Trekking the Larapinta - Prologue

Stu Pocknee

11 Oct 2022

larapinta , health , trekking

The Larapinta Trail is a track with a reputation.

It's an epic odyssey through the central Australian wilderness west of Alice Springs. It injures frequently, and has several fatalities to its (dis)credit. ¹ ²

It is not a natural or judicious choice of activity for an unfit, over-weight, non-hiking/camping dad-body such as myself. Despite that, with little or no forethought, in mid-2021 I sent the following email to my two brothers and one sister:

dear peeps, here's an idea.

2022 will mark 50 years of the Pocknee siblings being jointly in existence.

To commiserate, how about we walk the Larapinta Trail together?

I don't know where this idea came from. My siblings are good people, and doing something together is always a good thing. The celebration of 50 years of coexistence on this planet did seem like as good a reason as any to do something. But why the Larapinta? Dunno. Partly I knew it was exactly the kind of hare-brained scheme they would go for. Partly I think I wanted to prove to myself that, despite all the contrary evidence, I was still capable of doing something like this.

I quickly received the following message back from my younger brother, Fraser:

That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard you say.

I’m in!

Elise responded in her typical no-nonsense to-the-point manner:

Sounds good to me.

Our eldest brother, Cameron, offered the only sensible reply:

Can I join via Teams?

But two positive replies meant the Rubicon had been crossed. We were doing this.

Crap.

Some fevered researching of what I had flippantly committed to confirmed what I already suspected. I was in over my head.

You would not know it if you had not been around for my childhood but I am not a complete stranger to camping and living in the wild. I was raised in a slightly alternative family (not the 'hippy' kind, rather the 'lets buy some wild mountainous scrub country and spend all our free time there living like pioneer settlers' kind). My peers happily watched cartoons on the weekends and attended play dates, and movies, and whatever it is that normal city children do. Not such luck for the Pocknee kids. We cleared scrub, pulled barbed wire, cut down trees, rode half-broken ponies, fought grass-fires, chased cattle, dodged snakes, and lived in a series of increasingly more complex tents, shacks, sheds, and finally something that sort of resembled a modern house.

Hiking was the default method to get anywhere on this property. Vehicles were confined to the winding 4WD-only dirt tracks that had been scraped precariously into the sides of the steep ridges. They rarely took you all the way to your intended destination. Usually it was quicker and easier to dodge along the myriad cattle tracks, vaulting rocks and logs while ducking wattle and ironbark limbs, and contorting around or under thick lantana infestations.

No visit by friends or family would ever be complete without a walk "up the mountain". This was a ~4km round hike to the highest spot on the property with a 350m ascent along steep rocky tracks. The 360° views of Lake Moogerah and the Scenic Rim of South East Queensland were indeed splendid.

So I am reasonably well versed in the basics of primitive living, self sufficiency, and hiking in horribly steep and rocky country. Enough to never want to do any of it again once I left home. For the past 30 years I have actively avoided participating in any activities that do not utilize the wonders of modern technology to the fullest, and that do not lead back nightly to a warm, civilized house- (or hotel-) bed. I lead a sedentary lifestyle with no really physical pastimes (other than walking the dog - and I'd avoid that if I could).

So the fact that in 2021 I was an overweight, unfit, middle-aged, office denizen didn't concern me greatly. Based on the claimed rationale for the hike, I knew I had about a year to prepare. And, psychologically at least, I was still the same kid who used to scamper up and down rocky hill sides chasing wild-arse bush cattle. One year would be plenty of time to reverse the effects of 30 years of inactivity, and get in shape. Right?

Obviously, my next move was to do nothing. For 6 months.

At the family Xmas gathering in 2021 my siblings began to talk of the trail. They had clearly not forgotten. Phil (Elise's husband and a keen orienteerer) was also onboard. So now there were four of us, and the scheming began in earnest.

I am relieved to say that the next 6 months were a whirlwind of activity and preparation. I had already been walking to work each day (5.5km round trip), but now I began carrying a hiking pack filled with weights. I researched and shopped for equipment. I worked out with Jim. Most importantly, I realized I would need to lose weight. The thing that really impelled me was the realization of just how much my chubbiness was actually hurting me. Give or take, for a man of my height, I was 13kg overweight. Coincidently, this was also my training pack weight. 13kg may not sound like much, but pulling on that pack was a serious strain for me. I felt it from my shoulders to my back, from my hips to my knees, and all the way to the soles of my feet. This was a very real demonstration of hidden stresses of carrying excess body mass. Motivating!

Having never been on a diet of any sort I didn't know where to start. It turned out that losing weight was straight forward. Painful and miserable, yes, but simple. Both my wife and my doctor offered the same advice: Eat less, exercise more. How hard could that be? Well, pretty fucking hard actually. But I had certain things going for me: motivation, a deadline, and a clear goal. I don't want to pretend that my results are indicative of what anyone else may experience, but for me (at least in the time-frame of interest) it worked.

As well as walking to work, I began to leave work early on Tuesdays and Thursdays to complete 5-10km hikes. Then I started doing longer weekend walks along the range escarpment reserve in Toowoomba. I worked up to routinely completing 18km hikes in about 4 hours - with two full ascents of the Range (~350m total ascent each). Whenever I could walk somewhere, I did - and recorded it using my GPS watch. I was logging between 50km and 80km a week with the pack. This was a 15-20 hour commitment each week. My logs indicate that I did something like 1100km during the 6 month period.

I stopped eating between meals. I cut out any food that was clearly junk. I regulated my portion sizes. No tricks, crutches, fads, or gimmicks. I just ate less, and ate better. I was hungry all the time. The hunger was wretched, but it was also positive feedback in a way. If my body was telling me it was hungry and I wasn't feeding it, then presumably it was going to search out some fat reserves to gobble up.

As the months remaining to kick-off changed to weeks it was clear that I was going to meet my 13kg weight loss goal (and then some). More than that, carrying the pack no longer felt like a massive burden. I almost didn't notice it. My joints no longer hurt after each long walk. I felt strong, and I felt positive about the trail. When you are about to embark on a 220km hike across the outback, feeling confident is great for your morale. And having solid morale is exactly what is needed for this trek.

There were still questions. I had managed exactly one pre-trek test of my sleeping system. It was a zero degree (0°C / 32°F) night in Toowoomba and frankly, it was not pleasant. But I got through it, and comforted myself with the thought that August temperatures in Alice Springs historically had minimums a few degrees above this.

So, accompanied by Fraser, I flew out of Brisbane on Saturday July 23 feeling pretty good about everything. A few hours later we landed in Alice, met up with Elise and Phil and spent the afternoon performing last minute preparations.

The post-covid backlog of aircraft stacked up at the Alice airport bears testament to the dry climate.

Surveying Alice Springs from a high point at the Botanical Gardens.

Elise, Phil, & Frase above Alice. Heavitree Gap in the background.

Dirt - Sparks - Code

Self indulgent rambling. Minimal redeeming attributes.

Trekking the Larapinta - Prologue