Last day in Alice

From Anzac Hill in Alice you can see the MacDonnell Ranges, ridges extending four hundred kilometers east and west of town. West the Larapinta Trail runs for 230 kilometers along the spine of the range, and I'll be heading down that trail tomorrow.

This morning I spread all my gear out and wondered how I would get it all in my pack, but I will. I've cut the clothing down to what seems like the bare minimum--a pair of shorts, long underwear, three t-shirts, a long-sleeved shirt, a jacket, a down sweater for cold mornings, watch cap and gloves, several pairs of socks. I've got a tent and sleeping bag and pad; my clothes bag will serve as pillow. I have a small stove and pot, three canisters of fuel. Food. Two books, one a big, heavy Trollope novel, the other a tiny edition of Tolstoy's Twenty-three Stories; I want to bring more but I'm practicing self-control. That's about it, besides small things like a bowl, a toothbrush, a headlamp.... Can I manage for eighteen days? Well, that's the plan.

Eighteen days is to allow for sidetrips; typically people do the walk in two weeks. Also, I should note that at a couple especially appealing land features the trail contacts dead-end roads. So there are a handful of opportunities for contact with civilization.

Water will be an issue, as there's little of it; there are tanks at spots, usually not more than a day apart, but on a couple stretches two days. We'll cook on the small stove, a Snow Peak. I bought a couple extra fuel canisters at the Lone Dingo, Alice's backpacker store, and I'm hoping we have enough for morning tea and hot dinners, but I'm not sure we do.

Any concerns about gear will necessarily come to an end when we set off; then I'll make do, and that shouldn't be too difficult. I have been anxious about the walk--because I'm so unfamiliar with this place--but now I'm mostly excited. Once on the trail I can just walk and walk, eat a bit of this or that occasionally, try to find a comfortable spot to sleep at night, then get up and walk and walk some more. Sounds good.

Rachael went off to work in the morning, and later her friend Annie dropped her off (so Rachael could leave her car at work). Annie came in and said, "Hello, Cappa, just wanted to wish you a good trip." She charged in and I was ready for a big kiss on the lips.

Rachael spent much of the morning on the phone, talking to her father, two of her sisters, her mother, her daughter, several friends.... She has a large and geographically-wide circle, and she seems to keep in close touch with them all.

I walked into town to Outback E-mail, where I've spent mornings for three days now. The young woman at the counter is busy all day long booking tours for backpacker types from all over the world. I quite like how she maintains her sunny good-nature under the onslaught of money-pinching, demanding travelers, but I wish she would retire the David Grey cd that she has played repeatedly over the last three days. If I had to choose, I'd rather have the techno dance music she also favors.

At three I'm meeting Rachael at the town's lesbian coffee house, where we'll plan our final purchases.

I'm writing this posting on Wednesday the 16th, but it won't appear on the weblog until tomorrow, when it will be the 16th in North America. A couple days ago I used Rachael's cell phone to text Alix, and when it arrived on her phone the time and date were for the next day. "I got a text from the future," Alix told me later. Cool.

This will be my last posting for some time. Unfortunately I do not have a satellite-connected laptop, so I won't be able to write from the trail. But I'll it pick up again when I came back from the desert mountain wilds....