Inarlanga Pass, West MacDonnell National Park - December 2015

Inarlanga Pass.

Inarlanga Pass marks the spot that the local indigenous used to use to pass through the Heavitree Range on their way to ceremonies up at Giles Spring, under Mt Giles. Only the men of the tribe were allowed to access the pass, maybe because it marked the boundary between two different tribal groups, or maybe they just wanted this nice little gorge to themselves, ah, I'd be putting my money on the former though. Now days Inarlanga Pass is the route that the Larapinta Trail uses as it zig zags its way along the Heavitree Range and the fairer sex are allowed access, although conscious of its cultural significance I resisted the temptation to take a dip in the gorge.

Big sky country on the north side of Inarlanga Pass.

After travelling out from Alice Springs I bumped my way along the Serpentine Chalet Dam access track, stopping at the locked gate a kilometre or so short of the dam. This is the site of another one of Central Australia's early tourism ventures. The Ansett-Pioneer Serpentine Chalet was built in 1958/59 to cater for intrepid tourist on their way out to Ormiston Gorge from Alice Springs, in those days a full days drive in a rough as guts Blitzwagon, basically a 4wd bus. As access to Ormiston and also Glen Helen Gorge improved the need for a halfway stop lessened, and with a scarcity of water and the scenically superior Ormiston and Glen Helen now relatively easy to reach the chalet was pulled down in 1968, all that's left now is a concrete slab and the chalet dams.

All that's left of the old Serpentine Chalet.

At the trail head, time to head off into the hills again.

Leaving the ute it was the Serpentine Chalet Dam that was my first objective. Once again it was a hot day but I wasn't overly concerned as, with all the rain up here recently, I was pretty confident that I'd find somewhere to cool down a bit and probably more importantly escape the swarms of bush flies for awhile. Ten minutes or so up the track I met up with the Larapinta at the Serpentine Chalet Camp, I hadn't camped here when I walked the trail but I did use it as a food dump. It was interesting to see how things had changed over the years, there are a lot more cleared areas to pitch your tent now, as well as a flash toilet, and it looks like the water tanks have got some kind of solar powered level monitoring device attached that I'm guessing lets the rangers know when the tanks are getting low, all pretty swish.

There are a lot of low spinifex covered hills around here.

The water tanks at Serpentine Chalet Dam Camp, pretty flash.

Dropping my pack in camp I rock hopped up the trickling creek few a few hundred metres to the dam, now I've been here a couple of times over the years but never seen any actual water in the dam, today it was trickling over the dam wall though. Normally I'd say the dam isn't even worth the rough walk up stream, but full of beautiful clear water the scene was transformed and it had me considering whether it was worth grabbing the waterproof camera and swimming through the narrow slot canyon to check things out, eventually I decided that seeing I had a fair way to go yet and that there would be opportunities for  a swim later that I'd give it a miss. 

Looking up towards the old Serpentine Chalet Dam.

I did contemplate stripping off and swimming through the slot canyon, but decided against it today.

Looking back downstream from the dam wall.

Heading back to camp I grabbed my pack and headed west on the Larapinta Trail towards Inarlanga Pass, the trail along here winds up and down and around the foothills of the Heavitree Range. I'm pretty sure that the local Arrernte called these scrubby spinifex covered hills rubbish country back in the day, with no permanent water and therefore no good source of food I don't think the foothills held a lot of interest to them. What this country did supply for the local tribes though was Ochre and just before reaching the entrance to Inarlanga Pass I passed the turnoff for the walk to the Ochre Pits, a aboriginal mine site where they gathered the different coloured minerals to be used for ceremonies.

The trail climbs out of the Serpentine Chalet Dam Camp into the foot hills of the Heavitree Range.

Heading towards Inarlanga Pass.

Giving the Ochre Pits spur track a miss for today I instead rock hopped my way into Inarlanga Pass, if your thinking pass in the form of a col, bocca or saddle you'd be wrong. Inarlanga Pass is a gorge cut deeply through the mountain range and doesn't really require any climbing to pass through, the perfect kind of pass for me! The pass is home to a remnant population of Cycads as well as a few Red Gums, obviously suited to a spot that must have some fairly good water reserves under the ground. The walking through the gorge is of the adventurous type, I found myself rock hopping around some beautiful looking waterholes and scrambling over and around plenty of car sized rocks. Almost as soon as it started it was over though and I found myself emerging into a wide grand valley on the north side of Inarlanga Pass.

Creek bed walking through the pass.

There are quite a few Cycads in Inarlanga Pass.

With the country rapidly opening up I continued along the Larapinta, now a formal track again. I was heading towards a spot I remembered seeing when I walked the trail, a small waterhole. Eventually the Larapinta started to turn west towards a distant saddle so I left it and dropped down into a creek line to my east, I was pretty confident that I'd find somewhere to cool down. Following the intermittently trickling creek back in the general direction of Inarlanga Pass I checked out a series of beautiful waterholes, eventually I found one that looked a little deeper and had a bench like submerged rock to sit on and read, with only a few tad poles to share my waterhole with I eased my hot and sweaty body into the cool water and settled in for awhile.

The country is a little different on the north side of the pass.

This'll do me.

Just got to share it with a few tad poles.

The view from my submerged rock.

After an hour or so, and with a little of the sting gone from the midday sun I decided that it was time to climb out of the water, pull on my sweaty clothes and dusty boots and start my walk back to the ute. The walk back was a carbon copy of the walk in, although as always in this desert country, the changing light gave me ample reasons to stop a take a few photos.

Looking back in the direction of Inarlanga Pass.

Back on the south side of the pass the scenery isn't quite as grand.

On the Larapinta Trail now heading back to the ute.

The Dirt.

Like a lot of the walks that I did when I was based in Alice Springs I did this stroll without encountering any other walkers. I walked 11 kilometres today and climbed 355 metres on what I would consider a medium walk. You can get information on this stroll out of John & Monica Chapman's Larapinta Trail book, the walk is also written up by John & Lyn Daly in there Take A Walk In The Northern Territory's National Park book, Chapman's book has the best maps though. Two things to consider if contemplating this walk are that in all my time visiting this area I've never seen so much water around, so don't go expecting waterholes everywhere. The other thing is that the route through the gorge is a creek bed rock hop so don't expect a formed trail.

Another shot near Serpentine Chalet Dam.

Trudging the last few metre to the ute in the heat, time to crank up the air-con...yeah I'm hardcore!

The access track is a little rough but is probably do able in 2wd with good ground clearance, in the dry weather anyway.

I'm just about to turn onto the sealed Namatjira Drive and cruise the 100 kilometres back to Alice Springs.