls weren't hidden at our third campsite, 17 Mile Falls. Walking in, we were treated to a clifftop view of the falls, the water dropping into a large plunge pool below. The campsite was bright and overpowering in the midday sun, but relaxed into the afternoon as the shade crept across it. We spent the afternoon, once again, at the water's edge.

The photos do no justice to Sandy Pool camp. The shaded campsite, set on the sandy banks of a large, deep pool. The Edith River enters over rocks upstream, dissapearing into reeds at the other. The edge, with it's lily pads, hiding the near vertical rocky sides.

It's not all picturesque creeks and falls though. The Amphitheatre is a little oasis on the escarpment edge. A narrow track leads down into the deep, steep sided valley. The sheer cliffs on the three sides, adorned with the ancient of the Jawoyn People. A stream, seemingly emerging from no-where, meanders through the landscape. If it were not for the tropical humidity, cool as the Amphitheatre was, one could mistake this for Tasmania - the tall myrtle trees dropping their leaves to cover the forest floor, dappled sunlight coming through the thick canopy.

The landscape is diverse: savannah, swamps, melaleuca stands, rocky escarpment outcrops. The wind whips through the trees on the turbulent escarpment edge, providing welcome relief to the tropical heat. At 17 Mile Falls, rain and lightning rolled around us, lighting the night sky. It did not rain on us, much to the relief of Kris and Kristen with their mosquito net, their Forcefield against the night's bugs but somewhat ineffective against rainfall.

Now, how much do you think such an exclusive hike would cost. Well, there's the six dollar ferry fare. Then, the three dollar nightly camping fee. Seriously, there are limited options on how to return from the end of the trail at Leliyn (Edith Falls) to Katherine, or to Katherine Gorge. The only services provided are by the several taxi services from Katherine, putting the cost at about $150 to Katherine. There are some rumours that as of 2010 Dysons buses are providing a service for about $100 but I haven't been able to confirm this. Nitmiluk Tours, via Dysons buses, provide an affordable shuttle service between Katherine and Katherine Gorge.

The Jatbula Trail, a unique and seemingly exclusive trail. I have two pieces of for you. Take it easy, get up early, walk slowly. And to ensure you can enjoy what this trail offers, book early.

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Stats	Jatbula Trail
	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday
	29/7/2010	30/7/2010	31/7/2010	1/8/2010	2/8/2010	3/8/2010
	Nitmiluk Visitor Centre to Biddlecombe Cascades	Biddlecombe Cascades to Crystal Falls	Crystal Falls to 17 Mile Falls	17 Mile Falls to Sandy Camp Pool	Sandy Camp Pool to Sweetwater Pool	Sweetwater Pool to Leliyn (Edith Falls)
Distance	7.9km	10.5km	9.8km	16.8km	11.2km	4.1km
Start Time	9.08am	7.49am	7.19am	7.20am	7.57am	6.41am
End Time	12.18pm	11.39am	10.48am	12.00pm	10.19am	8.05am
Moving Duration	2h04m	2h45m	2h16m	3h31m	2h11m	1h03m
Stationary Duration	1h13m	1h04m	1h12m	1h04m	10m	21m
Moving Average	3.8km/h	3.8km/h	4.3km/h	4.8km/h	5.1km/h	3.9km/h
Overall Average	2.4km/h	2.7km/h	2.8km/h	3.7km/h	4.8km/h	2.9km/h
Oodometer	7.9km	18.5km	28.3km	45.3km	56.6km	60.7km

Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge)

2010-07-28T17:24:00.000+09:30

Occasionally, although thankfully, rarely, things can go horribly wrong on a hike. No, not an injury, getting lost, or even the much feared snake bite or croc encounter. One can run out of reading material. Even those who have meticulously packed for their hike, including not one, but two books, can be caught short. I completed both my books during the long, lazy afternoons at each campsite.

Nitmiluk National Park (Katherine Gorge), Northern Territory

Maybe not horribly wrong, but as those of you who are fellow book lovers, this isn't a situation one wants to find oneself in. I had tried to fill my days with hiking, picking the furthest campsites with the most difficult trail ratings. As you might know, I waste no time in walking. I completed each day's hiking within four hours. The first day, this wasn't so much of a problem as I only started out at 10am. The second day though, I was eating an early lunch atop the cliff's edge overlooking Katherine Gorge and my night's campsite.

I could have done all the walking in two, not three, days, but I wanted to give my ever-injured feet a break, and to enjoy each of the spectacularly placed campsites on the Katherine River.

The day before my hike the Katherine River was closed to swimmers and canoeists due to a saltie sighting. A canoeist had seen what they thought looked awfully like a saltie, and not a freshie. Two days later, the rangers confirmed it. As is their way, the saltie had moved up the river undetected. It was only a little fella, only two metres in length, but still, it wouldn't pass up the opportunity to have a bit of a nibble on a German or Japanese tourist. It had snuck past the main swimming and boating area near the visitor centre, over the first set of rapids and into the second gorge.

There was no danger to my planned hike, or so I was assured. The croc still had to cross a few more sets of rapids to reach my swimming and camping spots. Even so, the thought plays on one's mind as one swims in the river. These crocs can move about undetected, let's not forget that.

I walked first to the Eighth Gorge, not deviating down any of the side trips from the main east-west track. The network of walks here is referred to as the Southern Walks of the Nimiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park. It presents many options - one main track leads end-to-end, many side tracks lead down to the gorge and river. Several weeks ago I had walked a day hike into Butterfly Gorge and Pat's Lookout with Beni - at the time we had been limited to day walks as we needed to check daily at the post office to see if the new radiator for the crippled car had arrived.

Butterfly Gorge is not so special. There are butterflies, true, but they aren't of particular interest. The monsoon forest here has been blackened by recent bushfires. The river's edge is somewhat inaccessible. Returning from out walk here, we diverted down another side track to Pat's Lookout and the Southern Rockhole. The lookout has panoramic views over the river from the cliff edge. We also enjoyed a nice swim in the river, not put off by the signs on the opposite side of the river stating, "Warning. Do not enter beach. Croc breeding ground." They were, of course, only harmless freshies.

Eighth Gorge is special. The campsite is beside a large plunge pool with waterfall. The river can be found by following the trickle of water leaving the pool's edge, growing to a creek, before it itself tumbles over the cliff edge to the Katherine River far below.

On the second day, I returned along some of the main track, but this time deviating into Jawoyn Valley. The indig rock art was hard to find, I suspect I found very little of it, but the views and surroundings were pleasant so the detour was well worth it.

Returning to the main track, I took another side track, this time to Smitt Rock where I would spend the afternoon and camp. Naming the place a rock is quite an understatement. The river is split in two by the huge rock formation, it as high as the surrounding cliffs. The campsite sits on the sand banks of the river. I had this campsite, like the previous night's, all to myself. There were no other hikers, and no-one was permitted to canoe up the river to join me. Pity, it was a wonderful place to spend a warm afternoon reading in the shade of a nice gum tree.

