Sunday 9 September 2012

The Larapinta Trail: Mt. Sonder (section 12) and Redbank Gorge

We camped overnight at Redbank Gorge, which BTW has very fancy gas BBQs at each site, to hike up Mt. Sonder as a day trip.


View Larger Map

 There was some fire damage visible around the campground, but the campground itself was OK.



Mt. Sonder actually has two peaks.  The trail goes to the western, and slightly lower summit, and was chosen because the approach is safer.  The Eastern summit is connected by an exposed ridge with sharp drops on either side, so there's no formed path to get there.

Eastern summit of Mt. Sonder from the Western summit
The trail is 15.8km return, and I think it took us about 2.5 hours to get up on a hot day with a few stops.  I took a short but fairly boring video so you can get an idea for what the trail is like if you are interested.

Looking over the Chewings Range, the rest of the Larapinta trail, and a lot of burnt bushland
Once we got down from Sonder we walked out to Redbank Gorge, which was really impressive, and one of the best sights on the whole trip.

Redbank Gorge - inviting on a hot day, but that water was ridiculously cold


Two wedge-tailed eagles flying away from their roadkill dinner on the road back to Alice

1 comment:

Garth said...

Didn't realise you were off to central Aus! Who did you go with? Millie and I are hoping to go mid next year, assuming she has finished her PhD ...