Tag: Alice Springs

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Hiking the Larapinta Trail, Australia

The Larapinta Trail is an amazing 223km hiking route in the West MacDonnell Ranges in Central Australia, which took us 17 days to complete.

The trail takes hikers through remote areas without a soul around, and then emerges into tourist-filled gorges. I actually liked this combination!

Hikers can walk the trail in either direction,  so we opted to start from Redbank gorge (which is the official finish-point of the trail) and walk to Mparntwe (Alice Springs), therefore finishing in the city.

We hiked the Larapinta Trail in the first half of October 2017. It’s taken me a while to type my notes up!

This post is a day-by-day account of the walk, including the amount of water we carried (because I know that this was my main concern before I hiked) and the time it took us (without breaks). We pretty much followed the suggested itinerary and usually camped in the locations that the official trail notes suggested.

A follow-up post covers the logistics – how we did the food-drops etc – as well as reflections of the trail, and tips for others. Continue reading “Hiking the Larapinta Trail, Australia”

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Hitchhiking the Outback: part 1

“If you were a woman I’d give you a lift,” a sleazy truck driver says to Chris. It’s late afternoon in Charters Towers in eastern Australia. We’re excited and nervous as we stick our thumbs out and wait for our first car to take us into Australia’s Outback. A billboard poster behind us advertises how to make ‘fuller cattle’.

The sky turns pink as the sun goes down. Miners drive past us on their way to one of Australia’s many mines. Road trains (giant four-carriage trucks) speed past us,  full of cows who have been transported through the 40°C heat.

It’s immediately obvious that the Outback is going to be frustrating for two vegan activists who have just come from protests on the east coast against coal mining.
Continue reading “Hitchhiking the Outback: part 1”