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Stats	Southern Walks of Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) National Park
	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday
	26/7/2010	27/7/2010	28/7/2010
	Nitmiluk Visitor Centre to Eighth Gorge	Eighth Gorge to Smitt Rock via Jawoyn Valley	Smitt Rock to Nitmiluk Visitor Centre
Distance	15.65km	15.5km	10.8km
Start Time	9.50am	8.10am	7.38am
End Time	2.10pm	12.40pm	10.06am
Moving Duration	2h55m	3h10m	2h08m
Stationary Duration	1h07m	1h23m	19m
Moving Average	5.4km/h	4.7km/h	5.0km/h
Overall Average	3.6km/h	3.3km/h	4.4km/h
Oodometer	15.65km	31.7km	42.1km

Table Top Track - Litchfield

2010-07-25T20:09:00.003+09:30

My main interest in Litchfield National Park was the 39 kilometre Tabletop Track. However the park was so good, and the offer of a friend to come down and join me for the weekend from Darwin was too good to refuse, so I stayed on for another three days.

Litchfield National Park, Northern Territory

The Tabletop Track is a loop walk, accessible from several different link walks that connect to car based campgrounds or natural attractions. So even though it is a 39 kilometre walk, one has to walk further to access the track, and further still to take in some of the side trips the natural attractions such as the rock holes and waterfalls. Well, if, and I mean IF, one can cope with walking during the day seeing almost no-one, then walking down a side track to a waterfall which has seemingly just been inundated with several tourist buses worth of people, each armed with an SLR camera and complaining about how tiring the three hundred metre walk from the carpark is.

Florence Falls is one of the more famous sites in Litchfield National Park, perhaps only Wangi Falls rivals it. I did the two kilometre side trip to Florence Falls, the link walk taking me through a humid monsoon tropical forest to the spectacular falls with a large, cool plunge pool. Somehow I quite accidentally managed to get a photo with no-one in it, how I don't know, as I swam another tourist bus load of people arrived.

The following day though, I couldn't bear to repeat the people inundation experience at Wangi Falls, so I skipped this side trip. I did return in the following days though with my friend from Darwin, and there were so, so many people, but it was still good, maybe helped by his tales of visiting Wangi during the Wet. No people there then, just lots of water and maybe lots of crocs lurking around too.

Much of what is easily accessible in Litchfield National Park, including the Tabletop Track, lies in the north of the park. The Tabletop Plateau dominates, the roads skirt around the plateau following the escarpment edge, frequent short roads in to the many waterfalls and water holes. The Tabletop Track likewise follows much of the escarpment, but on the plateau well away from the road and people. While most of the waterfalls are accessible by these short roads, some are only accessible from the Tabletop Track, which is what makes this track so special.

The walking in the savanna was hot, I really should have done the walk over more days and restrict my walking to the cooler mornings. The monsoon forests and many creeks and waterfalls though were so much cooler to walk through, always a nice place to sit and relax, maybe swim.

One campground was particularly special, only a very short walk from a link walk car park, each campsite with it's own private bit of creek, rock pool and waterfall. But if I tell you it's name I will have to kill you. So if you email me or leave a comment asking me, I will need to send a hit man around. And that wont be very pleasant, now will it? I would like to keep the Best Ever Campsite a secret as much as possible, although I shared it with my Darwin friend and I decided I would let him live (he was, after all, rather nice to talk to).

I lost my much loved and travelled hiking GPS unit, an insurance agent slammed into the back of my car on the highway, and I accidentally took too much of what I like to call my Deadly Drug (a medication), but these are all stories for another time...

Sorry, no map from the GPS for you this time. Too bad heh, you won't be able to find the secret campsite unless you come up here and explore it for yourself.

Updated 25/05/2011. There are GPS files available for this walk now. They come from http://en.travelnt.com/experience/walking-trekking/tabletop-track.aspx - I reconfigured the XML file as a GPX file and KML file. The path doesn't have a huge amount of points, but should be ample for navigating the trail should you wander off it (really only possible through burnt out areas of wide creek crossings.) I would place a caveat on the area around Walker Creek though, I'm not sure it looks correct, the trail goes from the main trail west to Walker Creek Campsite as a spur trail rather than the main trail passing through the carpark. If coming off the main trail you won't get lost, the spur meets to the carpark to campsites trail near the toilet, at about campsite 6 of 8. Turn left for sites 6-8, right for sites 1-5 and carpark.

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The above Google Map shows the official trail file from TravelNT.com
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The Bungle Bungle

2010-07-10T23:10:00.000+09:30

Although known to local pastoralists and indigenous folk, the Bungle Bungle was unknown to the outside world until the mid 1980s. It did not appear on maps - not even topographical maps - nor was it photographed, not even named. A helicopter camera crew discovered it by accident, making it's dramatic scenery known to Australians and the rest of the world.

The Bungle Bungle, Purnululu National Park, WA

The local pastoralists saw it only as a source of a river, the business of cattle kept them occupied. Gold was discovered in nearby Halls Creek in the 1880s, but still the Kimberley held the secret of the Bungle Bungle. To the indigenous folk it had special meaning, but we know they like to keep their secrets sometimes, and why not?

If I share, too many white men will come all right, and they will go on doing this. Sticky beak all right, and look for something. If they find something goody goody, they'll take it.

-- source: interview on ABC's Stateline, 28/5/2010, concerning rockart in Kakadu (url http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/05/28/2912636.htm)

Some stuff is still a well guarded secret by the indigenous folk. Their rock art, which includes depictions of crocodiles, and burial sites.

This is one of the iconic places I wanted to visit on my four month trip, I think you will see why in some of the photos. To enter Cathedral Gorge one is filled with awe. Walking through a narrow gorge, the shear cliffs towering 200 metres above on each side. The gorge floor is occupied by a flat creek. It feels like you are about to stumble upon an ancient city in the desert, Petra maybe. Not a noise can be heard, it's one of the places in the world that seems to call for silence. Walking several hundred metres through this narrow space, the gorge suddenly opens up, revealing a huge amphitheatre formation. The area, made round by rolling boulders as the water runs down the cliff above, open to the sky in a narrow opening. The middle occupied by a shallow pond, a reminder of how much water would be here during the wet season. The roof ceiling provides a perfect environment for your echo, the place calls for silence but at the same time wants sounds to reverberate around it's walls.

Naturally the Bungle Bungle has more to reveal than just this one special place. The drive from Kununurra down Highway One is spectacular in itself, but it is merely setting the scene for the Bungle Bungle. The 50km 4WD road in from the highway hints a little more, only very close to the park does one see for the first time the mountains of the Bungle Bungle. The orange cliffs rise abruptly from the plains. Dramatic as they are though, they are not the Bungle Bungle one sees in photos. It is only when you drive further in, or better still, walk further in, that one sees their iconic and true beauty -- the stripped beehive formations. These are the most exceptional examples of sandstone cone karsts anywhere in the world. Standing up to 250 metres tall, they create an intricate maze of twists and turns, almost a city of rock sky-rises (to borrow a phrase from the national park literature.)

The sandstone is an ancient riverbed, uplifted high above the surrounding plains. Weathering and erosion slowly formed the distinct shapes we know today, as new rivers were formed through the old riverbed. The sandstone is sedimentary, layers of gray or orange rock. The grey rock has a high clay and moisture content, allowing cyanobacteria to grow on the surface. The orange bands have a lower clay and hence moisture content, preventing the cyanobacteria from growing. This layer oxidises forming the distinct rusty orange colour. Occasionally recent landslides reveal the true colour of this band - a bright silver white colour.

