Day 299 | Wallaby Gap: marching off on the Larapinta
Larapinta Day 1
By the time I’d marched into town with that humungous pack on my back I was soaked. My shirt was wringing wet, there were even rivulets through my undies.
It’s 8 am.
It had been 39ºC yesterday, I’d taken Robert’s bike back, he was still in Perth getting medical treatment for his man’s problem, early on, had a final, feet up, coffee at SOMA, then spent the remainder of the day packing up the bike and fitting all I was taking on the Larapinta in that cavernous pack.
The bike went to a workmate’s place and all the preparations complete we went off to Montes for a beer and a last look at civilisation for a while, for me.
The walk today was great if a little much on the temperature scale, before long my ambition for the day was somewhat less than the 30 km of early morning, 20km in this heat would suffice.
My newish $29 boots, bought for work in the dying days of employment as a health and safety issue, combined with heat and my thick socks, together gave me, err, and unusual issue for me, huge blisters on the soles of my feet. 232 km of trail, hunh?
Checking them out now there’s a 20c piece sized raw patch on my right foot, the left, shortchanged, only 10c. Will make progress an interesting proposition from here.
Day’s highlight: staggering up Euro Ridge, smooth, standard style rolling hill on one side, jagged cliff the other, with wide ranging views back to Alice, gee, that ain’t so far away, Heavitree Gap clearly discernible, round to the valley, Simpson’s Gap-wards.
Sun setting, shadows on Mt Gillen and not being far from civilisation, specks, white Toyota 4WDs no doubt, zooming along Larapinta Drive, far to far to hear noise.