Day: 078
Date: Thursday, 17 September 2020
Start: Ellery Creek Big Hole
Finish: Ormiston Gorge
Daily Kilometres: 53 (click for Julie's Strava and photos and here and here for our walks)
Total Kilometres: 8020
Weather: Very warm, windy and mostly overcast
Accommodation: Tent
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Muesli
Lunch: Trail mix
Dinner: Moroccan Lamb/Beef stroganoff
Aches: Nothing significant
Highlight: Meeting another long distance cyclist, a European, pedalling in the opposite direction in mid-morning. I suspect he wasn't covering the daily distances we are, but he was clearly experienced, and told us about water availability (or lack of it) up ahead.
Lowlight: The flies are really bad. Constantly in your face and many of our fellow campers, like us, are wearing headnets for some protection.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We left the campsite at 7am and rode 15km, including some unsealed road and corrugations, to the Serpentine Gorge parking area and ate our breakfast on a bench there before walking into the gorge. We first hiked steeply up to a lookout that gave great views along the winding gorge with its sheer orange rock walls, and also the Larapinta valley, along which we have been riding, to the south. The folds in the landscape and exposed rock strata, shaped by long past geological forces are visible wherever you look. Awesome.
We descended back to the mouth of the gorge and walked up it to a small pool, all that remained after a long dry period. It didn't look very inviting, but the setting was beautiful at the base of the sheer gorge walls. After returning to our bikes, we set out to ride the 39km to our next stop, Ormiston Gorge, where we planned to have a look and walk before continuing on another 40km to our final destination for the day, Redbank Gorge. However, on our way to Ormiston Gorge we met a cyclist coming the other way (see above) who warned us about a lack of water on our planned route for the next few days, and also the difficulty of getting water at Redbank Gorge, which I was already a little concerned about. We rode on another 5km and took a break at a spectacular lookout while we reconsidered our plans.
We decided to make it a short day and camp at Ormiston Gorge, which we knew had water, and to bypass Redbank Gorge, and abandon our plans to have a day off there tomorrow to climb Mt Sonder. That climb will be another item for our ever-accumulating bucket list.
We reached Ormiston Gorge around 12:30pm after a strenuous ride along the undulating, but incredibly scenic, road in gusty winds. There is a forecast weather change coming through, and it feels like it. There may even be some rare and locally-welcome rain, but not much, apparently. On arrival, we were both pooped, and spent some time having lunch on a sheltered picnic bench in the campground before picking a site and erecting our tent.
After changing, we set out on the 2.5km Ghost Gum walk which climbed up high to a bluff on the gorge wall and gave superb views down to the swimming hole, up the spectacular gorge and out into the valley to the south. More stunning cliffs and mountain ranges in every direction, and at the base of the gorge, a sandy dry river bed dotted with elegant and timeless ghost gums, conjuring up memories of Albert Namatjira paintings.
The loop walk returned via the sandy and boulder-strewn base of the gorge and past the very inviting swimming hole where we had a refreshing dip. We then walked back to the campground and caught up on some chores, including filling all of our water bottles (18+ litres) in anticipation of the two waterless days of riding coming up.
The campground was quite full by the time we prepared our early dinner, and we chatted with some of the other campers as they prepared their meals on the provided gas cookers/barbecues. It actually started spitting with rain during dinner and there were some very big wind gusts. We're wondering what tomorrow will bring.
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