It was through this that we undertook a two day hike. If we did not have a new radiator awaiting collection in Katherine, to be fitted to the crippled car, I think we would have spent three days on this hike. We spent a day hiking along the Piccaninny Gorge, camped beside a rock pool, then hiked back. Had we a third day, we could have explored some of the five side gorges that are present in the upper gorge beyond our campsite. Although only a 14 kilometre hike in, it is a difficult hike. Following the creekbed, it is either sandy, soft gravel, navigating eroded rocks or large boulders.

On the first day we had lunch at the distinct Elbow in the gorge, well, so we thought, until we came upon a more distinct Elbow further upstream. It really was slow walking.

We had the gorge almost to ourselves, beyond the tourist bus groups near the very start of the gorge we passed only two other parties. Both had chosen to hike in and out in a single day, both were jealous we would have so much time to explore and have such a magnificent campsite. The campsite we chose - we could camp anywhere we liked - was beside a rockpool. Cliffs soared high above us, the rockpool being in the corner of the gorge. During the Wet water would cascade down the cliff, filling the rockpool and overflowing into the main gorge creek.

During the day the gorge was filled with a cacophony of bird sounds, echoing up and down the gorge. As night fell, silence descended. Our voices could be heard echoing far up and down the gorge, in the silence we could finally appreciate how far the echo travelled. Our campsite was fitted with a security device, not that it was needed in this isolated place. The cliffs the other side of the rock pool amplified the sounds from the main gorge creek, we could easily have heard footsteps as they approached from either upstream or downstream.

After the hike, we visited nearby Echidna Chasm. We had missed the best time of day to visit, the narrow chasm, sometimes only shoulder width wide, was best seen at true noon, the only time the sun could shine down into the narrow space. The chasm is a fracture in the rock mountain, snaking it's way from the palm entry deep into the mountain, gradually narrowing until it's eventual abrupt end.

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Stats	Piccaninny Gorge, Bungle Bungle, Purnululu National Park
	Wednesday	Thursday
	7/7/2010	8/7/2010
	Carpark to Gorge 1	Gorge 1 to carpark
Distance	15.2km	13.1km
Start Time	9.27am	7.33am
End Time	2.52pm	11.27am
Moving Duration	3h33m	3h02m
Stationary Duration	1h56m	56m
Moving Average	4.3km/h	4.3km/h
Overall Average	2.8km/h	3.3km/h
Oodometer	15.2km	28.3km

Mitchell Falls

2010-07-05T10:56:00.000+09:30

The Gibb River Road cuts through the heart of the Kimberley. It is a 4WD dirt road. True, it is possible to drive a 2WD on it, we saw two in ten days - countless 4WDs though. Thing is, the two wheel drivers, they will see almost nothing. The attraction is not the road, it is the various rough 4WD tracks that lead off to gorges, waterfalls and pools. These tracks are rough, but every one is worth travelling down.

Mitchell Falls, Mitchell Plateau, The Kimberley, Western Australia

The track to Mitchell Falls is some 250km long and takes about five hours to drive. Walking a further 3.5 kilometres from the carpark one is struck by the immensity of the falls, cascading down from the river into three lower pools.

The 8.6km return hike on the Punamii-Unpuu Trail leads to Mitchell Falls, via Little Mertle Falls with the indigenous rock art behind the waterfall, and Big Mertle Falls.

View full Gibb River Road photo album and blog post.

Mt Meharry - WA's highest peak

2010-06-19T22:05:00.000+09:30

Mt Meharry is a relatively recent newcomer to the State 8 - the highest peak in each of Australia's states and territories. Mt Bruce was discovered by Europeans in 1861. Over a hundred years later, in 1967, detailed surveys were done of the area. A surveyor discovered a strange anomaly, 20 kilometres south east of Mt Bruce, the tallest mountain in Western Australia, lay an unnamed somewhat indistinct mountain which was 13 metres taller.

Mt Meharry, Karijini National Park

I have set myself the goal of climbing the State 8, although in no particular rush or timeline. So far the only peak I have climbed is Mt Ossa in Tasmania. South Australia's Mt Woodrooffe could arguably be the most logistically difficult, as I need to be Very Best Friends with Vicki, who in turn needs to be Very Best Friends with someone working in Ernabella, or that person being Very Best Friends with someone working there, and that person being Very Best Friends with a local, who is Very Best Friends with an elder. It quite isolated, some 300 kilometres off the bitumen road in a remote Aboriginal community in the state's north, near the border of the Northern Territory. From Uluru one can see Mt Woodroofe.

Mt Meharry is a strange one to access. Although in Karijini National Park, it can only be accessed from roads outside the park. I had read some magazine articles and online forums, it seemed an easy enough climb. Access was via some dirt roads off the Great Northern Highway. As a matter of courtesy, I asked at the national park visitor centre for the best way to access the peak. Contact the nearby pastoral station, they said, as you will need to cross their property. Armed with their phone number, but with limited phone reception, I managed to get their answering machine. At my chosen campsite, a rest area off the Great Northern Highway, I overhead some other campers talking about Mt Meharry. I sidled over to question them. They had already been up there today, having driven their 4WDs to the very top. They had asked no permission, they had followed the trip notes in a 4WD magazine. Having copied some of the details down, I could rest easy confident I was still able to do the climb the following day.

The road leading off the Great Northern Highway is a public road, but it is gated. There are no signs indicating Mt Meharry lies down this road. Hidden in the dry grass is a discarded sign stating that the road was only for access to the pastoral station, yet a sign beyond the gate had been erected by the local council warning of the road's poor condition. Deflating my tyres for dirt road driving, a mine worker pulled up. Yep, no worries, just don't get caught beyond the railway line. Rio Tinto's land, my advice, just don't get caught there.

Some 16 kilometres down this well made dirt road, shared by road trains and mine workers, is a simple sign indicating the track to Mt Meharry, to be tackled by 4WDs only. Carefully following the trip notes I had copied the previous night from the magazine, I proceeded down a series of roads. All 4WD but pretty easy going. I had no intention of driving to the summit, I am a bushwalker, not a four wheel driver. I drove to the base of the mountain, perhaps some two kilometres closer than what a 2WD vehicle could brave. I climbed the steep 4WD track, a 380 metre ascent, but an easy one. 45 minutes to the peak, a cairn marking the summit. Littered with trophies so easily brought here by 4WD, and a logbook buried in the stone cairn. Not much mention of people walking up here, but it was a lovely walk. The 4WD track immediately after the plain gets nasty quick, perhaps only negotiable by raised 4WDs.

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Karijini National Park

2010-06-19T10:04:00.000+09:30

Jaw dropping. Gob smacking. This park is simply stunning: it's deep gorges, it's cool permanent swimming holes, it's coloured shaped rock.

Karijini National Park

My introduction to Karijini National Park was Hammersley Gorge. "Going to a swim at the bottom, " asked a woman in the car park as I was getting ready for the short hike. Oh my goodness yes I am! The pools are refreshingly cool in the heat of the day, nestled in a gorge lined with the most beautiful rock.

