Ormiston Gorge, Western MacDonnell National Park - December 2015

Well what do you know, this is my 200th post. When I started this little hobby just over two years ago  200 posts wasn't even on my radar, I was happy just working out how to get one online, don't worry about 200! So what have I learnt over my 200 posts, well the first thing is that their is a fair bit of work involved, both on the adventures and then writing them up. God only knows how Mr Fiasco and Jane from mildlyextreme manage to put out such quality work, it must be almost a full time job. Even knocking out my hap hazard stuff takes a fair chunk of my weekly downtime, by the time I put in 50 or 60 hours at work as well, there isn't a lot of time left over. One saving grace for me is that I've got a huge back catalogue of adventures that I can draw on if I can't actually get out on an adventure, surprisingly some of my more retro posts are among the most popular, yeah its probably people clicking on to check out my mullet! I'm still surprised sometimes about which posts get the most hits, my two most popular posts are an early evening winter stroll around the Langwarrin Flora and Fauna Reserve and a hardcore off track epic, the Seven Dials Walk in the Grampians, two more different walks you'd be hard pressed to find I would have thought. Maybe the punters reading my waffle like the diversity, its certainly something that I work on and hopefully the blog will continue to be a somewhat eclectic collection of my adventures.

Anyway seeing its number 200 I figured that I'd better post something memorable, now Ormiston Gorge and the nearby pound is quite a special spot but what made this walk memorable for me was a special wildlife encounter, yep this was the first time in all my years walking in Australia that I've come across a Death Adder. Death Adder's are another one of Australia's large collection of deadly snakes but, probably due to them being an ambush predator, I've never seen one on a walk (although I've seen quite a few from the ute down in the sand and limestone country of the Nullarbor). Most snakes that I've experienced will normally move when you get too close, but the Death Adder will wait for its pray to come right up to it, attracted by the snake holding the skinny bit of its tail(?) in the air to attract curious prey, before striking. Consequently I presume that I've walked close by many Death Adders over the years but as they stayed still and are generally well camouflaged, I've never seen one. Most other snakes like a Tiger Snake or King Brown will normally move (hopefully away from me!) if I get too close, so that they are easier to spot.

This is yet another walk from our trip up to Central Australia last Christmas, I had to wait until near the end of our visit to get out to Ormiston Gorge due to a lot of flooding in the Western MacDonnells. Sam decided to spend the day in Alice Springs so I headed out on my own after breakfast, parking at the visitor centre. Now, as seems to be a bit of a recurring theme on the blog, I've walked this walk a few times before, so armed with a bit of local on the ground knowledge I decided that I'd do this walk in my Teva sandals. The rational behind me walking in Tevas was that I knew that with all the rain that had been around, I'd be doing quite a bit of wading and more than likely a bit of swimming on todays ramble. Setting off from the car park my decision was soon justified when I strolled past a temporary sign warning me of the need to swim if I wanted to complete the walk. I didn't have to wait long to get wet feet either, within five minutes of starting the walk I came to the first crossing of Ormiston Creek, and while the creek was still flowing clear and strong now the flood debris high up in the trees around me told me that this wasn't a spot I would of wanted to be a few days ago.

Now that's not something you see every day.

I would have needed a snorkel if I'd been here a few days ago.

My first crossing of Ormiston Creek, luckily I'd come prepared with my Teva sandels.

Making my way across the soft sand and multiple channels of Ormiston Creek I soon got to a trail junction, with the Larapinta Trail heading on its way off towards Alice Springs I turned to the left and started a gentle climb into the spinifex covered hills that surround Ormiston Pound. The recent rain had worked wonders on the country and the green spinifex gave the country a park like appearance. This is a major tourist trail normally so luckily for my exposed feet and shins the needle sharp spinifex was quite clear of the pad. I now made my way up to a saddle on the walls of the pound, a gently trickling creek in a shallow gully beside my being a somewhat unusual companion. Once at the saddle the views really opened up and it was a slow side trip up to a high point on the gorge walls as I stopped to take photo after photo.

Looking back towards Mt Sonder on my gentle climb to the saddle on the pound wall.

The view of Ormiston Creek heading towards the gorge from the saddle.

The view from up here was worth the walk alone, to my east across the pound was Mt Giles the top of which was still cloaked in a veil of cloud. To my west Ormiston Creek snaked its way into Ormiston Gorge and to the north I could see the trackless route to Bowman Gap. With the mesa like cliffs surrounding much of Ormiston Pound, the water glistening in the weak sun down in the Red Gum lined Ormiston Creek, the green spinifex and occasional Ghost Gums, it was like I'd walked into one of Albert Namatjira's paintings. While giving my camera a workout at the look out the overcast skies started to lighten up a bit and by the time I rock hopped my way back down to the saddle there were patches of blue sky appearing through the grey cloud.

That's Bowman Gap to the left of the Ghost Gum.

