Sleep was easy last night after our late night hike but we were briefly awoken by the other half of the campground who were setting off at 3am to summit Mt Sonder and enjoy the sunrise. We were quickly back asleep and snuggled in our sleeping bags with all of our clothes on as the temperature would have been close to zero.
Not temperatures conducive with getting up early and consequently it wasn’t until about 8 when we actually emerged from our tent. We then took our time having tea (with condensed milk) and breakfast which was rehydrated berries and muesli. The jury is still out on that flavour for me but Sarah assured me that I would have eaten enough protein for the day.
Day 2 was only to be 11km along the valley below Mt Sonder. Not too much elevation gain and all in all a relatively easy day hence the lack of urgency in our departure.
The day’s hike wasn’t exactly inspiring as it was fairly desolate rocky landscape that we were hiking through and even though it wasn’t hot by Australian standards the sun was beating steadily down and radiating back off of the rocky terrain.
Normally I wouldn’t have been too excited about such a hike but it was quite exciting to be on our way towards Alice Springs. So we were officially getting closer and the few people that we passed along the way while looking exhausted they definitely exuded a sense of excitement about the hike they were just finishing (our hike in reverse)
We didn’t pass many but we stopped and had a quick moral boosting chat with them all which was nice.
We arrived at our campsite at about 2pm and while we could have picked up water and ventured further down the track we decided to have a hunt around for a nice spot to camp and enjoy our afternoon.
The campsite was quite nice but out the back there was a dry river bed so we decided to walk a little way away from the other few groups and set up camp on the comfy sand.
There weren’t spectacular views by any stretch of the imagination but there where plenty of little birds darting around the place and we enjoyed our afternoon sat back in our chairs watching them and the changing colours of the red rock behind.
While there were quite a few groups at our campsite at Redbank gorge there are only two other groups here sharing our spot tonight.
One group is a 3 generational family who have so far kept themselves to themselves apart from the grandfather who we have had some nice chats with and the other group is Jess who while we didn’t hike with her today we have enjoyed spending time chatting about the hike and laughing about the similar preparations we have gone though.
So we are quite a diverse group which is nice and it is interesting to note that 75% of hikers on the Larapinta are women and so far I would believe that statistic. Everyone so far seems to be enjoying themselves and striking a nice balance between having a chat and allowing each other to enjoy their space in what is quite an amazing and unique part of the world. T