The park really is a series of jaw dropping, gob smacking moments as one sets eyes on each gorge or it's cool swimming hole. Deep gorges, maybe over a hundred metres deep. The day I hiked up Mt Meharry, I was able to come into the park in the afternoon and have not one but two gorgeous swims in pools, each at opposite ends of a gorge. A short half hour walk along the gorge between them. A peak climb, a gorge walk and refreshingly cool swims! The best day ever!

Travelling around WA and the NT

2010-06-13T17:47:00.002+09:30

I'm travelling around Western Australia and the Northern Territory at the moment. Hiking some trails such as the Cape to Cape Track, and doing some riding as well. Visit my Magnetic North blog.

Kalbarri National Park

2010-06-13T17:16:00.000+09:30

The Murchison River finishes it's long journey at Kalbarri. In the national park, the river winds it's way through deep gorges, seemingly in a series of straight lines.

Kalbarri National Park

The red Tumblagooda Sandstone that makes up much of this area has a series of straight fractures running through it. These straight, vertical joints allowed the Murchison River to deeply incise the rock layers and form straight river segments. At times the river is up to 170 metres below the cliff tops. Wherever the joints intersected the river could change it's course.

It was here that I could do a short 10 kilometre circuit hike, aptly named The Loop. The river here loops back on itself, separated by a narrow cliffline. The walk starts from a place called Natures Window, a high cliff featuring a prominent arch within the cliff, and follows the clifftop east before descending down into the sandy riverbed to loop back to Natures Window. The layers of rock within the cliffs form striking bands of stone in contrasting brownish reds, purples and whites.

I drove down the road to access The Loop and the Z Bend - a road to rival any of Kangaroo Island's dirt roads. I thought I had set out early, but when I arrived in the carpark I found half a dozen cars already there. Doh. When I completed the hike though, I discovered that it had been an early start, the day was getting hot by now but the carpark was full. This was no time to set out on a hike!

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Rottnest Island

2010-06-04T21:21:00.000+09:30

Listen up class, repeat after me. "Tourists, where ever they may be, do not rise before nine, and do not leave their accommodation until after 10. Therefore, tourist crowds will only be seen sometime after 11."

Rottnest Island, 30km west of Fremantle port

I thought I had the island to myself, until after eleven when other tourists arrived on the beaches by bike or by bus. I, of course, as are my ways, had started cycling the 30 kilometre circuit around the island at eight am. In that time time I saw almost no-one, beach after beach was all mine.

Little Salmon Bay was the pick of the beaches, small, white sand, light blue water, contained by limestone headlands. Complete with a snorkeling trail. Perfect. As I pulled up on my bike, a guy rode in from the opposite direction, my first sighting of anyone else today. He had his snorkeling gear out in no time and was prepping up in the water. It was all the encouragement I needed, I'm not always the keenest to set out snorkeling. Thankful for my wetsuit, I headed out, the other guy still messing about in the shallows. Following the underwater snorkeling trail, I saw many different fish, including salmon of course. Lots of colours and stripes, this area of Western Australia attracts tropical fish due to the southerly currents. Glancing back at the shore, the guy was still messing around on the shore, next time I glanced back he was back on his bike, the water must have been too cold for him. Having talked to him on the beach he seemed pretty keen, perhaps in him encouraging me into the water I discouraged him out of it.

Sitting back on the beach in the warm sun, the bikes and busloads soon turned up. Alas, it had been all mine for awhile there. Later in the day I found myself another deserted beach to call my own, up near the World War II ruins.

Rottnest Island is a curious one. For one thing, it must have little less than 1,000 holiday units, most seemingly identical built over a couple of generations. Almost all empty, indeed, the island is pretty deserted overall. It's not tourist season here anymore, in the unpredictable winter weather. For me though it was nothing but three days of beautiful clear sunny skies.

In amongst the holiday units are some much older buildings, some from the time of either of the prisons built here, others from later tourist development or war use. Many fascinating historical buildings. The general store and mall form part of the original prison. Much of the complex has been destroyed by fire or demolished so it is hardly recognisable as one. The second prison remains, although is a hotel now so cant be toured.

The original cottages are fascinating. Built of local limestone, they were rendered in the early 1900s and painted a cream colour to reduce the sun glare. The colour and building material theme has been maintained throughout the two major accommodation areas. The cottages originally had near-flat roofs, limestone supported by timber trusses. The timber trusses were each made from a single piece of timber, ingenious. Tiles were too expensive to bring in from Fremantle, but in time corrugated iron replaced the roofs as they were difficult to keep watertight.

The museum was interesting, detailing the many shipwrecks and the dark history of the island. The two prisons were built by and detained Aboriginal people, many of whom were sent here for the European laws that had been imposed upon them. Many prisoners came from the far north of the state, the cold weather must have been quite a shock. The conditions were cramped and the inmates mistreated. One prison governor though allowed them to leave the prison each Sunday between nine am and four pm. They were provided with no lunch or dinner, but instead could roam the island and catch their dinner, quokkas, snakes or whatever.

After my cycling tour of the island it occurred to me that this island was missing a cemetery. I found a reference to one on the map, but could find little sign of it in reality. The cemetery was only used for the Aboriginal prisoners, and none of the graves is marked. Buildings and houses have been built over some of it, worse still, some of the cemetery has been used as the main camping ground. I had wondered why the camping ground, often called a Tent City, could only consist of 20 marked sites. No tent city that one. But it isn't the original camping ground, but a new one constructed in the last few years. I found the original sprawling camping ground, much of it on the cemetery. The only sign it is a burial ground is two signs near the township end, noting the site's importance and the future plans for removing all buildings and creating a memorial garden and marking the known burial areas.

Around the turn of the century the island started being used for tourism, with a few interludes during war time. During the Second World War several artillery guns were installed, and monitoring towers. 2,500 soldiers were housed here, protecting Fremantle Harbour from invasion by the Japanese.

I cant finish this entry about Rottnest Island though without mentioning the quokkas. I saw my first ones within a two of minutes of landing, and by the end of the third minute I had seen some copulating. Cute as they are they don't seem to sleep, constantly poking around my tent despite my food all being well sealed and isolated.

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Stats	Rottnest Island circuit
	Thursday
	3/6/2010
Distance	31km
Moving Duration	2h30m

Riding - no, pushing - my bike along the Munda Biddi Trail

2010-05-31T19:01:00.000+09:30

I rode three days along WA's renowned Munda Biddi Trail. No, not really, much of it I had to push my bike.

Munda Biddi Trail

The Munda Biddi Trail stretches from Mundaring in the north, in the Perth Hills, down to Collie and Nannup. Some 500 kilometres south, it is planned that the trail will reach the 800 kilometres to Albany sometime next year. I chose to ride four days from the northern trailhead at Mundaring. Wrong choice.

The riding was tough, this was immediately clear on the day I set out. Within the first two kilometres I fell off my bike twice. What was to become a familiar pattern, the rutted gravelled track was no friend of the bike trailer, or for that matter a bike with panniers.

I had planned to ride from the northern trailhead, itself in the town of Mundaring, but due to the lack of accommodation options (the caravan park was a no-show) I drove some seven kilometres down the trail to Mundaring Weir, staying the Perth Hills YHA. Here I could safely leave my car, and would be able to catch two trains and a bus back to Mundaring, but would have to walk the seven kilometres down the Trail back to the YHA, there being no public transport to the weir, despite the parks and picnic areas.

