Mawson Plateau traverse

A remote wilderness area in the Northern Flinders Ranges, the Mawson Plateau is almost untouched by people and their activities. There are no roads or tracks, no buildings or fences, and unlike much of the Northern Flinders Ranges, no history of mining.

Mawson Plateau, Northern Flinders Ranges

SUMMARY - Mawson Plateau traverse
Start	Mt Shanahan - northern tip of plateau where Granite Creek meets Hamilton Creek. Dropped off by heli-charter from Arkaroola.
End	Arkaroola
Time	6 days
Distance	90km
Mountain Ranges	Mawson Plateau and broader Northern Flinders Ranges
Topographic maps	1:250 000 scale Frome SH54-10; 1:50 000 scale Yudnamutana 6737-1; 1:50 000 scale Wooltana 6737-2
Pastoral Stations	Mt Freeling Station; Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary

La Nina, one of the weather phenomenons that so drastically affect Australia's weather patterns, brought the gift - as she is wont to do - of a huge downpour of rain to the deserts back in early March. Over five days 247mm fell at Arkaroola. It brought the rain we needed to make this hike possible. There are no rain gauges on the Mawson Plateau, which is a couple days walk north of Arkaroola Village, but it is thought that rainfall on the plateau is similar to the Gammon Ranges, both being of higher elevation than Arkaroola Village, so more rain falls.

Almost all the dirt roads across outback SA were closed in the days after the March deluge, and many had to be graded to be reopened. This kept grader operators busy, so the runway at Moolowatana Station, the first station and servicable runway north of the Mawson Plateau, was still damaged. So like last year, we had to charter a helicopter to drop us out. More expensive, but being able to drop us almost anywhere it saved us two days walking in from Moolowatana Station.

The plateau spans an area seven kilometres wide and 30 kilometres long. The area is littered with large areas of exposed granite, capturing water in numerous rockholes. Granite Creek and its many tributaries drain the plateau, flowing to the north to meet Hamilton Creek before making their way out to Lake Callabonna - one of the many large salt lakes that form a horseshoe around the Northern Flinders Ranges. Its highest point is Freeling Heights, a bluff on the south-western corner of the plateau. Originally the plateau was named Freeling Heights, but was later renamed in honour of Douglas Mawson.

The plateau is largely untouched, it's quite hard to find any sign of human impact. There are no roads or tracks, no buildings or fences, quite possibly no weeds (I've heard tell, I'm no expert), and little impact from feral animals, even goats (which are rampant in the Gammon Ranges to the south.) We found a couple of stardropper stakes in a clearing on our way up to Freeling Heights, marking the site of a government photo survey of vegetation. On stardroppers, one of the waterholes on upper Granite Creek is called Star Dropper Waterhole, so named after the single stardropper there that marks a corner boundary of the Arkaroola and Mount Freeling pastoral leases. We knew of this waterhole, we had seen photos, but did not know its exact location as the pastoral lease boundaries are not usually shown on the topographic maps. We did, unbeknownst to us at the time, see the waterhole on our return from the summit of Freeling Heights. In the back corner of a photo of the waterhole the star dropper can clearly be seen!

A single old track makes a small incursion on the plateau just south west of Mt Shanahan, an old mining track, the type such as litters the Northern Flinders Ranges. Without maintenance these tracks suffer from washaways and soon become undriveable. This one stretched a few hundred metres onto the plateau. It's unusual to hike in the Flinders Ranges somewhere that no 4WD could possibly travel, or has ever travelled.

There were are few other signs of human impact. Behind a rock above the Tee Junction Waterhole, one of the few permanent waterholes on the plateau (after decent rains it is thought to last ten years or so) we found an emergency cache of food and essential items. You know the essential things one might need: coffee, chocolate, cigarettes, toilet paper. From the logbook it seems to have been first placed there by Reg Sprigg in 1987, and has been well stocked since, very little was out of date. As the permanent waterhole, and one of the few named ones, it is a popular spot with hikers to camp at. That said, there were few entries in the logbook, but that may be due to hikers, such as us, not knowing the cache was there; we stumbled upon it on our second night there.

