Melinda Oogjes and Paul Pritchard have a tendency to see the humorous side of things. Hiking the 223km Larapinta Trail in the blistering heat of the Red Centre with one half of your team suffering from a harrowing brain injury that’s robbed him of movement on the right-hand side of his body isn’t most people’s idea of a good time. But Melinda and Paul make their own fun. To pass the time, they cast themselves as renowned British mountaineer George Mallory (Paul) in the lead, and faithful Sherpa Tashi (Melinda) carrying the bags. That Paul Pritchard is in fact a renowned British mountaineer himself only made it funnier for Melinda.
“We could just see the absurdity in the whole dynamic really,” she says. “Walking along in the desert for hours and hours, with me loaded up like a donkey, and Paul being stopped by everyone along the trail to be congratulated and fawned over, knowing that history would record this as his great feat. It was so funny. We also made our own country crooners’ act: Shady Breezes and Rocky Outcrop, singing songs of love.”
“It was Sunny Outcrop, darling,” Paul interjects. “Rocky Out-crop sounds like a porn star’s name.”
I ask who was who, and Melinda laughs.
“I think I’m Shady and he’s Sunny,” she says.
The Larapinta Trail traverses the spine of the Tjoritja/West MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory. Magazine describes it as “one of the world’s best long-distance arid-zone walks.” It is divided into twelve sections of various lengths and terrains, winding its way through gorges of pink and blood-red quartzite, dry riverbeds, high mountain ridges and open woodland forests. Temperatures at night can drop below zero, and during the day the heat can be brutal. In April 2022, a
