Check-in/OK message from SPOT Larapinta

Device Name: Larapinta
Latitude: -23.73619
Longitude: 132.91048
GPS location Date/Time: 07/16/2022 18:27:30 AEST

Message: The All Abilities Team has set up camp for the night....

Click the link below to see where I am located.
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Check-in/OK message from SPOT Larapinta

Device Name: Larapinta
Latitude: -23.75943
Longitude: 132.97932
GPS location Date/Time: 07/15/2022 18:21:29 AEST

Message: The All Abilities Team has set up camp for the night....

Click the link below to see where I am located.
http://fms.ws/1hXPwy/23.75943S/132.97932E

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Day * & 9

 Days 8 and 9.

Vonna, Paul Allen and Tim (who has had Covid and so joined us at Standley Chasm) walked from birthday Water Hole for two nights via Hugh Gorge and They are going to meet us meet us at Ellery Creek. My feet (this is Paul P speaking writing) are still hurting. Even My good foot is hurting. I think it takes a hell of a lot of load my left foot and I have to look after it more. However, I think I will be able to walk tomorrow.
Dirk and I are driving no to Alice Springs to pick up Mike the cameraman from the airport who will be joining us for the next leg of this track, which is assuming epic proportions.

 
Vonna is as strong as an ox (albeit a little ox) but has knee problems due to carrying a heavy pack for so many hours (The rocky river beds make it slow going for me and it would be dangerous to separate so much) one good thing - her ribs do not seem to be hurting her any more (unless they have been while we have been out of contact, there is no Internet you see). 
Paul Allen seems strong (is strong) and is walking well but because of his brain injury gets quite confused I need to certain amount of help packing in the morning and deciding what is going to eat. Hope this is normal when he is out of his element and has not got a routine in place.
Today is 13 July and perhaps 10 days of hiking left.

Day 3, 4 and 5.

 Paul P here. Well, what was supposed to be the easiest section of the entire trip proved to be pretty epic and tiring. I had to spread my pack load amongst Pallen, Melinda and Vonna as i was in danger of not making the distance. I fell twice bruising my arm. I’m an filled with gratitude for the show of selflessness. Vonna has a cracked rib (a side effect of all that radiotherapy) and had stabbing pains in her ribs and had to take Endone to sleep at Mulga Camp. 

I have about 8 blisters on my paralysed foot and am very worried about infection.

 

Pallen is super strong but needs his fellow trekkers to guide him. Once he has sequence then he is okay and can’t repeat that sequence again and again.

But morale is high, and we are having much hilarity.

We passed billabongs with camel tracks and walked through incredible gorges of pink and blood red quartzite.

No we are at the amazingly beautiful Jay Creek and about to Head off in the morning on what fellow trekkers reckon is one of the most brutal parts of the larapinta Trail to Standley Chasm.

Day 5 was truly epic. Almost 11 hours of climbing up creek beds made of quartzite boulders. It was like agony and ecstasy. The agony of struggling over these sometimes huge boulders and even roped climbing up a dry waterfall at one point. The ecstasy was each time you looked up and saw was a gobsmacking place you were in. Blood red rock, cycads, all sorts of life in the desert.

We are all tired now and my leg on my hemiplegia side lost motor control for the last two kms up and over two huge mountains actually in Standley Chasm. 

Feeling blessed to have such friends. Vonna, Melinda and Pallen shared my load so that I only had to carry a light pack, and at the end Melinda had my pack on her front as we climbed up the mountains. 

Now lying in my tent with heavy cramping legs listening to the dawn chorus with cramping legs.

Standley Chasm

The team is heading for Standley Chasm - an overnight hike they are carrying full backpacks for. When they get there there is a Cafe and a well deserved rest day waiting for them. I hear they found the two first days, supposed to be amongst the easier days of the traverse , quite challenging. Let's see how they survive this overnighter! Watch this space :) 

Known traditionally as Angkerle Atwatye, meaning “Gap of Water”, Chasm is a ~3-metre-wide, 80-metre-high gorge amongst the West MacDonnell Ranges.

Day 1!

 Day 1 was a hoot but very tiring.

We had a beautiful walk with the CASA Support services crew from Alice Springs. Internet is patchy where we are. Because we arrived a couple of days late we needed to finalise our packing and preparation so we are back at our accomodation after completing the first day's walk. 

It was fairly difficult even though it was supposed to be the easy part!

Some of the about 18 members of Casa Support Services enjoying the trail with us.

We hope to join these folks again further along the trail. They all did really well.

Paul had a good chat with Wally (who is still in Tasmania) on Euro Ridge. He still hopes he will get here when his lung function improves, but we will put no pressure on him. Hell of a thing CF.

We met Australian Rock Climbing Legend Simon Mentz on the trail today.

And now we are plum tuckered out and relaxing before we have to start all over again tomorrow early.

Thank You CFMEU!

 Thank You CFMEU

With your generosity we are heading up to Alice Springs tomorrow and in a few days this will be our view.

So really we could not have done this thing without you. You are awesome. We look forward to making an inspiring and profound film whether we succeed on the trek or not. 

Thank's again from the bottom of our collective hearts.

Team Adaptive.

Final Packing

We are all packed now and after three days of cancelled and delayed flights three of us are in Melbourne (Vonna, Melinda and Paul P., one is in Alice Springs with the Ranger (Dirk), One in Devonport (Walter) and one in Hobart (Pallen). So we are now well and truely spread out across the nation.

Here's just a couple of clips of some final packing chaos before we left. Excuse Paul's eyes, he had an allergic reaction due to exhaustion and possibly stress of missing flights. 

It sure does feel good to have most of the Larapinta Adaptive Expedition on the mainland!

And again...