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Friday, August 17, 2012

Epiblog

Some final thoughts on Larapinta - the experience
  • Plan the walk meticulously and communicate with your support team all along the way. I failed to do that and as a consequence our schedule had to be changed, losing a critical rest day (we survived)
  • Be sure all participants have good walking experience and able to do 30+ km per day without distress (not sure how you assess this other than taking them on grueling 30+ km training walk)
  • Make sure all walkers appreciate the Larapinta is tough on boots and feet.
  • Make sure ALL walkers bring their own blister care items, perhaps give a specific list of products each walker is expected to supply.
  • Walking west to east worked for us, even without the rest day at Ellery Gorge.
  • The bus trip up to Glen Helen allowed to group to get to know each other and I think worked well. Flying home at the end, certainly worked for me.
  • What would I leave out. The extra pair of thermal pants, one only needed. Take only one Beanie.
  • Banksia Tours were a surprise, after an inauspicious start (late without an apology) they simply got better and better. David, deaf as a post, especially when he broke his hearing aid, had a dry sense of humour and Sonya was quite charming, and catered to my dietary peccadillo's with great zest.
  • However, they do need some advice re vegetarians and what they do or do not eat. Turkey and chicken don't normally fit into the vegetarian diet, neither does fish, really.
  • The food was simple, however there was plenty of it. Breakfasts consisted of up to five varieties of cereal, porridge most days, toast and often bacon and eggs. Even on the remote camps.
  • Lunches also had great variety including avocado's most days with fruit, muesli and chocolate  bars.
  • Dinners often three course and often ice cream as part of desert.
  • Surprisingly, I still lost about 4 kg.
  • Attached are the links to my Picasa albums if you want to browse my pictures at your leisure
https://plus.google.com/photos/115827045141699129695/albums#photos/115827045141699129695/albums
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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Day 18 Homeward Bound (for some)

It was a lazy start, with no urgency to do anything, yet many emerged just after 7.00 AM scrounging for a coffee.
It was then a steady parade of sleepy heads coming and going, as those who were flying home got packed up.
I think the bus travelers, who leave tomorrow looked on with some envy.
There were also some very tentative walkers who tip-toed around with sore feet, sore ankles and knees. There were surprisingly few sore heads.
The bus people, once organised headed off to town to mooch around, and perhaps get lunch from a local Vietnamese place, that proved be far from local, about 10 km out of town.
The flyers fiddled and eventually the airport shuffle arrived (on time really) and we were at the airport, John, Jo, Julian, Peter, Simon and Vicki.
There was a slight scare for Jo as she realised as we were about to board she had left her day pack in the coffee shop, so there was a mad race to beat the bomb squad.
An uneventful flight bought us to a very balmy Adelaide and a pretty swift departure to our various abodes.
NOTE -all the daily posts now have photos and slide shows attached and some additions to the text.