A couple of old stone cairns built by surveyors mark summits, there is one on Mt Shanahan, a summit which seems remarkably insignificant, and on Freeling Heights. Towering drystone structures, they never cease to amaze me in how well the surveryors of old constructed them. The Freeling Heights one, like all good summit cairns, is complete with a logbook of sorts, in this case loose paper in an old jar. Of all the notes in there, and there were not many - it seems there was only one, sometimes two, visits each year. Some year had no visits. Tafe was a common visiting party - the outdoor education course - they also featured quite well in the cache at Tee Junction Waterhole. Up at the Freeling Heights summit there were several cleared campsites, perhaps most clearly noticable by the large slabs of stone that had been carefully positioned to form chairs and even side tables.

The March rains filled all the rockholes, even after seeing so many waterholes we did not grow tired of them. It's hard to imagine what hiking here might look like in drier times. The waterholes were often an obstruction, a few times we had to scramble around them, many times over and around them. There were upsides to this though, by lunchtime on the first day we were already swimming in a vast waterhole. Every day on the plateau featured a good swim.

On our second day we decided to leave Granite Creek, with its many obstructing waterholes. We followed a spurline for two kilometres up to the escarpment edge, from here we had dramatic views over the eastern plains and Lake Frome. Following the escarpment to the south west, the escarpment grew increasingly dramatic. We crossed back across the plateau, which was no easy navigation task, to Granite Creek and its rockholes.

The views from Freeling Heights were also dramatic, we had a very clear day, one of the clearest I have seen up there. We could easily see Mt Painter, which we climbed in 2011, and further south Benbonyathe Hill (2010), Mt McKinlay, Patawarta Hill (2009) - 110km away - and Rawnsley Bluff on Wilpena Pound - 180km away.

On the fourth day we hiked to the escarpment, dropping off 400 metres in elevation down a long spur line to a creek. From here we followed it downstream to the hot springs at Paralana. The days were all hot, and most sunny, and we often sought out the shade of trees, no matter how small. A Paralana Hot Springs we sat in the cool reeds beside the hot flowing spring water. It was here we saw our first people since leaving Arkaroola, a couple visiting the springs in their 4WD. An offer of a cold beer would have been nice. Alas, unrefreshed we hiked on in the hot sun.

We camped beside a waterhole every night, and it was only one night where we forewent a swim, in that case to preserve the water from contamination for drinking. Our last night was possibly the best swim, in Bararranna Waterhole. Here the creek was flowing and the waterhole large, it reminded me of some of the rocky vegetationless gorge waterholes in the Kimberley, it was enormous.

On the sixth day we sidled into Arkaroola, and showers, cool drinks, food and chairs. Ah the things you miss hey.

