Mt Woodroffe, #7 of the State 8

Is it OCD? That sees a list of the eight highest peaks in Australia's states and territories and then wants to tick them all off? Maybe. This one, Mt Woodroffe - South Australia's highest peak - was my number seven, of eight, the so-called State 8, or Aussie 8. Apparently I'm not alone in my affliction, there were 28 other people booked onto this tour.

SUMMARY - Mt Woodroffe climb/hike
Duration	1 day hike (3 day trip)
Start/end	Ngarutjara (3 day trip to/from Uluru)
Friday	Drive from Yulara, Uluru, to Ngarutjara camp (base of mountain)
Saturday	Hike up Mt Woodroofe (Ngarutjaranya) 1435m
Sunday	Drive from Ngarutjara camp (base of mountain) back to Yulara, Uluru
Area	APY Lands (permit required)
Bookings	Diverse Travel Australia, SEIT Outback Australia
Topographic Maps	1:250 000 Mt Woodroffe SG52-12: printed map, on-demand 1:100 000 print, free download (official map)

The only way to access Mt Woodroffe, in the remote APY Lands in northern SA, was via a tour group. Once a year they run a trip in, and it's the only one with permission from the Traditional Aboriginal Owners to do so. It's also rare for them to give anyone else permission, so the tour is the most practical way to do it. It makes Mt Woodroffe the most difficult of the State 8 to organise.

With the permission in mind, at our camp on the first night near the foot of the mountain, we were visited by Lee, one of the Custodians. As can happen in these situations, we took him all a bit too seriously, almost missing his first joke and his fine sense of humour.

When he first sat by the fire, he took his shoe off to warm his foot, complaining about the severe pain in his foot that a heel spur was giving him. Of course we doubted - I can hear your mocking cries now - that he would make it to the top of Mt Woodroffe. We were equipped with all our expensive hiking gear, when he looked more like he had come from fixing a car (he had, as it turned out). Of course, how wrong we were, it was Lee who led the charge up the first steep waterfall rockface. Few followed up the waterfall though, preferring to pick an easier route over a gung-ho approach. There was no doubt that Lee got into as much mischief now as he did when he was a ten year old boy.

Later Lee's father, aged 82, arrived. It quickly became apparent that he would talk in exchange of cups of tea, and if the tea disappeared so would he. He talked with a hint of humour in his slow words. He'd only been learning English in the last 10 years, evidently taught by the many school girls that came out here on school trips (SEIT tours core business is ten-day school Aboriginal cultural camps, this being one the campsites they use for that). I'm not sure how much that skewed his vocabulary, but in exchange he would teach them his language.

On our first day, after arriving at camp, we were taught how to not use the supplied swag, and a discussion ensued about the wisdom of camping in the creek bed, with it soft sand and shade. Normally, of course, this is a poor decision - to camp in a creekbed - but when you can see the headwaters, just a mere 7km away up the mountain, it's pretty safe to camp, even in a wide creek. I've done it before when the headwaters can be seen. If it rains, and especially if it rains a lot, then it's time to move. Pretty hard to miss rain in a swag.

We drove over to the foot of the mountain, to assess routes to hike and climb up the following day. Being a rogainer, I was already formulating a few options into plans, and on the drive closer was able to clarify some of them. At the foot, with most of the mountain obscured behind the immediate base, advice was given as to the easiest routes, and as to where the harshest spinifex lay.

Before dawn the following day, we drove back to the base and at first light set out. It was a case of each to their own, or better still, in small groups. A few set out directly from the cars with a short but sweet route, a straight up the mountain. It was a route plotted through the harshest spinifex, but nonetheless a sound route. Most others followed Lee to the waterfall rockface, before quickly dispersing by a variety of routes. For a while there it looked like we would find about 29 different routes up the mountain. I took a gentle route around the waterfall, taking my plotted course up to the ridge in the east, before hiking up the long spur to the summit. It was the easier route, relatively free of spinifex, and easy to navigate. Although I got to the top first, even having taken the longest route, I had hiked alone, and no doubt that allowed for some speed. It was just seven minutes later that the next group arrived, having taken the most direct route up from the cars.

For all my efficiency and speed in getting to the top quickly and with minimal spinifex injuries, I must have banged my head on the way down - maybe I should wear a safety helmet on such climbs - for I momentarily lost my mind. I decided against taking the three additional people now hiking with me along the long distance ridge, and decided on a shortcut down. Ricky, perhaps sensibly, decided to hike on along the ridge to the western end and it's unnamed summit. It wasn't long down our shortcut that it became obvious - this was no shortcut, and indeed, it took us longer to complete then the distant route. Thankfully I brought those three companions to share the misery of my foolishness. Ricky, having completed his second peak climb, caught up with us near the base. So much for our shortcut. Encouragingly, it seemed that everyone was slower on the trip down, compared to their trip up.

