Sunday 26th May 2013
The End to End minus 1 group was breaking with tradition on this walk by exiting from Mt Arden via Warren Gorge for the first time. This exit involved a 4.7 km walk-out at the end of the day.
The Morris Minus award had been given to Albert Schmidke at dinner the previous evening. Albert took great care of Morris during the day, nursed his sore head, and kept him safe and dry.
The first End to End minus 1 walk of the year started at Buckaringa Gorge with great anticipation and merriment. Gavin Rufus provided the laughs with his emu routine.
The theme for the 9-day trip was "Rock!" and over the next week we found out this was for good reason. Mary Cartland's backpack told us how it is and Dean Mortimer's flag for the first day was 'Rock Wallaby'.
Rocks, rocks and more rocks as we walked in the dry creek bed until morning tea.
Then, a break from the creek bed and we started to follow the trail, which proved difficult until Dean Mortimer located the missing sign.
The walking got serious as we began the long ascent of Mount Arden.
There were many hills to climb, but finally we reached the Mount Arden summit and spent a leisurely lunch break sheltering from the wind.
The descent and walk-out to Warren Gorge finished a big first day. We walked 17.6 km on the trail, which included a long stretch in a rocky creek bed and lots of hills leading up to the Mount Arden summit. To exit via Warren Gorge, we walked along another creek bed and 4WD track a further 4.7 km to the bus.