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

TRACK NOTES - Mawson Plateau traverse
Download larger version of track notes
Label	Location	Grid Ref	Time	Note
Sunday 15/04/12
Start	NE of Mt Shanahan	GR 559 770	8.20am drop-off (15min flight from Arkaroola)	on hill NE of where Granite Creek meets Hamilton Creek. Hike along Granite Creek.
1	waterhole on Granite Creek	GR 542 747	12.01/1.05pm	Lunch + swim
2	Break	GR 535 731	2.05pm
3	Turn around - too far	GR 533 726	2.50pm	Gorge narrowing, gorge exit missed
4/Campsite	Campsite day 1	GR 535 731	3.10pm. Day's hike was 9.2km/6hr walk	Camp beside creek on sandy area beside large shallow waterhole
Monday 16/04/12
4	Campsite day 1	GR 535 731	7am	Leave camp, hike up spur to escarpment (5)
5	Escarpment	GR 547 717	7.56am	Follow escarpment to pt 7
6	Break	GR 538 700	8.50/9.18am
7	Leave escarpment edge	GR 520 686	10.35/10.55am	Begin to cross plateau from escarpment edge back to Granite Creek
8	Break	GR 513 682	11.45/11.57am
9	Lunch at head of creek	GR 505 282	12.25/12.55pm
10	Rockholes on Granite Creek	GR 498 681	1.19pm	Lots of rockholes here, continue up creek to point 11
11/Campsite day 2	Tee Junction Waterhole	GR 489 678	2.15pm. Day's hike was 13km & 7h15m	Explored further to tee junction, waterhole a few hundred metres downstream from junction.
Tuesday 17/04/12
11/Campsite day 2	Tee Junction Waterhole	GR 489 678	6.50am	Leave camp with daypacks for hike up to Freeling Heights summit and return to camp here again
12		GR	8.36am	Proceed up southern arm of Granite Creek, contour around to more open flatter area to west. Yes got a little sidetracked turning too far north when cross-country.
13	Clearing	GR 458 665	8.50am	Break in open clearing. Proceed across clearing, then following creek lines to vicinity of 449 655. Proceed up spur to flatter ridge near summit
14	Freeling Heights summit	GR 448 643	10.30/11.10am	Summmit marked by stone surveyors cairn in SW corner of ridge. Numerous campsites near summit, some shady.
15	Clearing	GR 457 664	12.35pm	Lunch. Follow creek lines across clearing and open country. Easiest way is to continue following creeks into major Granite Creek. Last 1.5km into Tee Junction difficult due to waterholes.
11/Campsite day 2 & 3	Tee Junction Waterhole	GR 489 678	2.15pm. Day's hike 16.9km, 5.5hr moving, 7.5hr total	Camp here again for a second night.
Wednesday 18/04/12
11/Campsite day 2 & 3	Tee Junction Waterhole	GR 489 678	7.10am	Leave camp. Proceed up SW branch of Granite Creek to waterfall
12 (oops duplicated)	Waterfall	GR 479 667	8.07am	Contour around hills beside creek, hills clearer than creek here
13 (oops duplicated)	Break, clearing and stand of trees	GR 473 655	9.09/9.27am	Clearing in creek
13 (oops duplicated again)	Escarpment edge	GR 473 650	9.50am	Proceed down long spurline
14 (oops duplicated)	Start of steep spur	GR 478 642	10.28am	Continue down spur, this section is very steep
15 (oops duplicated)	Hot Springs/Paralana Creek	GR 484 630	11.40am/12.20pm	Lunch in creek at base of long spur. Proceed downstream along creek to Paralana Hot Springs.
16	Paralana Hot Springs	GR 499 607	1.45/2.15pm
17	Exit Yudnamatana Creek	GR 483 588	3pm	Proceed up Nicolls Spring Creek, go right at major creek junction after a narrow gorge
18/Campsite day 4	Camp north of Nicholls Spring	GR 482 578	4pm. Day's hike was 17km, 5.5hr moving, 9h overall	Camped beside two-step waterfall, pools of water under each, pink granite rock
Thursday 19/04/12
18/Campsite day 4	Camp north of Nicholls Spring	GR 482 578	7.07am	Proceed up creek
19	Nicholls Spring	GR 477 573		Marginal spring, spent sometime verifying location
20			8am	Spring found, returned to packs, continue following creekline up
21	Head of creek		8.45am	Break. Proceed up to saddle and ridge, skirt around 450m peak, proceed down long spur to East Painter Creek
22	East Painter Creek	GR 457 5444	10.30/10.45am	Break. Follow East Painter Creek downstream to East Painter Bore and tank.
23	Old Mine Track			An easier start to tackling Humanity Seat? No, doubt it, track not long enough.
24			11.30am
25	East Painter bore	GR 479 521	12.00/12.40pm	Bore and tank. Creek enters plains here. Proceed along 4WD track to Paralana Hot Springs road, south past Lady Buxton Mine for 1.25km, turn south-west along an Arkaroola 4WD track past White Ants Mine
26	Top of hill	GR 469 492	1.40pm	A real bastard this track. Why didn't we navigate around it? Continued down track.
27	Creek/Road T-junction		2.20pm	Take south track to Bararranna Waterhole
28/Campsite day 5	Bararranna Waterhole	GR 457 479	3pm. Day's hike was 19km, 5.5hr moving, 7.5hr overall.	Very large waterhole in gorge. Two waterholes at present. Carpark at end of road, but road looks out of service since March rains.
Friday 20/04/12
28/Campsite day 5	Bararranna Waterhole	GR 457 479	6.50am	Leave camp, proceed along track back to Arkaroola, track follows creek
29	Echo Camp Waterhole	GR 429 497	8.10am
30	Arkaroola Bore		9am	Break
31	Arkaroola (reception)	GR 400 455	10.15am. Day's hike was 14km, 3h moving, 3.5h overall

Finishing off the Great South West Walk

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 (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

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.

References:
• 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?
  

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

View full hike from Redbank Gorge to Mt Sonder South (the false summit) and onto the true Mt Sonder summit in full screen format Download full hike in GPX file - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit Download full hike in KML file - view in Google Earth

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	6.30am
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

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.

References:

• 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

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

This blog post is about an unsuccessful climb of Mt Zeil.
I've since made a successful climb,
refer to this July 2012 post.

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