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After so long eating the dehydrated meals and cliff bars it was incredible! We ate a lot at Standley. The shower wasn't that great - a single dribble of water that alternated between freezing cold and scalding hot!

As far as I am aware, there is currently no conscription in Pakistan

I am sure Thillini would appreciate it!

Yeah - funny how random insignificant choices you make every day can alter the course of your life

Professionally and deployed the emergency chute as he was trained to do. He didn't let on to me there was anything wrong either (until we landed). Although seeing our parachute float away and us start free-falling again was a bit of a give away

I wonder what would have happened had they lost!

No they didn't - but I started locking my doors

It is a great camping site and a short walk in - however it is starting to get more popular and you don't have the place to yourself weekend like back in the day.

No. But you can take dogs to the nearby Dudley Beack

Sadly thats what tends to happen when people don't abide by the 'leave no trace' philosophy when hiking/camping.

They are native to Australia

The start point of this hike is inaccessible to vehicles due to closure of Mt Allyn Rd. The Forestry Corporation of NSW has closed the road due to a failed bridge. The reopening date is not known at this stage. it has been closed now since December 2023. You could still walk this road, but it would add a day or two and not possible over a weekend.

~10mins. It wasn't too crowded when we visited, but I can see how it has the potential to be - especially when its only accessible certain times of the day based on tides.

No I haven't. I would like to but it's too far a drive to do this trip over a weekend, I would need a long weekend - holidays we usually do longer 3 week+ trips.

The walk was incredible despite the rain, I would make the same choice again.

It certainly is a beautiful part of the world. The Spinifex wasn't fun and very invasive on the trail. I would recommend gloves for these sections of the trail!

Yes, they did. Léo was very happy.

I unfortunately left my kindle at the hotel. I was reading it on the plane and put it in léo's laptop bag when the flight landed and forgot it was there in the hurry to pack/shop/prep the drop boxes. Our flight landed 2pm and our transport was the next morning. I had 1000s books on the kindle but I had these recently downloaded; 1) The Hidden Queen (Peter V Brett), 2) Shadows (part of Hugh Howey Silo Saga), 3) The Orphans Secret (Shirley Dickson) and One Second After (William Forstchen).

I haven't been to Ellery South but I have had friends who have been to both (including one who swam across the big hole) and we spoke to people on trail and I think the general consensus is the Ellery North. North has hikers only no tourists just a different vibe/quieter. The creek bed is a beautiful place to camp. The walk from Serpentine Gorge to Ellery North is incredibly beautiful. From what I have heard the track to the south is a lot of boulder hopping and unremarkable . It was worth carrying the extra day food - even with inconvenient location of Serpentine gorge food drop from the campsite!

It was our least favourite campsite on trail. It was hot, exposed/minimal shade, lots of flies and not really pretty/good views

It was so peaceful and I had the site to myself. One of my top 10 campsites.

It was crazy, certainly an experience

I think it has been mostly phased from the turn of the 20th century

Apparently it was the coldest winter in 30 years and the cold season lasted a few weeks longer than normal - unfortunately into the start of my cycle tour. It was amazing seeing it snow onto boiling mud!

Yep, they were scary, long and dark

No, I didn't. I did try whale though.

We were destroyed by mosquitoes at Fringe Lilly! We had more bites on our legs than skin! For 2-3 days after we had to spray Stingoes on our legs at night or we would have gone mad with the itch.

Depends on many factors and both have merit. I enjoyed sunset.

I held my breath as I emerged from the tent that morning, it was super foggy but the weather cleared :)

Mostly fine - the packets of wraps were sweating. I wouldn't put fresh fruit/veg in the dropbox at serpentine - or chocolate

Hugh Gorge was a lot colder in the water but warm once we got out on the rocks. It was colder out on the sands of the big hole due to the high winds but the water was warmer

Thank-you! Australia really has some of the most beautiful and remote wilderness to hike. The only downside is all the animals that want to kill you. Unfortunately the snakes tend to be highly venomous here. In saying that only 2-3 people die of snake bites annually.