Ellery Creek North to Rocky Gully (Day 12, Sect 6 Part)
Vast remote plains and wide skies
Stunning views of the Heavitree Range to the south.
Today’s hike of 13.6km/8.5mi sees you heading further east and north to cross the Alice Valley towards the Chewings Range through marvellously remote open country with a range on either side: you really feel that you are miles from anywhere under that wide sky. Although the terrain looks flat on the topo map, the valley comprises numerous little dips and rises so it is more demanding than you might expect, especially in hot weather with little shade.
The landforms tell the story: into the centre of the valley today.
We strongly recommend that slower hikers plan to stop at Rocky Gully because it is nicely placed between Ellery Creek North and Hugh Gorge, and is the logical halfway point to even out daily distances. You also need to carry less water than if hiking to an intermediate site. However, because of a hot forecast for the following day, we pushed on for a total of about 18km/11.3mi to a wild campsite so that we would have a shorter distance to travel in the heat, aiming to arrive at Hugh Gorge before temperatures peaked the next day. We took 4.5 hours to get to Rock Gully where we stopped for lunch. After lunch we hiked for another 1.7 hours to find our wild camp for the night.
If you’re following our itinerary, compare your times to ours each day or check the table in Itinerary. Or, check your times against the ones in your Park Maps. That way, when you reach the most challenging sections around Standley Chasm, you’ll know whether you will be faster or slower than us or official figures on those days, and whether you need to allow more time.
We recommend slower hikers stop at Rocky Gully: our wild camp was for safety reasons to accommodate forecast hot weather.
Time for a restful cuppa and dinner after a long day.
Neither of us are comfortable night hiking, but that’s an alternative for more sure-footed walkers. Or you can hike early in the morning and later in the evening with a siesta in the middle of the day but, after our hike into Ellery Creek North, with almost no shade the entire way, we weren’t confident of finding any today. Another possibility is to stop at Rocky Gully for a second rest day if you’ve packed sufficient food. We still had one more spare day of food left but wanted to save it for the much more demanding days still ahead: Hugh Gorge, Razorback Ridge and Brinkley Bluff.
Wild camping is no longer permitted on the Larapinta and although you should always plan to stay at designated campsites, you should never hesitate to alter that plan for safety/wellbeing reasons: it is always better to alter a plan than to be evacuated from the trail due to heat exhaustion or injury. We saw a few acceptable campsites for use with tyvek or a groundsheet for added protection from the rocks, though they were far fewer than you might expect in such terrain. Ghost Gum Flat at 22km/13.7mi from Ellery Creek North is probably too far for most slower hikers.
How to Make Today Easier
Crossing Ellery Creek nice and early.
Stopping at Rocky Gully will make the day much easier than pushing on like we did! The track surface is generally smooth underfoot on the flats but rocky on all the little rises: take a good look at the track images in this blog, noting rockiness and hilliness. You have no bouldery gorges to traverse, nor ranges to scale, though you’ll encounter those drops and climbs throughout the day.
Regardless of where you spend tonight, aim to be at Hugh Gorge tomorrow night/the night before you aim to traverse (and swim) the bouldery gorge. The gorge is slow going for all hikers and slower hikers will need a full day to reach Fringe Lily campsite, especially if you also aim to hike the spur trail to the head of the gorge. There are no campsites in the bouldery Gorge until you reach the junction near the other end.
So today start early, stop regularly for drink breaks, and you will have no problem with today’s hike into Rocky Gully, reaching Hugh Gorge campsite the following day.
Walk with Us
Smooth sandy track initially through a sea of buffel grass.
However, as soon as the trail crosses a little rise — as it does almost continuously — it becomes rockier underfoot.
Plenty of little flowering plants, here Sand Sunray (Rhodanthe tietkensii).
