Photo shoot at the start of the Larapinta Trail at the old Overland Telegraph station just north of Alice Springs.

Werte*! We are in Alice Springs, more or less in the centre of the Australian continent, having driven over 3,000 km from Brisbane to get here. It's been 14 years since we were last in the Northern Territory and 46 years since one of us had been to the Red Centre. It's been a jarring experience arriving in the NT, as the gulf between black and mainstream Australia hits you like a summer heat wave. It's as if nothing has happened to close the gap between the two worlds and the towns of Tennant Creek and Alice almost seem like towns in Papua New Guinea, cut adrift.

We didn't come here to contemplate what has not gone right in Oz, but to walk the 220 odd kilometers of the Larapinta Trail and the 80 odd kilometers of the Jatbula Trail, 1,000 km to the north of where we are now.

The Larapinta Trail stalks the high tops of the West MacDonnell ranges between Alice and Mount Sonder. It's a popular enough area and there are now signs of tourist revival although there are still low numbers of backpackers amidst the grey nomads in their 'all around Australia' 4WDs and campervans.

This hike is not quite like other long hikes we've done as there are no small towns or villages to stop over at. It is a harsh, arid, rocky landscape punctuated by narrow gorges within which lie waterholes, still reasonably full after the Red Centre's La Nina rains. The NT Parks and Wildlife Service makes sure that most of the campsites along the trail have water in tanks and that the trail is clearly visible. We still have to carry water for a couple of the stretches as our aging legs can only carry our bulging backpacks for 10 to 15 km a day, not enough to reach water on at least 2 occasions. We have filled three plastic containers with food and stove fuel and dropped them off in storerooms along the way so we can access them and keep going without having to deviate off back to Alice to buy more food. The whole trail should take us 18 days with 3 rest days and will be the longest hike since completing the Tutukaka to the NI Volcanos section of the Te Araroa in NZ in 2016.

The Jatbula Trail further north towards Darwin straddles the Katherine Gorge surrounds in Nitmiluk National Park. We have been to Nitmiluk before in the Top End's unbearable summers, leaving the pleasanter winter months to sail up to Port Essington from Darwin in the long mid-year school holiday.

The biggest worry on these walks is the heat. Three people have already been rescued from the Larapinta Trail since it opened on the 1st of April this year due to heat stress, one of whom, a young, fit hiker, died.

We are now at the end of April, neither summer nor winter. We had rain and fog when we first arrived in Alice! It didn't last long as the days soon returned to 36 degrees stifling, if dry, heat. The weather has now cooled and the forecast shows that the temps will range between 5 degrees at the lowest to 26 degrees at the hottest for at least the next 10 days - perfect walking weather! At 1,200 metres, our anticipated campsite for the night at Brinkley Bluff, a day's walk from Standley Chasm, might even be below freezing, not quite so welcome!

*Werte! - this is the Arrernte peoples' greeting. Here around Alice, the indigenous desert communities still speak their own language, something that makes a trip to this part of Australia quite unique, if somewhat disturbing.



The Larapinta Trail in the West MacDonnell ranges- a harsh, arid and rocky landscape



Only 1,000 km to go!



Grey kangaroo in Bladensburg NP near Winton



Termite mounds in Qld



Welcome to Alice Springs!



Alice Springs car park mural art



Cloncurry mural art



Happy go lucky desert kids



Galah parrots mural art in Alice Springs