Kicking off day one at 6am in Alice Springs, quick breakfast and taxi ride to the start of the trail at Alice Spring Telegraph Station for the first section through to Wallaby Gap. It was a cold morning with frost on the ground as I headed off at 7.30am a lot earlier than I had planned.
First impressions – wow so green! Way greener than I would have expected in Central Australia, a common theme to come.
My first morning of walking was a spectacular introduction to the trail slowly leaving civilisation – through an old cemetery, past Trig Hill, under the Geoff Moss Bridge and across the Alice Springs to Darwin railway line. Through this section there was a slow but steady elevation climb until I hit Euro Ridge part of the Charles River Fault.
The top of Euro Ridge was my first real introduction to several common themes of the next 18 days – incredible views showing off the immense geological activity of the region with so many mountain ranges, the red rock, how rocky and narrow parts of the trail would be and so much green (I know I’m repeating myself).
Across the morning I also had my first introduction to others on the trail. At the start another solo hiker who was going at a much faster pace than I was (East to West in 14 days), a family of 4 at the top of Euro ridge wither pre-teen children (also doing East to West in 14 days) and a trail runner heading West to East on her way to finish in 5 days.
I arrived at Wallaby Gap around 12pm after covering 13km in 4.5 hours about an hour faster than the NT Parks & Wildlife maps indicated. I also had in my notes it was 17km as I originally planned to walk from Alice Springs to the start. This was the first of several situations where my itinerary didn’t match what happened on the trail. So after a review of the map and itinerary I decided to push on to Simpsons Gap (end of Section 1) and shorten Day 3.
On the way to Simpsons Gap I stopped into Scorpion Pool and Fairy Spring meeting another group of 3 walkers (also doing East to West in 14 days a common theme) who would eventually be at Simpsons Gap with me.
I arrived at Simpsons Gap at 4pm with very sore feet, not because the walking was “hard” more so walking on the rocks had taken its toll on them.
The other walkers from the day were all at the campsite along with an older couple who had been going West to East. The wife had broken her leg coming from Brinkley Bluff to Standley Chasm and was transported back to Alice Springs for treatment by a “Grey Nomad” her husband continued alone and she was re-joining him at the campsites when she could. At Simpsons Gap she had brought him beers, wine, muffins and other goodies.
There was also a story of an unlucky couple of walkers who’d had their hotel room robbed as they slept the night before starting their trek!
I made dinner around 5pm chatting with the other walkers and was in bed by 7pm when darkness arrived.
Down Under Treks 