Hermit’s Hideaway to Serpentine Chalet Dam (Day 8, Sect. 9 Part)
A spectacular day of summit views, wide valleys and rocky gorges
Looking east up the beautiful valley that you usually see from the opposite direction in the iconic photos taken from pointy Count’s Point in the distance.
Section 9 Part (cont’). Look how much of the trail you’ve already covered! Time flies when you’re having fun!
Today’s 16.4km/10.2mi hike is extraordinary, packed with variety and views in every direction.
We took 2 hours to get from Hermits Hideaway to Waterfall Gorge camp and then another 6.7 hours to get to Serpentine Chalet Dam (including rest stops, meal breaks and sightseeing). 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 ore official figures on those days, and whether you need to allow more time.
Today is demanding, beginning with a rough, steep descent from the range, followed by a rocky creek and gully to climb past the eponymous waterfall. After that, you have a more gentle ascent through a long valley, finishing with a scrambly rocky gorge and little ups and downs into camp: 460m/1510ft of elevation gain, and 670m/2200ft of loss.
That doesn’t sound much, but the terrain is extremely rocky: slower hikers won’t be skipping down or up these rubbly, loose slopes! Take a good look at the photos today day so you give yourself plenty of time for the track condition; I found it the toughest day thus far — mainly because of the longer distance — but also one of the most rewarding.
This is because you have so many different views, not just from the high points, but also along that stunning valley with its spectacular reveal of Count’s Point when you reach the saddle — it was hard to choose the lead image with so many hero shots! When you look westwards, there is the exclamation of Sonder, beautifully framed. The different microclimates you traverse support a delightful array of wildflowers, and you’ll spot the famous MacDonnell Ranges Cycad for the first time. Photographers will love this day!
Map for the day.
How to Make Today Easier
Today’s longer distance and the steep rough descent, plus the rocky creek and gorge, mean that slower hikers will take most of the day to reach Serpentine Chalet Dam.
If you extended yesterday to stay at Waterfall Gorge rather than Giles Lookout or Hermit’s Hideaway, you will have a much easier day today, not so much due to distance but time: that long steep slow descent is behind you. However, you have to weigh that against a demanding descent at the end of yesterday when you are already tired, rather than at the start when you are fresh. And of course, you have to resist the lure of those high camps with their stunning sunsets and sunrises!
Despite the distance, we believe that Serpentine Gorge is within the reach of slower hikers even from the high camps, as long as you start early and expect to finish later in the day. It took us 8.5 hours (including all our breaks) from Hermit’s Hideaway, (8 hours from Giles Lookout) and 6.5 hours from Waterfall Gorge. So that should give other slower hikers an idea of times.
Walk with Us
Dawn over Mt Giles
If you stayed at one of the high camps, it’s likely you’ll have been up early for sunrise views like this over breakfast. Isn’t it grand!
And if you stayed at Hermit’s Hideaway due to weather, you have a rocky climb of another 1.2km/0.75mi distance and 75m/246ft elevation or so to Giles Lookout, the Heavitree Range stretching behind you towards Mt Sonder.
From Giles Lookout, you have fantastic views east. You also have 4G phone reception to send boastful selfies to friends and family. Rather than continuing ESE from the lookout, the trail hooks sharply south to the right and your descent begins!
Remember to look for wildflowers either side of the path, here Goodenia larupinta.
A steep descent, but with switchbacks. The most treacherous sections are not solid rock, but loose gravel and stones that roll under your feet. Take your time. The trail becomes easier and faster later.
Trekking poles make a huge difference and have saved both of our arses countless times. Ideally, best practice is hands out of the wrist straps in this kind of terrain, with palms cupped over the top.
You zig-zag your way down the hill, passing wildflowers the entire way.
Once you reach the valley floor, you follow the rocky creekline east. A short distance along, you pass a tiny waterhole. Some people prefer to collect water here, rather than from Waterfall Gorge Pool where people swim, but it is downstream of the larger pool. When we hiked, the creek wasn’t flowing as it normally does, so this spot was indeed a better collection point. You have to treat the water either way, whether by filtration or sterilisation tablets, which are both far more efficient than boiling because of the amount of fuel you need to carry for the latter when you aren’t permitted to light campfires. Sterilisation pens are unreliable as they don’t work in cloudy water.
It’s a pretty little creekline and nice and cool in the shade. Enjoy it while it lasts!
You turn up the gully and are suddenly upon the rock pool: it would be stunning with the waterfall splashing down!
