Larapinta Trail: Section 10 & 11 Ormiston Gorge to Son of Sonder (hilltop lookout)
Day 16 of 18 Tuesday
Mt Sonder and Son of Sonder off in the distance
Waking today in Ormiston Gorge campsite was a bit unusual to our normal adventures of late. There was an energy about it that was all positive, hustle and bustle. People were breaking camp everywhere and as I stood there stretching and scratching myself I was more interested in the weather. It looked like our beautiful blue skies had evaporated only to be replaced by a dull unenthusiastic grey. The clouds were low and just hanging there in an almost menacing manner, you know the kind of sky that oozes the threat of rain but isn’t quite there yet. Irish described is as English weather, need I say any more.
Breaking camp we reined in our feelings of dread about the threating clouds, after all there’s nothing we could do about it, and set about crushing out some miles. One positive of a dreary overcast day, is that it’s a good day for walking and you get a reprieve from the sun baking you. Today or at least section 10 was down in my eyes was an easy stroll through the wilds of NT. Our first destination being Finke River at only 9km away I knew we’d knock it over by lunchtime and likely push on from there. But that was a decision for lunchtime. The first half of this section was a leisurely stroll up to a place they called Hilltop lookout. It offered some nice views of the surrounding mountain ranges but certainly wasn’t earth shattering top of the world views, as we’d encountered a couple of days ago but none the less it was a pleasant place to stop for a breather. On the way down this almost benign hill Big J and I were talking our usual shit about life in general and of course his impending demise of life as he knows it. That’s ‘bloke speaks’ for talking about his feelings and his upcoming wedding. The man is generally excited about it and good on him for that. Personally it must be nice to be in that mindset but after revisiting this conversation over multiple days I kind of tuned out a little and slipped into a daydream for there’s only so much touch and feely hugginess a man can endure without nausea and bile rising up in his throat
Wild flowers for his wife to be. - Big J letting the world know he’s a new man
It was at this point a little rock under my foot decided to slide out and before I knew it I was flat on my arse and momentum was rolling me over the edge of the trail and into a gully about 10m below. My mind flashed ‘this is going to hurt big fella, you’ve had a good innings’ when my fall was arrested by Big J grabbing my pack as I rolled over the edge. Dragging me up to my feet I thanked him profusely, had a laugh about almost being killed on a mundane hill and we set off again. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was daydreaming about cold beers and juicy steaks so I steered the topic of conversation back to his wedding and figured he’s earned my gratitude and attention for another couple of kilometres at least.
One of the many Finke rive water holes we came across today
Arriving at Finke River campsite for lunch we sat down, munched on the usual granola bars, discussed the weather and unanimously decided to push on. We were feeling good, after all we’d never completed a section of the LT in under a day so we must be hiking gods by now. The terrain leading into Section 11 was classified as moderate to difficult and the section was almost 26km so that was a given we were going to do it over two days. So with that piece of knowledge in hand we refreshed our water supplies and prepared ourselves for a ‘dry’ camp somewhere down the trail. However, somewhere down the trail looked to be a further 9km at another ‘hilltop’ lookout. Well if it was anything like the last one then that shouldn’t be too bad, but still 18km total for the day made it a decent stroll and worthy of our god like hiking status. We knew that wasn’t going to be done in a day so prepared for a dry camp.
Mt Sonder and Heavitree range looking ominous
and the formidable Mount Sonder popping out and seemingly getting ever closer. Eventually we briefly dropped down into a creek bed but the trail was winding its way towards a rather ugly looking climb up a large ridge line in front of us. Late in the day and having covered about 16km by my calculations we were getting pretty tired and looking forward to setting up camp. But first it looked like the trail had some punishment ahead before that. Catching a quick breather before the final push I took a cursory glance at the map again. Sure enough there in the description of the section 11 hike was this simple little unassuming sentence. “The exciting climb onto a high quartzite ridge of the Heavitree Range is tough but with a few dips where you can rest”. Tough is not the correct adjective here. I’d have replaced it with something a little more descriptive like fucking brutal climb at the end of a long day comes to mind. About halfway up on this climb I could tell big J was really lagging, he was hurting big time and no amount of ‘ being in love ‘ was going to cushion his pain for today. The LT was owning his arse and all the creature comforts of his pending wedding were a very distant memory.
I could see the anguish in his eyes, when he came around the corner of the trail to see Mt Sonder towering over us, the mother of all mountains in the area looming ominously, tall and threatening cloaked in dark clouds around her. She lay seemingly just out of reach, looking down on the lesser childlike mountain we were struggling up. You could almost feel Sonder speaking on the wind to her child, encouraging her to break our spirit for we are not worthy to climb her just yet, and that my friends is how the child mountain we were on changed name from hilltop lookout to the Son of Sonder for it nearly broke us that day.
Sitting there after the camp was set up, we were exhausted, 18km for the day and Son of Sonder had taken its toll. We just stared out into space like modern day zombies, chewing mindlessly on tasteless meals watching the clouds gather and lightning flash off in the distance. The weather was turning nasty, I think we all knew we were in for it but none dared jinx it by voicing their concern. Spent and beaten up we crawled into our humble abodes to attempt to recoup for the final push
A Broken man on top of the newly named Son of Sonder mountain after a 18km day
