For those who attempt brave it, the four-day-long Tabletop Track uses unequaled privacy and natural charm in a peaceful wilderness.
High above the sheer-drop waterfalls that fill Litchfield National Park’s most popular spring-fed waterholes, a loftier wilderness beckons. On the High Plateau’s rugged upper world, a foot path sculpts a course over stony gibber plains and lavish wetland streams, tempting walkers to fern-fringed rock medspas where a riot of birdlife collects in the peaceful, cool hours of the day.
This little-visited piece of paradise pulls extremely coupleof visitors out of the plunge swimmingpools far listedbelow, however a coupleof sturdy souls strap on boots and treking loads and set out on the four-day-long Tabletop Track. It’s simple to comprehend the doubt. With a credibility as being hot and dry, this track bringsin none of the awards loaded on the Northern Territory’s more well-known strolls, regardlessof being far more available and definitely less crowded. The Jatbula Trail in Nitmiluk National Park, for circumstances, is almost constantly totally scheduled and the Larapinta Trail is an legendary 21-day-long Red Centre initiation.
But brave the Tabletop Track and you’ll discover yourself rock hopping and rambling through flaxen meadows to watery groves of pandanus and Litchfi eld palms. When the midday sun gets high, walkers endedupbeing wild bathers, moving into impressive rock swimmingpools to soak and float in privacy.
Upping the ante
A thirsty roam it may be, however I’m in Darwin and in the stateofmind to walking. I’m likewise entirely notable to rouse any of my pals out of their sluggish dry-season stupor (or the aircon) to signupwith my rugged experience. Even my most reckless adventuring friends eyeball me with the suspicion of lunacy, so I’m left with no option however to go solo.
And here’s the thing: while I’ve treked quite much my whole life, I’ve neverever really strolled alone, at least not on a long, multi-day experience. “High time”, I state as I pack a rucksack, kiss my kiddo bye-bye and climb gingerly away from Florence Falls.
I’m well conscious of all the methods that this endeavour might go terribly incorrect, thanks to the “what-ifs” chattering noisily on the periphery of my ideas. There’s little phone signal on the path, more snakes than individuals and lots of possible methods to slip, fall or lose my method. But 4 days, 47km and fi ve blisters lateron, I action away from this experience sensation blissful, sweaty and stinking, revelling in my joyous alone time and singing its applauds. Even if things wear’t go precisely to strategy.
The experience starts
I set out from Florence Falls, climbing high above its remarkable, spring-fed waterfalls and the deep, fern-filled amphitheatre they fi ll. The Tabletop Track circles the high nation another 800m uphill, where I register my prepares at an old-school bushwalkers’ station, take a solo selfi e and stride quickly north.
It’s 9am and currently blazingly hot and, regardlessof the simple course, it leads through disconcertingly high grasslands that end quickly at a blackened scar of charred earth, rupturing here and there with lurid green regrowth. I hear water streaming far downhill and when I get there, I toss down my pack on a soft, grassy riverbank and dunk bare toes in the cool, clear circulation.
I’m far too anxious about reaching my campingsite to skive off and go swimming, so I fillup my water bottles and push on uphill, climbing a rubbly slope studded with pale grey-green cycads. Sporadic blue markers program the method ahead, however my eyes are looking down, plodding gradually through the hot sand. Only sturdy little rainbow bee-eaters defy the brain-boiling midday heat, and the absence of breeze is suppressing. Fearing that I’ll pass out from heat fatigue, I search for what little shade I can fi nd and stop to rest, pressing back panic before pushing on.
I pass a set of day walkers with not much to state, however I keepinmind the discussion as one of simply 3 I will have over the next 4 days. A rich palm thicket conceals a campground nextto a boggy paperback overload, which I avoid in favour of costs the night nextto spring-fed Walker Creek.
The Tabletop Track’s 3 finest campingareas are situated no more than 12km apart, taking benefit of important natural water sources and the requirement to escape the gruelling heat before midday. Walker Creek lies off the path itself, a 50-minute detour downhill, however its notoriously clear swimmingpools call me and I happily takeon the additional kilometres to toss myself in.
Fearlessness, or something simply like it
“You’re so brave,” one of the fellow walkers gushes as I stumble into camp, nursing fresh blisters, 20kg of treking equipment and a smell that angers even me. This lady is treking too. “In security,” she states. “But doing it alone, well, that’s actually next level.” I smile at the compliment and practically think her. But, atsomepoint lateron, immersed in a deep, dubious swimmingpool on Walker Creek, I marvel if you’d ever state the verysame thing to a chap. Filling an limitless chain of palmfringed swimmingpools, Walker Creek cuts a verdant swathe throughout the landscape, as tranquil and utopic as any tropical sanctuary.
I roam upstream and pitch my campingtent, laying claim to a sloping campingarea and a remote, ferny plunge swimmingpool filled with small freshwater prawns and toe-nibbling fish. Far too available to the roadside, the camp’s late-night hubbub is a bit much. I wake early, brew coffee and spot fresh, puff y blisters while bats roost uncomfortably in the palms overhead, both of us waiting for the sun.
Back on track
Alone, I gladly backtrack my actions back up onto the cliff, which is bathed in lemony, break-of-day sunshine. It warms the yellow wattle growing trackside and the rust-coloured rubbly slopes all around, and I timeout to photo fragile tendrils of bright-pink turkey bush. By the time I reach the leading and rejoin the Tabletop Track, my upset blisters are shrieking. I stop to spot them and layer on sunblock, and my phone beeps reassuringly for the veryfirst time.
I ramble down the slope, alone with roaming ideas that