We were told by a somewhat horrified hiker that, the day before, someone had swum here with a pus-filled sore on their foot. Blech. Definitely, definitely treat the water on this trail if you collect it from any natural water sources. The algae in this waterhole indicate a high nutrient loading, likely from things like sweat, body oils, pus, and things you try not to think about while filling your water bottles and dosing them with Micropur tablets. To be honest, when we saw the tiny size of this waterhole and its lack of flow, we were astonished that hikers would choose to swim here, knowing it is an important water collection point for people who pass.
As soon as you pass the water hole, you’ll see a couple of small campsites nearby. If these are taken and you plan to stay at Waterfall Gorge for the night, you’ll find the rest of the campsites a couple of hundred metres further up the gully where it opens out into a wider valley, so collect all the water you need before going further.
Up the gully past a plethora of wildflowers like this, Mulga acacia (A. aneura) foreground.
Once you reach the head of the gully, the valley opens and flattens, with plenty of scattered campsites amongst the spinifex.
Yet another Eremophila, the Weeping Emubush (E. longifolia).
So many interesting wildflowers in this valley, including rare ones that I did not spot. Here is a Cape bluebell, Wahlenbergia (possibly W. queenslandica). Many native bluebell bulbs are edible and formed an important food source for the Traditional owners.
Making our way up to the pass. It’s so beautiful, this wide sweeping curve of spinifex, especially to any botanist because the vegetation is so healthy here, without any buffel grass. Apparently those rare plants are a small community near the head of the valley.
Remember to look behind you, westwards… yes, there’s Mt Sonder, eight days away for us!
This may or may not be the Fleshy Groundsel, Senecio gregorii — the daisy family is hard to ID!
Really fascinating rock formations here. My excellent geology book calls these platy rocks a “steep mylonite foliation” of the migmatitic orthogneiss forming the valley.
And you reach the pass, with an entirely new view opening up before you. You’ll look back to this spot from Count’s Point tomorrow! Photos — at least my photos — can’t do this place justice. It is SPECTACULAR.
Down into that next valley, Count’s Point beckoning you onwards. But no scaling of peaks today. Today you’ll jag right over that treed low pass mid photo and into Inargala Gorge.
We have been looking for a shady spot to stop for lunch. We pass a lovely couple we have been leapfrogging all day. They’ve beaten us to the only tiny patch of shade in sight, but I’ve spotted a drainage line on the map. Drainage lines — creeks, whether they are dry on the surface or not — mean bigger trees and SHADE! Sailors of old scoured coastlines for tall trees, because tall trees meant water. Maybe we will be lucky too!
Yes, we are! Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? Of course, the early explorers betted similarly and usually died. And we certainly wouldn’t bet our lives on this, but it’s a beaut spot to stop for a late lunch. The birds around any of these water sources are amazing, the trees teeming with life. Beetles, bugs and frogs flit below the water.
Approaching Inargala Pass. This pass, like so many similar land and water features that connect different regions, was not only an important watering point and ceremonial site, but also a cultural boundary between clans on either side.
It’s a rocky scramble: no path, you just make your way around and between boulders as best you can. The temperature is much cooler here than out on the plain.
More scrambly bits: nothing difficult, just relatively slow going after hoofing it up the valley.
And here are those magnificent MacDonnell Ranges Cycads (Macrozamia macdonnelii). Aren’t they fantastic? You need only look at them to see that they are ancient relics of an earlier period when they were more widespread, but now remaining only in a few shelted gorges. Male and female reproductive parts are borne on separate plants, and the female cones bear large seeds. Some Traditional Owners elsewhere ate Zamia species seeds, but only after an extensive leaching process to remove the toxins; the Arrente people didn’t use them as a food source, perhaps because of their relatively limited water sources.
Once you leave the gorge, it’s still about 2.5km/1.5mi to Serpentine Chalet Dam Campsite.
The trail is excellent underfoot, much less rocky than previously, with small ups and downs through mulga woodland. No photos of this area: I was tired. The hut is visible from what seems like miles away and is one of those mirage-like ones that never seems to get closer until you are suddenly upon it. Plenty of sheltered, flat campsites scattered near the hut, as well as further away — you can see our tent in the background.
A great spot amongst the spinifex.
It will have been a demanding day for most slower hikers but you can be encouraged by the fact that today comprised one of the longest distances of the trail: if you managed it, you will be fine to reach Standley Chasm with our recommended itinerary. Tomorrow you’ll have a climb and the Larapinta’s most iconic view from Count’s Point, plus fantastical folded rocks and a long ridge with more views. What a truly incredible hike this is!
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.
