Larapinta Trail: Section 4 -Bucket list moment
Day 7 of 18 Sunday
Sunrise Bucket moment, Brinkley Bluff
Brinkley Bluff is all about the sunrise or so I’m told. It’s alleged to be a spectacular creeping dawn that captures one’s soul. OK that means I’ve got to drag my sorry arse out of bed.
Despite having a great campsite last night, the wind still played havoc on my tent. Buffeting and howling like a banshee. At times I thought a freight train was coming through to wake me from my pitiful slumber.
Speaking of freight trains, as the sun set on Brinkley Bluff and the blanket of stars came out I sat at the edge of the cliff contemplating life. I’d just seen a runner from the West Macs Monster run come through in the dying light of the day. They stopped at the Carins on the bluff, made a quick phone call and donned their head lamp, before running off into the night. If you don’t know what the West Macs Monster is, I’ll attempt to do it justice. This is an ultramarathon that runs the entire length of the LT, yes that’s right the whole 231km of it. Sure, you can do shorter lengths but none the less whatever length you do you are still running the LT. Now for ‘super’ hiker’ come ‘athlete’ like myself I can totally understand the attraction of getting out and running this trail and killing yourself slowly. Not!!- But to the average hiker and probably the rest of the world for that matter, these guys and girls are freaks I mean to hike it, itself is bad enough. I know only one freakish friend that would attempt that. Carrington if you are reading this then you know what I’m talking about. But to run it day and night until you finish with only 20 minute power naps along the way is another level of super freak. It’s just pure madness, and one cannot help but wonder if they have a screw loose or a wire in their brain shorted somehow. But credit where credit is due, they willingly put themselves through this self-imposed torture simply because they can. The is calibre of these athletes is so hard core that they do this shit for giggles. To you Sir I pay homage for I am not worthy.
Brinkley Bluff Descent, tough going but spectacular views
As darkness enveloped me I was sitting on the edge of the Bluff and watching these distant beams of light dancing along as they ran the trail. It was almost enchanting watching them as they slowly etched their way closer. That was until they reached the summit and looked around. Their headlamps were so bright I could have cooked crabs with them. To say they turned night into day was an understatement. This went on all through the night and just when you got to sleep, you’d get lit up like a convict on the run. One gentleman decided at 0100hrs in the morning to undertake a particularly lengthy and loud conversation with his loved one whilst looking around with his freight train headlamp. This went on for a solid 10 minutes or so and every 30 seconds he’d look around and illuminate the tent. At the end of his conversation, he ended the call with an endearing I love you honey. By then I think the whole of the mountain was ready to reply ‘I love you too now get off this fucking mountain and let us sleep’. Fortunately he was the tail end Charlie of the pack for the night so sleep was forthcoming.
Spencer Gorge rock hopping hell
Sunrise crept in and I could hear the various tents unzipping, the mutters of how cold it was type complaints were replaced by the oooh’s and arrhs and the “wow that’s beautiful”. So not wanting to miss out I dragged my arse from my toasty sleeping bag. It truly was a sight to behold. Spectacular, awes inspiring and majestic are all adjectives that didn’t do it justice. The cold was forgotten, the wind tamed and the ‘I love you’ dude was forgiven. I was just left speechless. Standing there for what seemed like an eternity watching the night fade away and the dawn creep in made it truly worthwhile. You just didn’t want to move for fear of missing out, you willed your body to soak it all in. The mornings rays crept into your retina and pleasantly seared the memory of a new day on your brain. Just writing about it now I’m taken back to the moment and I have goose bumps. If there’s one small thing you want to put on your bucket list- make it a sunrise at Brinkley Bluff, you won’t regret it.