The view from the top took in distant Uluru and Kata Tjuta, some 130km away across the NT border. The Musgrave Ranges spread out to the east and west, a mess of scraggly mountains. Many South Australians don't know what lies up here, thinking that St Mary Peak in the Flinders Ranges, on the Wilpena Pound rim, is the highest peak in South Australia. It's not. Here in the Musgrave Ranges lie 21 mountains over 1,000 metres, and the top seven mountains of the State. St Mary Peak comes in as the 8th highest. Mt Woodroffe rises 680 metres above the surrounding plains.

An old stone surveyor's cairn marks the top of the mountain. A famous photo, taken in 1933, with three Pitjantjatjara guides, shows how the cairn originally appeared. The mountain was named after George Woodroffe Goyder, the 1857 South Australian Surveyor General highly regarded - at least now anyway - for his work in establishing what became known as Goyders Line, the line across the state that marks arable farming land from that which is not sustainable farming land. He was mocked at the time, but hey, at least there's the odd thing around the state named in his honour.

My skills in the exploration of the stone cairn fell well short of my skills displayed in getting up the mountain, and it was someone else who found the logbook in a rusted old can buried deep in the stone cairn. The word 'logbook' is a somewhat generous description, it was almost entirely a collection of rotten indecipherable paper fragments, with the odd modern addition of single pieces of paper. Why some people feel the need to describe the 'marvelous' or 'spectacular view' they saw is beyond me, it's really quite self evident to others who have managed to get there to read the logbook. Anyone with the misfortune of climbing in poor weather, which really is misfortune in Central Australia's stable weather, would hardly find enlightenment with the description of the view in the few moments they spent huddled on the leeward side of the stone cairn before heading back down.

With 29 people on our tour, every one of them made it to the top of Mt Woodroffe that day. Whilst it's cliched to say "there's one in every crowd", it was nonetheless true. If there is one thing more fun than 29 people on a tour, it's this: 29 people offering advice to the one person who is scruffing around in the red dust under the vehicle with a car jack replacing a blown tyre. That wasn't quite true, we had two vans and a ute for the tour, so whilst there were plenty offering advice, it wasn't quite as bad as 29 people. It was a big tour group, I had been warned when I booked that if the tour didn't reach the minimum of four people, it would be cancelled. Last year it was cancelled, with just two bookings.

So in my State 8 pursuit I've been all around the country and found many hiking places to return to. My first peak, Mt Ossa, in Tasmania was mostly accidental, a side trip on the Overland Track. I almost gave up climbing it too, if it hadn't been for Tim's enthusiasm. Now five years later, only one remains. A crazy plan is in place to complete it - Queensland's Bartle Frere. We shall see my friend, we shall see.

View photo album in Google Plus (9 photos).

More photos to come

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My State 8 (Aussie 8)

The highest peak in each Australian state and territory:

1. Mt Kosciuszko, New South Wales (NSW), 2228m, March 2012
2. Mt Bogong, Victoria (VIC), 1985m, March 2012
3. Bimberi Peak, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), 1913m, March 2012
4. Bartle Frere, Queensland (QLD), 1622m, NOT YET DONE, June 2013?
5. Mt Ossa, Tasmania (TAS), 1617m, December 2008
6. Mt Zeil, Northern Territory (NT), 1531m, July 2012 (first attempt August 2011)
7. Mt Woodroffe, South Australia (SA), 1435m, May 2013
8. Mt Meharry, Western Australia (WA), 1252m, June 2010

Finishing off the Larapinta Trail

Two years ago I had to pull out of completing the 233km Larapinta Trail though the West MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs. I returned mid last year to finish off the eastern half, but wildfires closed the trail, so we occupied ourselves with other hikes. Now, for a third - and successful - attempt, I tackled the more challenging section of the Larapinta Trail.

