The Sound of White (Simpson's Gap, Ormiston Pound and Gorge, Northern Territory).

At the risk of this being a Missy Higgins love in she scores the title for two consecutive posts. This time The Sound Of White. Why? Well dear reader that will shortly become apparent.

We were in the foyer by 7:20am with a number of other trekkers. That’s trekkers, not trekkies. There appeared to be 3 or 4 different groups, too many people for our maximum capacity of 10 walkers. We decided to wait outside on the driveway and were soon joined by others. The convoy of Trek vehicles soon arrived. There were three different groups in all; the 16-day hard core crowd, the 9-day explorers expedition and the sensible 6-day trekkers. The last group included us and three others.

The path to Simpson's Gap.

We met our tour guides, Jonny and Lucas, as we stowed our luggage in the trailer. Jonny, despite his relative youth, is the old hand of the pair. Lucas is a trainee on his second trek. Both of them are from Tasmania, where the company was founded. When the NT season closes, they will return to Tassie for the commencement of the walking season down there.

Hmmm. Reflective.

First stop today was Simpson’s Gap which gave us plenty of time to talk with the other trekkers. It was quite cool at the Gap and we wandered down the gorge, until the water blocked our progress. The black footed rock wallaby that inhabits the area was sensibly nowhere to be seen in the cold weather. The group meandered back to the creek bed where Jonny and Lucas were waiting for us. Jonny had set up a visual presentation of the Chewings and Heavitree ranges and provided us with an overview of the next six days.

The gap.

Our group, which could have numbered 10, suffered a couple of late withdrawals and there were only 8 of us. As Lucas is a trainee, another guide had been allocated to us - Declan, who was at base camp organising, among other things, dinner.

Our classroom.

It is a beautiful landscape and even under a leaden grey sky the contrast of the reds and greens as they shift shades in the light is quite magical. Back at the car park there was a Collared Sparrowhawk that I originally thought could have been a Peregrine Falcon. It was collecting nesting material and moving rather lethargically. Back onto the bus, we turned towards Ormiston Pound and Gorge and the first proper walk of the trip.

The hawk.

We arrived at the car park in light misty rain that cleared as we alighted from the bus and organised our packs.

The walk is a loop, commencing and concluding at the Gorge and traversing the range to get an overview of the Pound enroute. Strictly speaking this is not a part of the Larapinta Trail. The trail undulates in a steady climb to a ridge overlooking the pound. 

And off we go.

The Pound walk is rated one of the best walks in Australia and the view is certainly worth the walk. There were few other people on the trail and the conditions improved as we climbed. Our group strung out along the trail as Jonny and Lucas dropped to the rear of the group to make observations about each of us and our level of fitness and ability to cope with the conditions.

We stopped at the Lookout for a snack break, overlooking the vast bowl that is Ormiston Pound. The variety of colours on the walls continued to change with the strength of the light which was regulated by the height and depth of the cloud that shrouded us. At times, it descended and we were surrounded by light mist.

The Pound.

To this point we had seen small flocks of Zebra Finches. Before we reached the lookout, a few Painted Finches took flight from nearby low scrub. They were too quick to be photographed.

Back on the trail, Jonny strode out before us to ensure lunch was set up and waiting for our arrival down by the river. David and I kept out in front of the others. David because he has young legs. Me in the hope of snapping some birds. I was soon rewarded by a pair of juvenile Painted Finches.

Painted Finch.

As we approached the lunch spot in the river bed, the chatter of the budgies carried to us on the breeze. Flocks of them were swarming from ground to tree to river to tree. I dropped my pack quickly and went off in search of the perfect photo.

Following lunch, I had walked a little way down river when the movement of a Western Bowerbird caught me eye. Such a bogan bird with its purple/pink mullet. He disappeared from sight quickly. I set out unsuccessfully in search of his bower. As I was about to turn back, I heard his metallic, scraping call. He was sitting in a dead tree above his bower which was just beside the river bank.

