Encounter Studio: experiments + journeys

brief notes on experimental photographic journeys

a training walk for the camel trek

Upon returning from the industrial photo session in Melbourne I went on a training walk  for the upcoming camel trek in the North Flinders  Ranges from Arkaroola to Mount Hopeless starting on June 19th. This is part of the extension of the Heysen Trail  and it is primarily walked by  wilderness walkers. 

My first  training walk was from Waitpinga Beach to Rosetta Head along the coastal and clifftop walking trail then the short distance to  home in Encounter Bay.  It took me about 5 hours, but this  included an hour of  photography on a rocky outcrop west of Kings Head. 

 I was trialing carrying a digital camera around my neck and   Suzanne's large Osprey pack that she used on her Walls of Jerusalem walk in Tasmania. I was also seeing how my feet stood up on the different terrain  of the coastal path. Neither the pack nor the digital camera around my neck worked, and my feet took a bit of a battering. So another training walk with  a new day pack with  the camera attached to the sternum strap on the front of the pack  is planned. 

The camel trek involves  12 days of walking (the camels carry the supplies),  and  I had planned to carry the Sony  a 7r111 digital camera with 2 extra batteries (instead of using the Anker PowerCore 26800  portable battery) with two back up  film cameras: a Leica M4-P  and a Rolleiflex TLR. So I am figuring how best to carry the cameras and working out if I  also will carry  a carbon fibre tripod. 


This picture is looking west to Newland Head  and it is looking back along the cliffs where I'd walked  on the training walk.  Waitpinga  Beach is  west of Newland Head. Most of the walk was in the Newland Head Conservation Park. 

The camel trek is my attempt to build on what I started with my   Long Road to Lajamanu blog. A   supported  camel trek that is run by experienced bush people is the only way that I am able to explore the wilderness area of the northern South Australian landscape, as I do not have the 4 wheel drive equipment or the bush skills to explore  it on my own.