I discovered later from others that the section from Mundaring to the first campsite, Carinyah, is notoriously difficult. Indeed, this whole section from Mundaring to Dwellingup is glorious, but tough. I really should have done more (or for that matter, some) research. A guy with a similar bike trailer rode from Mundaring to Collie in 13 days, although he was ill-prepared and carrying too much weight.

The first 12 kilometres of the first day took me over two and half hours, plus the time it took me to replace a blown tyre and repair a puncture. Thank you to Graham for giving me that habit of carrying a spare tyre, my tyre was unrepairable! This section was labelled as challenging, indeed it was a ripper. It was very difficult to push the bike and trailer along, riding was out of the question. Even pushing the bike my feet would slip on the narrow, gravelled, rutted path. Only two or three kilometres into the Challenging section I came across an alternative route option for touring bikes. There was no question in my mind as to what route I would be taking!

From here on whenever I came upon a section labelled challenging, I would seek out the alternative touring route, or where none was available, seek out dirt roads that I could get around the area. It was very well worth it, as proven on the third day's ride when I rode a section labelled challenging, but this time without the trailer, and with two boys instead. It was hard work to push the bike up those river valley sides, it would have been impossible to push the bike and loaded trailer.

I met and rode with some great people along the trail. On the first day I didn't meet anyone, and camped alone at Carinyah campsite. Carinyah in the local indigenous language means Happy Home and indeed it was a fanastic campsite. A very spacious hut with park benches, sleeping platforms, bike racks and even a bike fixing rack. Very nice! I wish the Department for Environment and Heritage in South Australia would take note and build similar standard huts, the Bibbilmun Track huts were of a similar high standard. It was easily the coldest night - a mere 3 degrees - I have spent in Western Australia, even colder than the night spent on the Nullabor.

On the second day I met Reg, as I was parking the bike for a moment's rest, he rode up behind me. We discussed bikes and plans for the day, he was impressed with my bike trailer and wondered how it performed. He followed me up a hill to witness it's performance. With a trailer one is forced to travel slow uphill - it's hard work - and going slow downhill is advised. With a rutted, gravelled track one wrong move and the trailer could bounce into the rut, bringing the bike and you into the rut with it, and most likely you off the bike. At the top of the hill, he took off past me down a ridiculous hill at an adventurous speed. Indeed, this trailer was certainly slowing me down. At the bottom of the hill though Reg was nursing his bike, he had just broken a wheel spoke on the downhill run.

We lunched at Wungong campsite together. Another excellent campsite, but I was there by 12.30pm and Jarrahdale was only 26 kilometres away, the section of track being labelled as easy. We rode into town together, some of the ride following an old logging railway. The ride was indeed very easy, it would have been interesting to have noted the different average speed for this after lunch section compared to the morning's section, I think it would have been vastly different.

Reg assured me he had heard of cyclists staying at affordable accommodation in town, and although a free campsite was my preference, dividing the track up in this way made much more sense. At the General Store and Cafe I asked about nearby hostels and campgrounds, there are none I was told. Well shit me. I sauntered off down the pub to ask there, and they told me of an option just out of town. I returned to the Store to tell Reg and grab my bike. He had been busy on this iPhone looking up options, probably concerned about him misleading me. An assistant at the Store overheard our conversation and returned with a leaflet with many options, but mostly B&Bs. Too expensive for me, no worries though she said, you could stay next door. It is set up like a hostel, only $30 a night, we administer the bookings. What! This is perfect, why did the other girl tell me there was nothing around here! The community run hostel is in the former Nurses Home for the now demolished hospital. Called the Environment Centre, it is also a community centre of sorts. The facilities are excellent, good beds, hot showers, fully stocked kitchen and heating! Perfect for passing cyclists, if you want to use it remember to insist it exists if you are told at the General Store and Cafe that there is nothing around here!

On the third day I saw a mother with a couple of kids riding. The husband, Nick, was meeting them with the car at regular intervals, and at once such interval I stayed to share some lunch - such a great lunch spot it was. Jane was riding with her two boys, Cameron (11ish) and Lachlan (9ish) to North Dandalup Reservoir today, this would complete their ride from the trailhead and Mundaring to Collie, some 300 kilometres to the south. They had originally set out during school holidays to ride the whole distance, with home-made panniers and their camping gear but the weather got the better of them after eight days on the track. They planned to continue their ride over coming weekends, completing the trail south of Collie down to the present southern trailhead at Nannup. They had previously completed walking the 1,000 kilometre Bibblimun Track, and are hoping to publish a children's book later this year.

I took up Nick's offer to put the bike trailer in the car trailer, and ride with Jane, Cameron and Lachlan to the dam. Oh my goodness, it was glorious indeed riding trailerless - it's like moonwalking. Jane soon recognised her boys had met a match, and took a ride in the car, leaving me to ride with the two boys along a section labelled challenging to the reservoir. The boys make an excellent team, looking out for each other and planning not one step but two steps ahead with their map reading.

At the reservoir I took up Nick and Jane's offer to drop me in town down on the plains. I had already decided that morning that I would camp just past the reservoir at the Dandalup Campsite, and get up at 5am the next morning and ride downhill, out of the ranges to meet the 7am train to Perth. My knees were sore and would only get worse, I don't think I had another day in me.

At the Pinjarra Caravan Park I booked my train ticket for the following morning. I had always intended to finish here, but after riding a fourth day to Dwellingup and then down from the range to this plains town.

Sorry, not many photos this time, cycling a hard trail and caring to take photos at the same time was too much. Anyone who has cycled before will know that photography and cycling arent a good mix anyway.

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Download Google Earth KML file of the first three days south from the northern trailhead of the Munda Biddi Trail

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Stats	Munda Biddi Trail (Mundaring to Dandalup)
	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
	28/5/2010	29/5/2010	30/5/2010	31/5/2010
	Mundaring Weir (YHA) to Carinyah campsite	Carinyah campsite TOI Jarrahvale	Jarrahvale to North Dandulup Reservoir	Mundaring to Mundaring Weir (YHA)
Distance	32.7km	59.0km	29.1km	7.5km
Start Time	9.30am	8.15am	8.15am	-
End Time	4.00pm	3.45pm	2.00pm	-
Moving Duration	3h58m	5h29m	3h33m	-
Stationary Duration	2h35m	1h58m	2h15m	-
Moving Average	8.2km/h	10.8km/h	8.2km/h	-
Overall Average	5.0km/h	7.9km/h	5.0km/h	-
Oodometer	32.7km	91.8km	121km	128km

The Cape to Cape Track

2010-05-23T23:00:00.000+09:30

Stretching 135 kilometres from Cape Naturaliste to Cape Leeuwin, the Cape to Cape Track follows the coast between the two lighthouses that mark the start and finishing posts. Wild isolated surf beaches, limestone cliffs and karri forest, all contained within the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park.