SUMMARY - Larapinta Trail, Ellery Creek to Alice Springs Telegraph Station (Sections 6 to 1)
Previous trip	Redbank Gorge to Ellery Creek (Sections 12-7), 2010
National Park	West MacDonnell National Park
Location	West MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs
Start	Ellery Creek (Section 6/7 Trailhead)
End	Alice Springs Telegraph Station (Section 1 Trailhead)
Time	6 days
Distance	138km
Day 1	Ellery Creek to Rocky Gully (Section 6), 4h20m 15.2km
Day 2	Rocky Gully to Fringe Lily (Section 6/5), 7h40m 23.6km
Day 3	Fringe Lily to Brinkley Bluff (Section 5/4), 8h5m 17.0km
Day 4	Brinkley Bluff to Jay Creek (Section 3/2), 9h15m 23.4km
Day 5	Jay Creek to Simpsons Gap (just west of) (Section 2), 6h15m 27km
Day 6	Simpsons Gap to Alice Springs Telegraph Station (Section 1) to nearby caravan pak, 6h15m 27.2km

When you've done half a trail, you think you've got a good feel for it. I'm not sure I had with this one, it held more surprises than I imagined. My week was filled with tough climbs, glorious views, cool breezes on hot days, pregnant rain drops on hot climbs, good company at campsites, plenty of other hikers on the trail, and, as with any Central Australia walk, rocks, and plenty of them.

This time, I'm telling most of my story through photos, and their captions.

View photos on Google+.

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

Mt Zeil - NT's highest peak (The State 8)

Last year we'd tried to climb Mt Zeil, but with the summit cairn in sight, had to give up. We had hiked in from Redbank Gorge on a three day hike. This time we had permission from the NT Parks and the local pastoral station.

SUMMARY - Mt Zeil
State 8	Northern Territory's highest peak
Location	West MacDonnell Ranges, west of Alice Springs
Access	Glen Helen Station and West MacDonnell National Park
PERMISSION REQUIRED	Contact both: Gary Weir, Deputy Chief Ranger, West MacDonnell National Park Gary.Weir@nt.gov.au (08) 8951 8273 0405 603 152 Fax (08) 8951 8290 Ian Morton, Glen Helen Station - pastoral property (not to be confused with Glen Helen Resort) (08) 08 8956 8548 or (08) 8952 3063
Maps	1:50 000 topographic Special map - contact Rangers at West MacDonnell National Park to obtain. 1:250 000 SF53-13 Hermannsburg (this map is not sufficient alone, use in combination with 1:50 000 map available from rangers)
Time	4 hours up
Route	Follow long western spur
Start elevation	650m
Peak elevation	1531m

We drove the three hours in from Alice Springs, along the Tanami Track, Gary Junction Road (Papunya Road), then on station tracks through Glen Helen Station to the base of the western spur of Mt Zeil.

With the pre-dawn moon, we hiked across the plains to the base of the spur. As day broke, we climbed up to the plateau some 380 above the plains (at 1070m). There are various routes to choose from to access the grassy plateau. From here we tried following the official route provided by Parks NT, which is to skirt around the ridge peaks. We found this to be tricky: it was harder to navigate, psychologically harder, harder to walk on a constant side incline, and having to dodge obstacles such as patches of rocks or denser vegetation. Soon, we instead followed the ridge, it was much easier. It was easier to navigate, and the ridgeline was clearer of rocks and vegetation.

Reaching the summit in four hours, and whilst filling in the logbook, updated my Facebook status - yes, there was Telstra NextG coverage.

This summitting was my second attempt, I had tried last year to come in from Redbank Gorge as a three day trip, but did not quite reach the summit.

This was part of Ricky, Paul and my State 8 challenge - to hike the highest summit in each of Australia's eight states and territories. For all of us, this was Number Six, although we differ in which ones remain.

Thanks to my traveling companions, Ricky and Paul, and some of their photos are included below.

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View in full screen format PERMISSION IS REQUIRED, and highly recommended, to access and climb this peak. Detailed maps and advice will also be provided when permission is granted. Download GPX file of Mt Zeil climb - for use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit Download KML file of Mt Zeil climb - view in Google Earth

Stats	Mt Zeil
	Monday
	9/7/2012
	Up	Down
Distance	10.3km	10.1km
Start Time	6.08am	11.52am
End Time	11.04am	3.14pm
Moving Duration	3h17m	2h52m
Total Time	4h47m	3h22m
Moving Average	3.1km/h	3.5km/h
Overall Average	2.1m/h	3.0km/h

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?
  

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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 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?
  

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

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

Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park

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

Download Google Earth KML file

Download kml file of the Uluru Base Walk to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit

The Valley of the Winds Walk, Kata Tjuta

Download Google Earth KML file

Download kml file of the Valley of the Winds Walk in Kata Tjuta to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit

An abrupt end at Ellery Creek

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

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:

Download Google Earth KML file of the Larapinta Trail

Download kml file to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit. Download file in GPX format to directly upload to most GPS units. 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