Still quite early but it’s already warm. Here you can see one of the creeks/drainage lines criss-crossing the Alice Valley, as well as taller trees, visible for some distance, marking its path. You can also see that these drainage lines make great emergency campsites in dry weather; consciously noting such landform and vegetation patterns — patterns that are different in every environment, but similar locally — is hugely useful to hikers. If you look for patterns, you can often begin to spot them in the first few days of a hike in a new area, and apply the knowledge to predict and plan for the day ahead.
After our morning snack break, it’s time to break out the umbrellas! These can make 10C-15C (50F-60F) difference to apparent temperature in full sun. Whilst they shield less of your body later in the day — they are most effective in the hottest hours — they are still helpful, particularly with the sun at your back. This is one of the reasons we chose to hike from west to east: so we would be shielded from the sun as we were tiring towards the end of the day.
Easy cruising on the flats…
… and so many wildflowers! Here, Satiny Bluebush (Maireana georgii)…
…in all different shades of yellow, red and salmon.
Isolated but spectacular patches of Western Stork’s-bill (Erodium cygnorum).
The terrain is much more rolling than that to the west of Ellery Creek North...
…down again…
Definitely ‘Larapinta flat!” Again, note that open sand in drainage lines for emergency campsites.
All these little dips and rises add significantly to your cumulative elevation gain and loss.
Plenty of shrubs for shade, but note that the ground even on much of the flats is extremely rocky. This is why we recommend a tyvek groundsheet for your tent so that, should you need to stop short of a designated campsite for any reason, your tent floor and mat are less likely to be damaged.
The track winds its way through increasingly hilly country.
You’re still closer here to the Heavitree Range than to the Chewings Range.
Again, you can see why campsites are few and far between despite what the open vegetation and topo maps imply!
We finally reach Rocky Gully and stop for a late lunch. Noticing a small stand of trees and hearing finches, we have followed the gully north a short distance to a tiny rockpool shaded by gums and mulga. While I assemble lunch, Geoff heads south along the 250m/273yds spur trail to Rocky Gully campsite to top up with water.
Rocky Gully campsite is similar to Rocky Bar Gap campsite with a toilet (if passing by, use them whenever you can in preference to digging cat holes), picnic table and rainwater tank, but no hut. It’s utilitarian and there were plenty of flies — bring your headnet! — but also pleasant shady campsites.
Geoff and I discuss whether to stop here but it is still relatively early. I’m wilting a little, but we both know that it will be even hotter tomorrow so he encourages me to push on as far as I can manage today. Even a few extra kilometres now will make a difference.
Like many older folk, my heat regulation switch is not as good as it used to be; it’s annoying but must be accounted for. Hiking whilst nauseated and dizzy is stupid and not fun at any time, let alone in remote terrain like this. The things that affect older folk don’t have to prevent us from fun activities, but we should acknowledge them and work around them.
Scant shade for the picnic table.
Its hot, and the initial climb out of Rocky Gully is steep but relatively short…
and the shade created by our umbrellas is most welcome.
Then the hill rounds out to a more accomodating grade.
Spade Flower or, more poetically, Orange Fairy’s Aprons (Pigea aurantiaca).
We begin looking for campsites; we spot a few but they are too small, sloping or rocky. The Pro2 is an excellent tent but its nemesis is very lumpy ground.
At last we find an ideal spot without rocks in a low-lying area; water-borne silt has made a good substrate for the tent and, as always in these wetter areas, buffel grass. This location is marked in either Chapman’s book or Alltrails; certainly, it’s clear that other people have camped here before. We’re about 4.4km/2.7mi (or just under 2 hours) further on from Rocky Gully so we should be able to beat the worst of the heat tommorrow.
Evening light over camp, our food bag hanging in a tree nearby. It has been a beautiful but tiring day; knowing we have only 10.8km/6.7mi to reach Hugh Gorge and new terrain tomorrow is inspiring.
We respectfully acknowledge the Arrernte People as the traditional custodians of the land on which we walk and pay our respects to Elders past and present and to the Aboriginal people present today.