Western Bowerbird.

The grass walls of the bower were about 30cm in length. One end contained multiple green berries. The other end was a collection of white objects; bleached bones, shells and small rocks. Before we set out again, the group came down to inspect the bower while we were supervised by its owner from a nearby tree.

Spinifex Pigeon.

The rest of the loop continued uneventfully. We crossed and recrossed the river before we settled down to walk the rocky river bed. As we neared the end of the walk and the deeper pools near the kiosk, we met another walker, totally drenched and dripping from chest down. He had reached the deeper pools and rather than retracing his steps and crossing to the other side of the river to access a dry path, he had plunged right in. It was late in the afternoon and the breeze was quite chilly. Fires are not permitted so I have no idea how he was going to dry off or warm himself up.

We continued on and crossed at the sandbar for the climb to the lookout, overlooking the gorge. Sadly, the sandbar revealed a number of dead fish which Jonny explained was caused by a parasite in the gills which dulls a fish’s ability to process enough oxygen from the water.

The swimming hole.

We were soon back at camp, selecting our tents. Dave and I opted to share a tent and he chose one in the front row with a view across the dry river bed. Our swags were placed on a stretcher and came with a sleeping bag and inner. Dinner, barramundi and vegies with a dill sauce, was served by Declan at 6pm. Everyone was in bed around 7:30pm. What party animals.

 

Going North (Sydney to Alice Springs)

Yes, I’m back, sans Jayne. Bushwalking is not her thing, but it is David’s, so the first born and I are off on our annual (major) trek. Going North as Missy Higgins might sing. Have a listen. This time to the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory on a guided trek with Trek Tours Australia. This post is a transit day so to break up the text I’ve included a few photos from the walk. There was precious little connectivity on the trail so this is being put together on our return.

Weekend trackwork, and the resultant closure of the Airport line, encouraged an alternate transport plan. I had already declined Jayne’s generous offer to drive me to the airport. Dave’s trip in from suburbia now involved buses and a train and would take around 2 hours. The new plan saw Dave train it into the city on Friday night to stay with us and Jayne would drive us to the airport on Saturday morning.

Holly Grevillea

My platinum status as a Qantas frequent flyer was going to expire at midnight on Sunday. Saturday morning would be my last time to enjoy the Business Lounge for most domestic flights. Although Jayne and I are flying business class to Perth in August.

Qantas has not been my friend for some time now and overseas flights with Qatar, Singapore and Vietnam has cruelled any chance of maintaining platinum status. That said all went well on this leg of the journey. The traffic was light, baggage drop was smooth and the security check was fast and efficient. The Business Lounge wasn’t overly busy and a toasty and coffee readied us for the 3 hour flight to the Alice.

The wide open spaces of Ormiston Pound.

Today is my first experience of Qantas’ new method of boarding in zones. They have finally joined the civilised ranks of other international airlines. We are Zone 1 and first onto the plane and into our exit row seats. The boarding process worked well and we were in the air and heading to Alice Springs on schedule.

The flight was uneventful and relatively smooth. The head of Customer Service dropped by for a chat (courtesy of my soon to be expired platinum status) and said he would catch up with us on the return flight to see how we enjoyed the trek.

Our taxi driver to the hotel channelled Lewis Hamilton and was clearly frustrated by other cars observing the speed limit. We were at the Double Tree by Hilton for both ends of the trip and happily our room was ready when we arrived at 1pm.

As we sorted our gear for tomorrow’s first day of the trek, we discovered we were walking 70kms over the six days, not the 110kms I read about in a previous email. Neither of us was sure whether to be pleased or disappointed.

The forecast for day one was rain and we had around six hours of walking in front of us. In that time we would only cover around 8kms. Clothes and packs were reorganised for our 7:30am pick up.

We dined at the inhouse restaurant. They were very busy and service was slow. The food was ok but nothing to get excited about.