By Jo Hindle

Touted as one of the world's best walks, the Larapinta Trail is the Northern Territory's ultimate adventure hike. It is a 223-kilometre long walking trail, split into 12 sections and starting in Alice Springs. A group of three women recently trekked the entire length. journey. One of them kept a journal...

Day one For the first time in my life, I wake up in the outback. After months of planning, we're doing the Larapinta Trail. We clamber off the bus at the old Alice Springs Telegraph Station - part of the overland telegraph line that connected Australia with the rest of the world in the 1870s and the start of the trail through the West MacDonnell Ranges. Our final destination, 15 days away, is the summit of Mt Sonder, some 223 kilometres west of where we now stand. I can't wait to start.

Day four I wake to the sound of a black-footed rock wallaby munching on the grass near my tent. It's amazing how sound travels through the earth when your ear is pressed to the ground. After a cup of tea and a bowl of porridge, we pull on our now familiar, well-worn boots and hit the trail.
We slowly climb away from our campsite at Standley Chasm up to 'Reveal Saddle', where the view leaves me breathless. It's like a rainbow. The sky is azure blue, the red, rocky slopes are blanketed with clumps of yellow spinifex, and the gullies sprout deep green cycads. It's like walking through a Namatjira canvas - fitting really, since this was his country and his inspiration.

Day six Mid afternoon we arrive at Ellery Creek and head straight to the waterhole. Ellery Creek 'Big Hole' lives up to its name - a huge waterhole, teeming with birdlife and framed on two sides by large cliffs. After six days of hiking, it is a welcome relief to our aching muscles. Cold, cold water has never felt this good.

Day eight It's late afternoon when we arrive at a campsite on a creek near Serpentine Dam. The cypress pines make this beautiful spot look uncharacteristically European. With camp set up, we stroll upstream to a small, man-made dam, constructed in the 1960s. The initials of the two Italian carpenters who constructed the framework reminds visitors of their achievement.
Back at camp we light a fire, enjoy a well-earned dinner, and with hands cupped around hot milos, we sit in silence, mesmerised by the flames of the fire and the sounds of the bush at night.

Day fifteen This is the final day of our hike. For the last five days, the summit of Mt Sonder has been guiding us, rising up like a beacon of the ranges to show us the way. We are nimble and sure-footed now, much like that wallaby, and it is with ease we climb the ridge to the summit.
I feel a great sense of achievement looking back along the spine of the MacDonnell Ranges. The Aboriginal people call the ranges 'Yeperenye' - the caterpillar - and standing here, we can see exactly why. We stand together and gaze out over the ranges, reflecting on this adventure trek of a lifetime - where we've left nothing but footprints.

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