The Cape to Cape Track, Leeuwin-Naturliste National Park: 150km over 6 days

Leaving my car in Augusta, the closest town to Cape Leeuwin in the south, I caught a bus north to Dunsborough, near Cape Naturaliste. From here I could have hired a taxi for the 13 kilometre ride out to the lighthouse, but instead opted to walk the distance, in part because of a trail that went most of the distance, the Meelup Trail, and also because I saw a few stunning photos taken along this stretch. Setting out from Dunsborough early Tuesday morning, I walked along the coastal pathway through the lush green lawns, past the nice beachfront homes and people walking their dogs and those doing their early morning run.

Upon entering the Meelup Reserve, the trail commenced and the people all dissappeared, from here on it was only the occasional person fishing. The 13 kilometres turned out to be 16.5, but I was at the lighthouse for an icecream and an early lunch by 12.

At the Three Bears beach I sat at the lookout by the carpark, overlooking the surf and the many surfers. Clearly to be a surfer here, one needed a 4WD ute, and preferably a dog to keep you company, to access the sandy tracks to the remote beaches. The waves were huge, so it was with some awe that I watched the guys riding them in. Chatting with a local surfie, he didn't seem to think the waves were that special today and he probably wouldn't bother going out there.

My six day walk could easily be mistaken for a tour of the best surf beaches, so abundant were the beaches with enormous waves. It wasn't at all uncommon for me to be walking along an isolated beach and to see a car approach, the driver carefully selecting an area with good waves and heading out into the surf with his board.
Many beaches had names obviously influenced by the surfing conditions: Guillotine, Gallows, Left Handers, Suicides, and of course the Three Bears - Papa Bear, Momma Bear and Baby Bear.

At one beach I was gobsmacked to see the size of the waves. It was difficult to see if the surfers were out there for recreational surfing or were being pumpelled to death. Someone had scratced into the handrail on the beach staircase the words "This is Heaven." I think for a surfer without a high skillset though, it would probably be hell.

The limestone and granite rocks along the Cape to Cape Track made for some stunning scenery, from the potholes of Cape Hamelin, the cliff of Joeys Nose, the grottoes of Redgate Beach and the many submerged reefs or rocks that created large waves both close and far from the shore.

The long, isolated walks were punctuated, almost daily, by small coastal towns set by idyllic beaches. Some were calm swimming bays, others rough surf beaches. At Yalingup, the submerged reef invites tropical fish to their southernmost location.

The hike could also be a walk through history. There is the discovery history, the geographical French names by Baudin and the English names by Flinders in 1802-3. Due to the many headlands and submerged rocks the coast has laid claim to many shipwrecks. In one ten year period there were 80 ships wrecked. The larger ships coming from across the world dropped anchor in Albany, and the many smaller ships carried the loads north to Perth, around the two capes. Names like Gracetown comemorate the efforts of a small girl and her brother who saved so many people from the surf after they had been shipwrecked. In Hamelin Bay just a few pylons remain of the jetty that once loaded much local felled karri timber, the jetty a victim of rough storms. In a single storm four ships had been wrecked in this harbour, many lives being lost. The telegraph line to the north to Bunbury was out, with no less than 351 trees having fallen across it. Shipwrecks aside, there was not one, but two rusty, calcified waterwheels to be seen along the way - one at Ellensbrook Homestead and another at the very end of the walk at Cape Leeuwin.

A small section of the trail heads inland to pass through karri forest. Heralded as the western most karri forest in the world, I think this is one of those absurd statements people make to draw attention to something's uniqueness. Statements like "the tallest main-made free-standing structure in the southern hemisphere" - there are a lot of sub-clauses there. So too with this western most karri forest. Endimic to the south west of Australia, of course the karri forest has an extreme at each corner of the compass. The forest could hardly have been growing any further west since it had run out of continent on which to grow itself upon.

That said though, it was still a very special day to walk through the forest. The deeper I went in, the narrower and more overgrown the track became, but also, the louder and broader the number of bird calls.

The weather, so much a part of the traveller's life, was for the most part superb. The first three days were in stunning sunshine - hot days marked by a cool breeze and refreshing ocean swims. My choice to walk from north to south was in large part incidental, but I came to realise my good fortune as the sun was always behind me. The fourth day things began to turn, locals warned me of storms coming. Nothing much but grey cloud showed, and it wasn't until dusk that the first rain fell and thunder could be heard in the distant west. It was a slow moving thunderstorm, it wasn't until three am that the thunder reached me. The following day, the fifth day, was downright miserable. The surfers were gone, and the fishermen packed up their gear at the first sign of rain. The towns and beaches were empty, but I battled on, anticipating finer weather for the last day. Finer it wasn't, overnight the wind picked up, which left me walking into a headwind along an eight kilometre beach.

The campsites weren't outstanding, compared to those on the Bibblumun Track or Victoria's Great Ocean Walk they were downright miserable. I think the settlers and surfers got in first to choose all the best sites, most of the campsites seemed to me to be poorly sited. They had difficult or no beach access, and were often viewless. The facilities were minimal: flat ground - well mostly, a park bench, a toilet and some rainwater. These are all good, indeed very much needed, but what was glaringly lacking was a shelter of some sort, somewhere to retreat to in the rain and meet other walkers. Well, okay, there wasn't much in the way of other walkers, but in the rain it certainly would have been nice to have that focus point of a good campsite. The campsites were good in that they were hiker dedicated, you could only walk in, there was no vehicle access, so rubbish and nuisance campers are kept to a minimum.

It is possible to avoid the campsites altogether, instead opting to stay in caravan parks along the way. Literature suggests most people do this hike between five and eight days, and the many accommodation options along the way allow for lots of possibilities. I hiked some long days, usually between 24 and 29 kilometres a day. Faced with a short 20 kilometre day, followed later by a 30 kilometre day - in an effort to avoid paying caravan park fees - I decided to even out three days, converting from 20-27-30 kilometres to 26-26-28 kilometres. I did this by camping in a nice spot near Kilcarnup Beach, a distinctive place called Joeys Nose. Surfies had made vehicle tracks every which way here, and many campsites too.

The days may be long in kilometres, but not so long in duration. There is never much gain in elevation or climbing, so long kilometres are easily possible. I usually walked 16-18 kilometres before lunch, and finished hiking around 3.30pm. Sunset was just after five, the winter solstice being just weeks away.

The track is marked, good topo strip maps are available from the Cape to Cape website and Lonely Planet's Walking in Australia guide. The Lonely Planet guide was immensely helpful, not for the maps but for the track notes. The trail markers have no arrows, so often they will guide you into a carpark or town, but you are left there scratching your head. It isn't until you have walked a few metres down the correct track, that you see another trail marker confirming your choice. Often there was no confirmation, which is where instinct and the Lonely Planet guide was so helpful. The guide would mention things like "take the second - not the first - staircase off the beach," or, "at the Y-junction take the right fork" and so forth. The towns weren't such a problem, or matterred that much if you take a wrong turn, as you can figure out how where to exit the town from the detailed town maps inset on the topo strip map. Beach exits were particularly troublesome, often there would be a large sign reading "Cape to Cape Track", but sometimes not. Following the footprints in the sand seemed to be the key, except in cases of tracks between carparks and beaches where the footprints could lead you astray.

