The Northern Territory - my Top 5 Travel Tips
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 5 - Standley Chasm to Brinkley Bluff
Feeling clean and refreshed and ready to tackle my next section! I left Standley Chasm just after 8am - a relatively late start for me. I was dreading my pack - the heaviest load I would ever have carried - 7 days worth of food plus water for nearly 2 days.
Larapinta Trail - Day 4 - Pravda Spur to Standley Chasm
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 2 - Wallaby Gap to Arenge Bluff
Day 2 - from the designated campsite of Wallaby Gap to my proposed (non-designated) campsite near Arenge View was a distance of approx 24km.
Larapinta Trail - Day 1 - Telegraph Station to Wallaby Gap
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!
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