Larapinta 5: Birthday Waterhole to Hugh Gorge

Up at 5am and breaking down camp before breakfast. Breakfast was smashed avo on toast.

Walked up the gulley on very rough river rock and then steeply up to Razorback Ridge. Expansive views and then we walked and threaded our way along the spine of the Ridge (not looking down). The Ridge also afforded a distant view of the saddle we had to get to.

Down from the Ridge to a gum shrouded creek for lunch. Then up another gulley over very rough track until we reached the mandatory river crossing. No choices here. We all stripped down and here followed a short, cold swim and some teamwork with backpacks. It was not as hard as advertised, and the swim was refreshing. A strict no photos policy was agreed upon for this bit.

After that it was a beautiful slog. The orange walls reflected in still pools were stunning. But we were all very tired by this point. There was a lot. Of stumbling and F went down hard a couple of times.

N had taken a rest day today and did not walk. She very generously had sett up the tents while we were on the trail. So we walked into camp with things well in hand.

Hard to emphasize enough how tough todays walk was. Thee distance is simply no indicator of the diffficulty with all the ups and downs compounded by extremely rough trails.

We covered 16km today.