***PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN PEN***
The Ormiston Pound Walk is an easy 8km morning or afternoon walk, and will reward you with some of the most dramatic and breathtaking scenery that you will see ANYWHERE in Australia.
Don't be lazy. Do the walk!
As there are two other caches to be found along the way, we've placed this cache midway on the Pound Walk to encourage you to do the ENTIRE walk, rather than just rush up to the saddle and grab the lookout cache, and then nab the easy one in Ormiston Gorge itself.
We recommend starting the trail by walking back out along the bitumen road from the Ormiston carpark, as if you are going to walk right back out of the Gorge and go back to Alice Springs. Approximately 200m from along the road, you'll see the trail markers for the Pound Walk and Section 9 of the Larapinta Trail. The trail markers for Pound Walk are red; those for the Larapinta Trail are blue. You'll cross Ormiston Creek (usually dry), and then head up a valley to a saddle. This is where you'll find another cache (GCPTG0), on a sidetrack up the saddle.
After reaching the saddle and checking out the other cache, head down into the Pound and enjoy amazing views of Mt Giles to your right, and Bowmans Gap straight ahead. The rest of the walk is mostly downhill from this point, and flat till the end, although the gorge section requires rock hopping over boulders to get back to the Ormiston Waterhole and carpark.
The cache is located in the middle of the pound, adjacent to the walking trail. It's a small camouflaged container, with a log and room for geo-coin sized swaps.
WALK INFO:
It usually takes us 2-2.5 hours to complete the Pound Walk, including the out and back to the cache on the ridge, although Amanda has done the walk in under two hours on her own. Note that we are very fit, very fast walkers! NT Parks and Wildlife's recommended time is 3-4 hours for this walk.
The best time of year to do this walk is from May-October. However, we've done the walk in summer on a number of occasions (the joys of being locals!), and recommend that you start early in the morning over the November-April period. In summer, you'll also be able to swim at the end of this walk, if you choose. There are also times during summer (this is when we get most of our rain in Central Australia), that the creeks in the middle of the pound will be flowing and you'll have to wade or even swim through. When there's a lot of heavy rain, the rangers will close the walk.
Wear good hiking shoes or runners, carry 2 litres of water and please, please, please wear a hat and sunscreen. Make sure you bring your camera - as we've said: this walk will take you into some scenery that will blow your mind.
Ormiston Gorge is located 140 km west of Alice Springs. Although this could be done is one day from Alice Springs, you may consider staying overnight at the Glen Helen Gorge, or camping at Ormiston Gorge (we recommend this option).