The evening at camp was nice as Sonia and Kym, who joined me once more, built a small fire in the sandy creek bed.

“This is my land”, Sonia declared proudly into the desert night.
“If I want to build a fire, I’ll have a fire”

Hiking the Larapinta Trail

In the school holidays of 2016 and again, one year later, Geert hiked the stunning Larapinta Trail in the West Macdonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory of Australia.

In 2016 he walked out of Alice Springs due West, and stopped 14 days later and left the trail at Ormiston Gorge. He didn’t have sufficient time to complete the trek, after having destroyed his hiking boots, and having to travel back to Alice Springs to buy a new pair.

In 2017 he returned to Larapinta with three friends. This time they walked from the West at Redbank Gorge to the East – to the Alice Springs Telegraph Station. They completed the hike in 16 days.

This book starts with the 2016 trek, and continues with the second part. All text, photographs, and illustrations is written, snapped, or drawn by Geert van Keulen.

The maps have been used twice for both trips. These are taken from the Northern Territory Government website.

‘Larapinta’ is named from an Aboriginal word meaning either “flowing water” or ‘flat country’.