Larapinta Trail: Section 6 - Hugh Gorge to Rocky gully

Day 9 of 18 Tuesday

Hugh view Larapinta Trail

  Well look at that, Day Nine already, I guess time really does fly when you’re having fun. Today looks to be a nice and easy stroll a lazy 15km, on topography looks flat as a pancake should be a chilled day.
 Now I promised I wouldn’t hang shit on Big J turning up to walk the trail with us after all the hard sections had been done. Of course, it was his work that rained on his parade and had nothing to do with his willingness to undertake some hard yards. After all he’s Big J the man, the legend, the myth of Ti Tree.  So instead, I’ll mention that he was supposed to meet us yesterday afternoon and I’ll tell you about how he got his brand new 4wd offroad for the first time, to get within 10km of Hugh Gorge only to have to turn around because the going got too tough and he didn’t want to scratch the paintwork. So, he had to walk the rest of the way arriving well after dark and lighting up the tent like day with his torch. I had flash backs of Brinkley’s Bluff all over again.
 

Big J ticking off his first Kilometre on the LT

Now those that know Big J, know he’s a half decent bloke and if you have been following this blog, you will also know he’ll do anything for you. But what he wouldn’t do was go to Kmart and buy himself a cheap tent for the trail because he said he was too tight (his words not mine), preferring to relive  the glory days of his youth spent gallivanting around the country, in the Army, living under a hoochie.  Now if you don’t know what a Hoochie is I’ll explain. It is a light weight Tarp that you string up between two trees and you sleep on the ground, in theory protected from the elements, works well in theory if it doesn’t rain, snow or too windy.  I figured this should be interesting with the furry friends of late, more on that later
 

The three of us set out after a lazy morning breakfast coffee, destination Hugh View. The pace was leisurely, we were taking it easy for Big J, the poor soul was yet to be christened to the trail so being the hiking machines that Irish and I had evolved into we didn’t want to break him too early on in the peace. This part of the trail is very open and savannah desert like. Nothing much to see except the distant ridgeline of the Heavitree Range as we edged ever closer. None the less it offered pleasant walking over low hills and meandering trail.  It afforded a good opportunity to catch up on the gossip of life. Just good mates tramping through the wilds talking shit as people with a commonality do. You know the stuff, life, love, dreams, plans and troubles. 
Arriving at Hugh View, well it’s what the name implies, a view of Hugh Gorge from a small hill at the distant chewing ranges. It makes for a good picture but it’s not really a place to ponder life’s direction, as it’s a little exposed and offers little or no shade. So, we opted to push onto Ghost Gum Flat.   

Meandering Larapinta trail near Rocky gully

The walk to Ghost Gum Flat is easy and across open country, it’s more of  a meandering path and nothing really earth shattering but it’ is pleasant none the less. I like this kind of walking it reminds me of Willowra. Flat and full of a nothingness that threatens to envelope you and swallow you in its entirety. One can feel small and insignificant in the vast expanses, it affords a great opportunity to get inside your own head space and just zone out and watch the miles go by.
 I have a bit of a routine when walking this type of country that I’ll share with you. The first five kilometres is always in silence and inside my head. I think and plan about the direction of my life and where I’m going or been for that matter. The next five kilometres is usually spent listening to a book or podcast and then the final five kilometres is always music, it picks up my lagging energy levels and simply propels me along much like the lyrics from the famous Steppenwolf song that everyone knows – “Like a true nature's child we were born,  born to be wild. We can climb so high I never wanna die.  Born to be wild. Born to be wild. Get your motor runnin head out on the highway looking for adventure in whatever comes your way”. Now that I’ve got you all signing that song in your head I’ll rest my case.

Ghost Gum Flat is just as it sounds flat with a random ghost gum tree. I think the powers to be were really struggling for a little originality on this section of the trail. But I’m not complaining it can’t all be sunshine and peaches. At one point as you are walking there is a random thoughtful table and chairs that springs up at you on rounding a bend in the trail.  It announces you are at  Ghost Gum Flat and makes for a pleasant place to rest your weary legs for a well deserved break but nothing much more. As always on this section shade here is a premium but the lure of coffee and its invigorating superpowers is stronger, so we rest up for a brew and a bite before pushing on with the final half of the days walk to Rocky Gully (another awe inspiring name)
Rocky Gully, well you guessed it, is a rocky gully that you stagger up for a couple of hundred metres before being greeted by your camp site for the night. It’s one of those places you would rather not be but the alternative is to push onto Ellery Creek and that was another 13km or so and to be honest I this hiking machine was no speedy Gonzales so Ellery Creek was going to have to wait another day. So tonight’s humble abode was to be Rocky Gully. It has a toilet and water and the camp sites are relatively level with some stunted trees for shade but not much more. Oh, it looks very much like mice haven as well. This should be fun for cowboy camper Big J.

The late afternoon was spent setting up camp at a leisurely pace. We just lazed around and continued our symphony of shit talking until the sun set and we grabbed a bite to eat. Now being the good friend that I am I couldn’t resist the opportunity to play a little joke on Big J and encourage some of my furry friends to make friends with his cowboy camp. So what better way to do that than a strategically placed spoonful of dehydrated goodness near his pillow. He couldn’t work out why I was laughing so much. This should make for a good story in the morning