Liz and Peter are friends of The Green Man in spite of the fact they put him to shame with the enthusiasm and frequency that they tackle interesting and challenging bushwalks. They enticed Mrs GreenMan and myself to their house with a delicious dinner in order to show us slides of their most recent walk on the Larapinta Trail.

The Larapinta is located in the West MacDonnell Ranges, in the heart of Australia near Alice Springs. This is pretty much right in the geographic centre of Australia. The walk is two weeks in length, it is pointless to talk in kilometres when you are talking about this sort of walking. It is not for your novice bushwalker, not only because it is long but because it is through the Australia desert. This is the territory where a seemingly minor mistake can mean death, there is little water and you need to be able to carry a lot of it to make it between one water hole and the next. Having said that, for those that are up to it, it is a magnificent walk.

The bulk of central Australia is not desert in the way that you usually think of desert, hills of sand and palm trees, it is low mulga scrub and spinifex grass. Here are some of their photos that I have scanned to show you what most of central Australia is like.

Mt Giles Pound

Mt Sonder

Brinkley

Of course there are rivers, here is a picture of Birthday Creek, like most rivers in the centre, it only flows once every few years.

And finally one of Peter on the Larapinta track in full swing, literally.

Only joking that vegitation is far too green to be on the Larapinta, it must be from one of Peter's earlier walks. Still the Larapinta is very isolated and rarely travelled. I am sure you could get away with this mode of dress if you wished. The sun is pretty intense out there however. The Green Man recommends liberal application of sunscreen to certain appendages that don't regularly see the light of day if you are going to attack the Larapinta similarly unattired.