And Mt Giles under cloud in the distance to the right of the Ghost Gum.

Once back at the saddle in the pound wall the trail descends fairly gently into Ormiston Pound, crossing the soft sandy bed of Ormiston Creek numerous times. Normally its just a matter of following the foot prints in the sand across the dry creek but today I had to keep an eye out for the trail markers that marked the continuation of the trail as it exited the water. The good news though was that while the water was up to around waist deep it wasn't to cold, and even though the day was overcast the ambient temperature was still in the mid thirties so a cool wade every so often wasn't much of a hardship at all really. Walking back on dry land between one of my wades was where I had my Death Adder encounter, the well camouflaged snake was curled up in the middle of the track against a rock and wasn't going anywhere. Luckily I spotted it when I was a metre from stepping on it as I don't reckon my tevas would have provided much protection from a bite from a Death Adder, once I got my heart rate back to normal I managed to get a couple of photos of the snake before gingerly taking to the spinifex to make my way around the stubborn serpent.

Back at the saddle and heading into the pound.

The Death Adder was fairly well camouflaged and coiled up in the middle of the track.

Luckily I'd come prepared with my snake proof sandals!

See how he holds the tip of his tail up to attract prey, or unsuspecting bushwalkers.

The walls of Ormiston Gorge were now starting to close in on me as I made my way along the creek. Normally any one of the beautiful waterholes that I was walking past would have demanded me to stop and have a cooling dip, but with a fair chunk of the walk already being under water I didn't feel the need to sample every opportunity for a swim today. The further into the gorge I got the more hemmed in by the vertical walls of the gorge I got, the odd ephemeral waterfall cascading down from the cliffs giving the gorge a bit of a tropical feel. Criss crossing the creek I eventually got to a wide pool blocking the whole of the gorge, a large rocky bluff blocked my view of an exit point from the water so I couldn't quite tell how far the water stretched, dropping my pack I waded in a few metres with the water quickly rising up to my neck, hmmm looks like I'd be swimming for awhile.

The walls of Ormiston Gorge now started to close in.

Crossing Ormiston Creek again.

There were even a few waterfalls cascading down the cliffs.

The day was staring to heat up a bit which was good because I'd soon be swimming.

Returning to my pack it was time to shove everything into dry bags (luckily I'd bought a couple of them with me as well), so with the DSLR, GPS and Phone all hopefully sealed up in one dry bag and everything else in another one I waded into the warm water pushing my pack in front of me. The dry bags did their job luckily and they kept my saturated pack floating on the surface, which was just as well as this turned into a fairly long swim. On rounding the first bluff I noticed that the deep water stretched for around 100 metres, every so often I swam into a shallow bit where I could stand up on the sand and have a bit of a rest before plunging back in. Eventually I got to a large sloping rock shelf opposite the spot where the tourists swim in the gorge, the sight of a bedraggled half naked feral walker emerging from the water seeming to make their day as they snapped away. All I had to do now was to cross over to their side and walk a 100 metres or so back to the car park, now I could of bashed my way through the scrub until I got to a shallow section but by now I was enjoying the water so much I just crossed at the normal crossing point, once again needing to float my pack in front of me as I swam over to the exit steps. 

Time to swim for awhile.

The feral swimmer.

Every so often I'd swim up to a sandy beach for a bit of a break.

Leaving the water for the last time I sat my saturated pack against a huge Red Gum while I dug out my camera and car keys before walking the last couple of minutes back to the ute. These are the times when I really like having a ute, I just throw all the wet gear in the tray and if the weathers warm enough everything is normally dry by the time I get home, sweet. Back in the drivers seat I headed back into Alice Springs, the overcast conditions once again closing in as I got closer to town which put a bit of a dampener on the New Years Eve celebrations in Alice Springs that night.

Having another break on dry land, I've just swum through there.

My last swim. if you look carefully you can see a life buoy above the tourist path on the far bank.

My packs a little on the soggy side, but at least everything is still dry inside the dry bags.

The Dirt.

I walked around 9 kilometre on this great walk and climbed around 200 metres. I'm not sure of the exact stats as in all the excitement of my pack swims I forgot to reset my GPS. I used the notes out of 40 Great walks in Australia by Tyrone Thomas and Andrew Close, John and Lyn Daly have also written this walk up in their Northern Territory book. Today I'd rate this as a medium walk although in normal conditions (i.e. no swimming) it would be an easy walk. Its probably possible to do the walk with the literature that you can pick up from the Ormiston Gorge Visitor Centre as the trail is well marked and fairly strait forward. Like I've mentioned before about my walks up in Central Australia on this trip it was a particularly wet year, normally there isn't any where near as much water around, although there is normally some water in the waterholes in Ormiston Gorge if you want a swim.

Mt Giles is starting to appear from under its veil of cloud,

The track is fairly well defined.