Larapinta Trail: Section 7 - Ellery Creek Big Hole to Serpentine Gorge
Day 12 of 19 Friday
Heavitree Range vicinity of Ellery creek South
Rest day over it was time to hit the road again, stepping off and straining under the weight of our freshly restocked packs. It’s always the first few hundred metres that hurts the most.
A bit like the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning on a Monday, lying in bed and wondering do I really need a job to survive. Deciding you do, you curse the gods of Mondayitis and summon the energy to prise your lazy arse out of bed and face the music. It’s also probably about this time you are wondering what happened to the weekend and I’m betting you are moaning about two days not being long enough to recoup. But unlike rolling up for work where the suffering continues for hours, on the trails it only takes until you are out of sight of relative campsite comforts before you slip back into the zone, do your thing and let the miles fly by. Today found me singing along to a classic Otis Redding song called “(Sittin on) The Dock of the Bay”. If you haven’t heard it before do yourself a favour and follow the link for a listen. I found it actively reflected the mood I was in today - that being one of pure chilled zen (let’s not mention the dude died in a plane crash days after recording this song- it’ll spoil the buzz). Mondayitis, It is a state of mind you really can’t help when you are shackled to the norms of society and have to go to work, but get out here on the Larapinta Trail, it is a distant memory and if you do suffer a bout of it then I dare say you are probably just a miserable fuck and likely out of touch with reality.
Trig Point Looking West note not a cloud in the sky but yet barely 40 minutes later there was amazing whispy clouds that came through to enhance the pics Irish took
Today’s destination was Serpentine Gorge, a quick look at the Topo map didn’t reveal anything too earth shattering. The map was In fact was more focussed towards those taking the Northern route of the trail and not those on the alternate South route. Given our resupply was on the south side of Ellery it left us with a choice of doubling back and adding 8km to our day, before we even pushed further west, making it a 20km day versus a 12.8km day. Not to mention in that extra 8km was a scrambling climb over the Heavitree Range to connect on the northern side of the trail at east junction. I’ll give you one guess which way we decided to go. Yep, we opted for the relatively less documented alternate southern route via Trig Point to connect with West junction before pushing westward to Serpentine Gorge. I’ve always had the philosophy never go back and let’s see what’s behind door number two.
Trig Point Vista Looking East before the whispy clouds rolled in.
The Southern route was an adventure I enjoyed, with a lot of small rolling hills and one big climb up to the highest point of the trail at a place called Trig Point. Trig Point is definitely worth a break as it offers amazing views to the south of Chalet Ridge. Just don’t let the call of nature get the better of you here. It’s terribly exposed and there is no place to hide, you look down over Namatjira Drive with the tourist buses and cars zooming along the road and passing you by. Sure, they’re probably a good few kilometres away but that will do little to ease your feeling of vulnerability especially as your lilly white arse hangs out in the breeze, sort of like a shining beacon advertising your call to nature. Mind you if you want to find a positive spin on it, I can guarantee you it would most certainly be a loo with a view. But that’s all speculation and that would never happen to a seasoned hiker like myself now. But if it does happen to you, you will at least get a belly laugh at your own expense after you break the Guinness book of world records entry for speed pooping.
Trig point Vista Looking North West, I love the clouds
After you have had your fill of vista and daydreamed a little more, the climb down is a little steep with more than the odd slippy slidey (technical term ) rocks under foot to get your heart racing. After a couple more kilometres, you’ll join the official Larapinta Trail at west junction where it’s an easy few kilometres of meandering trail to your final destination of Serpentine Gorge campsite which is tucked away from the gorge and the trail head (800m) on account of no real reason other than I guess they want to keep the smelly through hikers away from the clean masses that visit Serpentine Gorge. Campsites here are scattered amongst some dense scrub that afford you the feeling of seclusion and of course there is the usual shelter, toilet and water facilities.
As always, we were in bed as soon as it was dark. Today was an easy day for us, a perfect ease back into the wilds of the trail. Tomorrow was going to be a big day as I’d been hearing about this Counts point for the last 50km or so, apparently a must see sight on the trail so I was keen to check it out. We were also scheduled to meet up with the myth of the trail Big J and his start up Uber eats company. He was bringing us breakfast and that was one meal I was really looking forward to – it would be a great start to another adventurous day.
Trig Point Vista Looking South West
