Trekking Larapinta as a volunteer combines the adventure and fully-catered ease of an ecotourism hiking tour with lower costs.
When wanderer and camel wrangler Robyn Davidson trekked across the central desert region in 1977, water was high on her agenda. Access to potable supplies was her lifeblood and her route-maker. Somewhere along those 2763 kilometres from Mparntwe , to the Indian Ocean, she learnt to rehydrate only when resting, drinking cups of tea in the early morning and again at her next camp come afternoon.
Throughout our six-day trip, the river accompanied me and my nine fellow volunteers and four guides. Like so many in Australia, it is ephemeral, a secret river flowing underground, below river red gum boughs and dingo tracks. Where it rose above ground, its salty shallows were a small miracle.As part of a 10-strong group of volunteers, I was expected to lend a hand clearing paths and fixing signs and fences.
This is the land of Pine Gap, of Tracks, of Albert Namatjira and of songlines that reach far beyond history. But it is always in flux. A week before my trip, bushfire ripped through Ormiston Pound and by the time we walked over the blackened ground, the bright green fuzz of young buffel grass – an invasive species and a nemesis to park rangers – was already established.
Back at camp near Yeperenye, the Caterpillar Dreaming, a flock of pink cockatoos screeched past the kitchen tent where our guide cooked mutton curry, filling the air with spice.
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