15/07/2016. Mt Sonder, Larapinta stage 12.

After a slow freezing start once again, we started the 12^th stage of the Larapinta trail, which was the ascent and descent of Mt Sonder (the 4^th highest peak in NT at 1380m above sea level) from Redbank Gorge. We started at 9 a.m. and with a morning tea stop and many clothes change stops we reached the peak at around 12:30 p.m. On the way up we met a group of people whom had started the walk at 3 a.m. to sit and watch the sunrise. That is something that I wouldn’t recommend. The views the entire walk were breath taking as we followed the ridge line up most of the way, thus we had all but 360 degree views for the complete walk.  We all signed the visitors book at the summit and ate a well-earned and well sort after lunch. The walk down was almost warm, and the views were just as spectacular as the walk up. We arrived at the base around 4 p.m., having walked a total of 16.44 km, with a net altitude rise of approximately 700m, however we had walked a total of 1080m accent. A note on some of the other “hikers” was that men seem to make everything a race, and try and outdo each other all the time. In this case they all lost out as we were able to watch birds, find bugs and look at all the wild flowers on our walk, I believe they saw none of this. I also confirmed today that my 10 year old is a far more capable hiker than I am already, however I think his lack of weight helps him. We will see what he is like when he reaches puberty.