Spencer Gorge trail blazing
Packing up the tent today whilst looking out over the West Macs was hardly a chore, even the Granola bar tasted good. Life was looking good. Today’s destination was section 4/5, a lazy 8km with the majority of it downhill. Well after yesterday’s climb I figured that suited me fine. Though the map was warning us to “get ready to test your ankles on the long and rugged descent from the summit. The trail zig zags down the very steep and rocky southern flank of the mountain. Many walkers feel this is one of the toughest parts of the trail”. Please – the toughest part of the trail walking down hill, who writes this waffle. How hard could it be??. Sure, enough it was steep but made for amazing views and some sketchy sections where you felt really alive and living the dream. One section about halfway down was a very narrow ledge you had to walk along for about 30m. If you slipped here, you were a goner and that bit got the heart racing and made you feel like you were living on the edge - bad pun intended. Thankfully there was no safety barrier or obligatory safety warning to ruin the moment. I guess they figured if you were out here in the wilds and had done a week of hiking without killing yourself then it was probably not justified. The map had it correct though, it was a very steep and rocky descent. On the flip side I could only imagine how sketchy it would have been to do this climb up at night time with only a head lamp. I could almost forgive them for their freight train headlamps. Almost.
After hitting the bottom of the descent it was a gentle meandering trail with gentle walk (I can’t believe I am using the word gentle to describe anything on the LT) to Stuart Pass before descending down through the valley to Mintbush Spring. At this time of the year it was a gentle soaking of the surrounding grounds. The flora and fauna were nice but the smell of rotten vegetation was a little pungent, so it really wasn’t a place to linger or fill up ones water bottles for that matter. Arriving at Section 4/5 campsite was uninspiring. It’s one of those sites that has the furry friend kind of feel about it and was way too peopley for me.
Wild flowers, Windy saddle LT
I settled in for a lunchbreak and to wait for Irish. Lunch today was a sweet chilli flavoured salmon pieces and cruskits which made for a delightfully pleasant change from the muesli bars, beef jerky and pistachio nuts. Irish arrived shortly thereafter and opted to go for a walk to the nearby Birthday Waterhole some 900m away. I was feeling lazy so opted to have a siesta and listen to the scuttle bug of other walkers whilst they ate. After an hour I was all peopled out and itching to hit the trail again. Irish returned and described her adventure as not really earth shattering and hardly worth the 900m walk there. So given it was early in the day we decided to push on and find a campsite up the trail. Some of our fellow hikers said there were a couple of campsites at Windy Saddle. Despite the trepidation of spending another night in a windy place I felt it was worth the risk as it was a pretty calm kind of day and was only another 4.6km so well within our range for the day.
What I didn’t factor into the equation was a little statement from the maps “walk upstream to the north and enter the botanical rich Spencer Gorge. Here you’ll get to practise your rock hopping and scrambling skills for later on in section five”. Sure enough this was to be our life for the next couple of hours, it was pretty much this for the next 4km or so and really slow going. Did I tell you I frigging hate rock hopping and scrambling, ooh yeah I moaned about it back in section two. It’s the pits, only positive side about it is that you are generally walking in the shade. So it offers some relief from the hot afternoon sun. But I have to confess it was pretty spectacular with constant changing scenery and some beautiful little pools of clear, cool water to top up your water bottles on the way through made for an interesting afternoons slog. Climbing out of the gorge to Windy Saddle was a half descent slog but by the end of the day I was more interested in the campsite for the night. Windy Saddle offers several quaint little campsites. There are no facilities so one has to carry out extra water or top up in Spencer Gorge as we did. The beauty of this campsite is that it's totally isolated in the wilds of the LT with just the sounds of the wind whistling up the valley to keep you company. It was pleasant and not the roaring 40’s of Blinkley Bluff. There is a hint of what’s to come view wise and made for a lovely sunset after a hard day on the trail.
End of day pack explosion at windy saddle campsite
Oh, incidentally, if you are wondering who the winner of this year’s West Mac Monster was, a bloke by the name of Nicolas Bamford. Now I don’t know a thing about this guy but I will say this, you Sir are a freak of nature to complete the entire 231km in 46 hours and 57 minutes. Kind of makes you feel inadequate when you compare it to our 18 days. But hey different horses for different courses and everyone lives their own dream. But I’m left feeling that his dream is more my nightmare. None the less. job well done old chap. Carrington your up - let’s see you do this next year!