In towns I kept detouring the local general store in a bid to find some duct tape, my Thermarest Neoair, or should I just say neo, air mattress wasn't lasting the night. Generous use of some duct tape should remedy the problem until I can fix it at the end of the trip. No-one seemed to sell it, after a 1.2 kilometre walk to a store and back on the third day, I gave up.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in purchasing a state-of-the art piece of plastic, drop me an email. Upon reaching camp you consume all remaining energy blowing into it to inflate it, topping it up just before bed time as your warmed air has now cooled and condensed, and you have a very comfortable bed for at least two hours, and some air in it for at least six. Extra light and compact, thin bits of plastic to sleep on were never so comfortable. Upon finishing my six day hike, I spent twenty minutes searching everywhere for the source of the leak. This aint no finding-a-puncture-in-a-bike-tyre experience let me tell you, the holes seem to perform only under a wriggling body, I could find no sign whatsoever of a leak.
My Exped Vela I Extreme tent went very well. I have only used it briefly in New Zealand, and on two nights of the Bibblumun Track last week. I was able to test both packing up and setting up in the rain, as well as cooking in the vestibule - it excelled at each task and I was most comfortable in the spacious tent and vestibule - and importantly - me and my gear remained dry.

I had planned to walk from Cape Leeuwin into Augusta to my car, but decided, in part due to some hip pain (oh goodness here's a new one), to call a cab. Having done so, it allowed me to get to the supermarket to restock with food before it closed for the day at 1pm (it was a Sunday), if I walked into town I would be buying some foodstuffs at a servo and/or eating out for dinner. My car seems to be mouse free, the mousetraps untouched in the last seven days. The car does smell rather though, as I read somewhere that mice hate mothballs, so I had bought some and placed them in the cabin and engine bay before catching the bus north, having removed them now smell still lingers somewhat...

My photos, for the first time, I have geotagged them using some fancy software that matches my GPS unit's track times with when the photo was taken, so in Picasa each photo includes a map which shows exactly where it was taken.

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Download Google Earth KML file of Western Australia's Cape to Cape Track

Download kml file to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit. The file has been modified from the one displayed in the map above, I removed my various detours and getting lost moments, so it should be quite an accurate record of the track (the path through some towns isnt quite right).

Stats	Cape to Cape Track, WA
	Tue	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun
	18/5/10	18/5/10	19/5/10	20/5/10	21/5/10	22/5/10	23/5/10
	Dunsborough to Cape Naturaliste	Cape Naturaliste to Mt Duckworth campsite	Mt Duckworth campsite to Moses Rock Campsite	Moses Rock Campsite to Joeys Nose	Joeys Nose to Point Road Campsite	Point Road Campsite to Deepdene Campsite	Deepdene Campsite to Cape Leeuwin
Distance	16.6km	10.2km	24.2km	26.6km	26.7km	29.1km	16.0km
Start Time	8.10am	12pm	8.10am	8.00am	7.45am	7.45am	7.45am
End Time	12pm	3.30pm	3.30pm	3.10pm	3.15pm	4.05pm	11.30am
Moving Duration	3h13m	2h7m	5h13m	5h25m	5h19m	6h13m	3h15m
Stationary Duration	56m	52m	2h8m	1h47m	2h8m	2h10m	30m
Moving Average	5.2km/h	5.2km/h	4.6km/h	4.9km/h	5.0km/h	4.7km/h	4.9km/h
Overall Average	4.0km/h	3.7km/h	3.3km/h	3.7km/h	3.6km/h	3.5km/h	4.2km/h
Oodometer	16.6km	27.8km	52.0km	78.6km	105.3km	134.4km	150.0km

Peaceful Bay to Walpole, Bibblimun Track

2010-05-15T20:49:00.008+09:30

A three day taster of the Bibblimun Track, near Albany

Peaceful Bay to Walpole, Bibblimun Track

On Wednesday I drove over to Walpole, checking out some of the local beaches along the way. Leaving my car secure at the caravan park in Walpole, I rode my bike some 32 kilometres back down the road to Peaceful Bay. It was quite an enjoyable ride through the forest, and there was not much traffic around. I camped at Peaceful Bay and was treated to a nice sunset, followed by hours of intense rain. I was pretty thankful I had brought my four-season tent along with me. The following day the rain had eased, and I set out on a three day trek along a small section of the Bibbulmun Track.

The Track stretches some 1,000 kilometres from Albany in the south to near Perth in the north. I walked 60 kilometres, a mere three percent of the track. The section I covered was through the Walpole-Nornalup National Park and included some coastline consisting of beaches, dunes and clifftop walking and some forest walking. It reminded me, as many hikes somehow tend to remind one of another hike, of the beech forest walking of Victoria's Great Ocean Walk.

The second day I walked through the Valley of the Giants - the forest dense with tall red tingle trees and karri trees. It is not uncommon to see tingle trees with hollow bases, the centre of the trunk being burnt out by bushfire, but the outer living bark layers remaining. The trees are up to 60 metres tall and some hundreds of years old. It cant all be believed though, I pondered, as I walked past the site known as Douglas' Lookout with nothing but very dense forest to see. I skipped the Tree Top Walk as it sounds far too much like a scheme designed for me and my money to part ways. Much nicer to walk through the forest by oneself for three days.

The campsites are very well set up and I enjoyed staying in one at Frankland River, which included a pergola looking out over the river. This walk is detailed in Lonely Planet's Walking in Australia, but is included as a four day walk - 12km-18km-13km-18km. I walked 22km, 21km and 13km (the last day would have been longer only I miscalculated).

I didn't see or talk to anyone for these three days, which is quite an odd experience - especially in an eerie forest. A couple of times I was scared half to death by large, rapidly moving forest creatures, only to discover them as passing cars on nearby parallel roads. I would have liked to have someone else to walk with, if only to walk ahead of me thereby clearing all the spider webs.

On the final day I caught a few glimpses of patchie sun in the forest as the sun struggled to shine through the clouds. Walking into Walpole it finally shone brightly for the first time in three days.

Three days on the Bibblumun Track
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Bluff Knoll

2010-05-15T20:49:00.006+09:30

I drove out to the Stirling Range National Park and hiked up southern WA's highest peak - Bluff Knoll.

Stirling Range National Park, Western Australia

The relatively compact Stirling Range rises high above the surrounding plains. The path up Bluff Knoll is wide and well made, but it is still a 650 metre gain in elevation. The hike up took me under and hour, return was about 40 minutes. I quite like peak climbs and hiking, so this was quick, the official recommendation is 3-4 hours. It was a very clear day, and the views rewarding.

I purchased a fantastic photo of the mountain by Christian Fletcher, which I have since framed. Beautiful work.

Photographer: Christian Fletcher

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Cape Le Grande Coastal Trek

2010-05-10T23:49:00.003+09:30

I met Andre and Jeanette on the Nullarbor at a roadside camp, we did the Cape Le Grande Coastal Trek together.

Cape Le Grande National Park

We rose early, driving south through the fog to Esperence. After a quick fruit and veg restocking - oh the grief of having it all confiscated at the SA/WA border - we drove out to Cape Le Grande National Park. Here we walked the 15 kilometre Coastal Track, well most of it. We walked from Le Grande Beach to Lucky Bay, maybe some three to four kilometres short of the full trail. Somehow we still managed to walk 14.8 kilometres though! The park is spectacular, it is mainly low lying but interspersed with huge granite mountains rising some 200-300 metres.

