Louise Denton Photography

Travel

The Northern Territory - my Top 5 Travel Tips

Travel, Tutorials and Tips, Darwin and the Norther...Louise DentonComment

The perception of the Northern Territory is that we’re a bit behind the times up here, and it’s a dangerous place to be (Correct me if I’m wrong, I’d love to know what you think of the NT!).

The NT is Outback Australia, it is NATURE Territory.

We have so much to explore here!

This blog post covers my top tips on how to “do the NT” and get the most out of your trip!

Larapinta Trail - Day 16 - Redbank Gorge to Mount Sonder return

Darwin and the Norther..., TravelLouise Denton1 Comment

This was it! The last 14km of the trail!

My day began with a 2:45am alarm.

I made a coffee as quietly as I could so as not to wake the others. I wasn’t having breakfast before leaving camp, but I had a couple of museli bars and carried snacks up with me. I’d guess we’d be back at camp by around 9:30am ish ready for the 11am pick up.

My bag was already packed and organised the day before. I did have a sea-to-summit day pack with me, but I decided to use my main pack for better comfort and support - I still needed to carry a bit of weight with the 5kg of camera equipment and a couple of litres of water and snacks.

Larapinta Trail - Day 15 - Hilltop Lookout to Redbank Gorge

Darwin and the Norther..., TravelLouise DentonComment

The last day of walking! I couldn’t believe it was here. The trip flew by. And I pretty much loved every minute (with the exception of about 2 hours!).

I also can’t believe I’m nearly at the end of writing and processing images from such an epic trip. I took nearly 1600 photos on the hike, plus a whole heap more in the week after the trip - I took another 1000 alone on a one hour sunrise helicopter flight!

Larapinta Trail - Day 11 - Ellery Creek North to Counts Point

Darwin and the Norther..., TravelLouise DentonComment

I was feeling great after a successful afternoon’s shooting the previous day, a relax and a great couple of swims… I was up early and managed to pack up most of my camp at around 5am. I started making coffee and breakfast but decided to set up the camera for a little bit of pre-dawn astro photography as I was so early! I drank coffee and snacked whilst I was shooting several long exposures waiting for the sun to come up.

Larapinta Trail - Day 10 - Rocky Gully to Ellery Creek

Darwin and the Norther..., TravelLouise DentonComment

I didn’t shoot that sunrise from Rocky Gully. The area didn’t excite me in terms of photographic opportunities!

Leaving Rocky Gully that morning I had to wear the fly net again - the second time during the trip. I really think it’s something to do with cattle - the stronger the evidence of cattle (including being able to smell them!), the higher the prevalence of flies! After an hour or so of wearing it, I’d decided it was safe to remove it….. and then proceeded to swallow a fly. Haha!

Larapinta Trail - Day 4 - Pravda Spur to Standley Chasm

Travel, Darwin and the Norther...Louise DentonComment

Originally I had planned to hike from Pravda Spur, down to Standley Chasm to collect my food drop box, and then continue straight on up another mountain to spend the night at Brinkley Bluff.

However, this would have been a huge challenge. On the advice from LTTS I’d need to be leaving Standley Chasm by 1pm at the latest, to ensure I had enough time to walk and photograph the ascent up to Brinkley Bluff. It would have meant my day would have exceeded a total of 20km, through one of the hardest sections to hike (a LOT of up and down!), but also one of the most photogenic places along the trail.

Larapinta Trail - Day 1 - Telegraph Station to Wallaby Gap

Travel, Darwin and the Norther...Louise DentonComment

It’s so hard to know where to start talking about such an amazing experience!

Hopefully you’ve seen the Introduction and Itinerary posts which give a bit of a general overview of my experience.

On day 1 I hiked Alice Springs Telegraph Station to Wallaby Gap which totaled 13.7km.

Day 1 was a strange day for me, in that it did not reflect my experience of the trail very well at all!

Larapinta Trail - Introduction - A photographer's hike!

Travel, Photography discussion, Darwin and the Norther...Louise Denton2 Comments

Last year, April 2020, I had planned to hike the Larapinta Trail when COVID-19 hit Australia and the whole country went in to lockdown. I had already left Darwin for Alice Springs, and was in Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park when the chaos fully hit. I was a few days out from my hike start date and was told the trail (and all national parks in Australia), were closed. People were being told to go home and stay home. So, I left Uluru and drove straight home to Darwin in one day. (That’s a long drive! I left Uluru at 5am and ended up arriving home at 1am).

Anyway, long story short, I managed to make the hike happen the following year. My new start date was March 25th 2021. And I am SO glad I was

Table Top Track - Litchfield National Park

Darwin and the Norther..., TravelLouise Denton2 Comments

A run down day-today of my experience of the Table Top Track in Litchfield National Park August 2015 including some images from the walk.

I've just returned from hiking the Table Top Track in Litchfield. The hike is a 39km, multi-day bushwalk, in a loop around the tabletop of Litchfield National Park.

We chose to complete the walk in four days, leaving early from Florence Falls on Saturday morning.

The Tabletop Track can be accessed by one of four different link walks; Florence Falls (approx 1.8km to the tabletop), Walker Creek, Wangi Falls or Greenant Creek (6.3km and very difficult from what I hear). We walked anti-clockwise and ended the walk back at Florence Falls on Tuesday…..

Kakadu National Park Intro

Darwin and the Norther..., TravelLouise Denton5 Comments

I'm always looking for places to go in the Top End region, new places to explore and photograph. I was recently looking for some information on Maguk (or Barramundi Gorge) in Kakadu National Park and although could find the basics from the Parks Australia website - http://www.parksaustralia.gov.au/kakadu/ - I found it difficult to find "real life" experiences on exploring and the location. When I say "real life" experiences, I mean blogs from travelers of where to go, when is best to go, different routes and walks, experiences on what people saw, what was great, where to look for certain things, etc etc. There's actually not much in depth, local information in a "kakadu blog" google search. What does show up are mainly short excerpts from people just doing the highlights of Kakadu as part of an extended trip.

Anyway. So what I want to start doing is sharing my experience and knowledge of these places in Kakadu….