Day 11: Ellery Creek to Hugh Gorge 16/08/2020

Today started at 6:45am with a steep climb out of the campsite at Ellery Creek. Hello legs and lungs. At the top I was greeted by a 30km to go sign. Wow, way to start the day! My lovely Jubbie got up and made me porridge at 6am before going back to bed!

The trail on this side of the range was much hillier than the other side and the climb back up to the high saddle was short but steep. It felt great to get back to the junction and be on the proper trail again. The morning was big, sweeping, expansive views across the valley between two mountain ranges. It was surprisingly hilly and very rocky under foot. The trail tracked diagonally across the valley from one mountain range to another, The Chewings. One of the highlights was my delicious Jubbie Bar – the vegan Anzac cookies from the kitchen of Chef Jublé.

This trail is really interesting in that you usually don’t see the trail far into the distance either in front of or behind you. It disappears from view quite quickly which means you generally don’t see other walkers until they’re right near you.

I stopped off at Rocky Gully campsite to top up my water. It was probably the least appealing campsite so far but I’m sure it would be just fine if you were arriving to it late in the day. There was water and a toilet and several clearings for tents. The highlight of the stop was eating my vegemite vitaweats! So tasty and a very welcome addition to trail snacks.

One of the really lovely things about walking across this land is the flocks of zebra finches. They’re tiny grey birds with bright reddy orange beaks and they fly along from tree to tree just in front of you talking to each other. Their voices sound like squeaky toys or rubber duckies! The landscape became even rockier, but now with big boulders scattered everywhere. It was hilly and bouldery and I was starting to feel my feet because I hadn’t laced my shoes tightly enough and my toes were hitting the fronts of my shoes. Ghost gum flats campsite didn’t come too soon! I stopped there for lunch on a picnic table under a big shady tree. Perfect. Around these flats was the first evidence of wild horses on the trail so far.

It was slow going after lunch and I was thankful I only had 8km to go. The hills felt steeper and it felt pretty hot – the forecast top was 29 and I’m sure it reached that. A sign I was starting to near my destination was that the ground changed from rocks to dirt and was softer under foot. It became a little less hilly which was welcome too. I realised I was following horse foot prints along the path and was super stoked to meet two horses not far from the hikers camp. At first they ran off but stopped soon after, clearly as interested in me as I was in them. There was a lot of watching going on!

I walked up the car trail to meet Jubbie and was delighted to see he hadn’t pitched the tent yet (I’d arrived more than a hour ahead of schedule) which gave us a great opportunity to head to Alice Springs for a shower and a sleep in a bed!