The beach sand is white, the water azure blue. I had seen photos in magazines, but in real life, with the sun shining, the sand is white and the water azure blue! We ate lunch sitting high above Hellfire Beach, watching four dolphins play in the surf.

We shared a bbq meal together that night, the following morning we parted ways again. So sad, but nice to meet such travellers!

Coastal Track, Cape Le Grande National Park
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Beyond the Heysen: Stage 2, Arkaroola to Angepena

2010-04-16T15:46:00.008+09:30

Water. It had transformed this hike. We slept beside creeks, we could hear the water trickling. It was the first signigicant season for rain in 10 years, the greenest the area had looked in 20 years.

Arkaroola to Angepena, 11/4/10 to 15/4/10

The water almost kept us out. We had been monitoring the rainfall, there had been good rain in November, December and February. But as we packed our things on Thursday night and drove up Friday morning more rain fell, 80mm in Arkaroola and 100mm in Leigh Creek. By the time we reached Hawker all the dirt roads north of Blinman had been closed, the bitumen road to Copley closed shortly after. Waiting between road status reports, we did a short hike up Illuka Hill in Wilpena Pound.

Saturday night at the Hawker pub we were despondant. The roads remained closed, the extent of road damage was becoming clear, the roads wouldn't be reopening anytime soon. We were locked out of the best walking season in 20 years in the Gammons. We had missed out by just half a day from being able to enter, closed roads wouldn't affect us when we were walking.

A plan was hatched. Calls were made, deals done. We chartered a plane from Rawnsley Park to Arkaroola. We would hike in reverse, south-west back to Angepena instead of north-east to Arkaroola from Angepena. From Angepena we would get a 4WD tour operator to pick us up and drive us back to our cars at Rawnsley Park. After five days of walking the roads were sure to be open to allow the 4WD tour operator to access us. The flight and transfers came to just under $400 each. It was a unique time to walk in the Gammons, so we seized the opportunity.

Our plane trip took us over flooded creeks, a good sign as we were relying on creeks as our water source. From the Arkaroola airstrip we were driven to Arkaroola Village by Doug Sprigg and his son, an informative commentary along the way. It transpired he would have flown down and picked us up for a lot less than what we had paid as he is a smaller operator than the Rawnsley Park one.

After a last meal at Arkaroola, a pasty and chips, we set off on our five day trek into the Gammons and south to Angepena Station. We had quite some miles to cover on this first day as we had not departed until after lunch, as it was we raced the sun into camp. It was spectacular walking through the sunset. Yeah, it felt like we walked through it, we did not merely see it. It surrounded us, I spent quite some time walking looking at the clouds above me. There were three levels of clouds, each reflecting a different sunset colour. The higher wispy clouds shone orange, higher clouds shone bright yellow, the lower ones in shade. All this interspersed with patches of bright sky blue sky.

For five days we marvelled at how green everything was, months of good rainfall ensured the green extended everywhere. I hadn't been in the Gammons before, but it is similar to the Flinders, indeed, the rainfall is usually lower, and right now this land stood in stark contrast to the normal Flinders scene. The bright red rocky ground was covered in green vegetation.

With the recent rains creeks flowed, at our first campsite, Mainwater Well, the creek flowed past us as we slept. Surreal to hear trickling water. Walking along creeks we had to negotiate mud and debris, and something rarely required in South Austalia, we had to walk along some wet creeks in ankle deep water!

On our second day we made camp by midday, again by Mainwater Creek. Leaving our gear and heavy packs we climbed Benbonyathe Hill. The climb wasn't complex, but the vegetation, especially near and along the ridgetop, was dense. Lower down it was easy enough to walk through. Reaching the summit and the stone cairn, we found a primitive steel frame for setting up a telescope. In the 1960s the British and Americans sought out possible sites to set up a telescope, both Benbonyathe Hill and Mount Mackinlay were tried. A rough road was constructed up each. On our hike along the ridge we saw no sign of the road, fragments of it were allegedly still visible some years ago, although the road came from the south before travelling along the ridge, we had hiked up from the north before going along the ridge. The site chosen for the observatory was Siding Springs in NSW.

In the logbook at the summit we found a note left in 1986 by a school undertaking the Jubilee Trek. This was a trek undertaken from Mount Babbage, north of Arkaroola, to Cape Jervis. Each school did a section, this was done prior to the completion of the Heysen Trail. Just last week, upon returning from Kangaroo Island I had first heard of this walk, reading a plaque at Cape Jervis near the ferry terminal.

For the second and third day we followed Mainwater Creek through Mainwater Pound. After navigating through the pound using our map reading and dead reckoning skills using the GPS only as a double check, we made our way up a side creek to Yackie Waterhole to collect some water. From here we climbed out of the pound, camping up at Arcoona Saddle. We selected the best spot we could in the saddle to camp, clearing rocks and branches.

The following day we hiked along the ridgetops, seeing many campsites more suitable than the one we had camped at. A short distance from Gammon Hill we dropped our packs to reach the summit. Gammon Hill was an easy walk, the gradient is easy and the vegetation wasnt dense. Here we found the logbook canister, but it was empty for all but one note. It seemed the last people here had removed the contents in order to transcribe them, promising to return them soon.

From Gammon Hill we chased some goats along the ridgetops, passing by Arcoona Saddle before rapidly descending back to the plains and our campsite at Arcoona. Refreshed with tank water from the car accessible campsite, we made our plans for our final day.

Our last day we walked through Owieandana Station, recently purchased by Operation Flinders, sighting our first person in five days. We stopped by Painter's Baseline, a cairn erected by a surveyor in 1857 and used to undertake the first surveys on the area.

Reaching Angepena Station we found that the road out to Copley remained closed, but 4WD vehicles were using the road. We arranged our pick-up for first thing the next morning, and made ourselves comfortable in the newly restored Shearer's Quarters of the station, enjoying another spectacular sunset and star filled sky.

More photos to come from Nick and Graham

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Stats	Beyond the Heysen: Stage 2 - Arkaroola to Angepena
	Sunday	Monday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
	11/4/2010	12/4/2010	12/4/2010	13/4/2010	14/4/2010	15/4/2010
	Arkaroola Village to Mainwater Well	Mainwater Well to Mainwater Creek	Mainwater Creek to Benbonyathe Hill & return	Mainwater Creek to Arcoona Saddle	Arcoona Saddle to Arcoona campsite	Arcoona campsite to Angepena
Distance	20.5km	7.4km	9.4km	14.6km	16.3km	22.9km
Start Time	12:56pm	8:17am	12:22pm	8:19am	8:23am	8:25am
End Time	6:29pm	11:46am	5:12pm	4:29pm	5:15pm	3:17pm
Moving Duration	4h39m	2h18m	3h09m	(5h11m)	6h04m	5h00m
Stationary Duration	58m	55m	1h18m	(50m)	2h45m	1h51m
Moving Average	4.4km/h	3.2km/h	3.0km/h	3.1km/h	2.7km/h	4.6km/h
Overall Average	3.6km/h	2.3km/h	2.1km/h	1.8km/h	1.8km/h	3.3km/h
Oodometer	20.5km	27.9km	37.3km	51.9km	68.2km	91.1km