The Heysen Trail

Beyond the Heysen to Mt Hopeless

2011-04-12T09:13:00.009+09:30

We've now completed our journey from Cape Jervis to Parachilna via the Heysen Trail, and the traverse of the Flinders Ranges from Crystal Brook to Mt Hopeless. You might think nothing more could lie in store on this Heysen theme, but there might just be an idea growing. No, we are certainly not continuing northwards from Mt Hopeless across those plains and deserts.

Read full blog entries:
http://jez-hiking.blogspot.com/search/label/Beyond the Heysen

Graham, Nick, myself (Jeremy) and Simon
at the summit of Mt Painter on our final day of hiking.

Beyond the Heysen

2009-07-25T12:57:00.003+09:30

Spent a week walking from the end of the Heysen Trail at Parachilna Gorge to Angepena Station near the Gammons. The original vision for the Heysen Trail was to continue to the northernmost point of the Flinders Ranges, at Mt Hopeless. We intend to spend another couple of weeks next year reaching this point. View full blog entry.

The Heysen Trail - Complete

2008-08-17T17:11:00.004+09:30

Yesterday I finished the Heysen Trail at Parachilna Gorge - a journey of some 1,200km from Cape Jervis. 64 days of hiking over the past 2 years.

Finished - August 16 2008 - at the end of the Heysen Trail at Parachilna Gorge

It seems a long time ago now, that fateful day when I started - April 30 2006. That morning was cold, I almost didn't bother getting up early.

It didn't go unnoticed today of my first End-to-End 2 weekend back in mid May 2006 when I hurt my knee on my first hike with that group. After six months or so of physio exercises, and lots of hike-bandaging and poles - well, let's just say I've come a long way since then.

It seems so surreal that I have finished the trail now, I can't imagine not doing it anymore. I might walk some days on the trail again with people, it may not be so easily done to untangle oneself from the trail. However I probably won't blog them here.

There may still some unfinished business looming with the Heysen Trail next year though, I'll get back to you on that one later. Secret squirrel.

In the meantime, plenty of hiking awaits elsewhere though, with plans to hike some three weeks in Tassie at the end of the year, not to mention plenty of other hiking around Australia. Keep a watch-out on my Training Camp blog - http://jez-hiking.blogspot.com. Also, got some plans coming to fruition soon to get back on the Mawson Trail - http://jez-mawson.blogspot.com. Next year watch out for a new blog, some travel plans might come to fruition - visit www.jeremyc.com early next year for the web address.

Sunday afternoon, we've already driven home (we left at 6am) and I'm sitting in the lounge room of my house watching the warm sunset colours in the garden. Surely I'm meant to be outside to experience this?

A Final Week on the Trail

2008-08-16T12:00:00.012+09:30

To see the fullness of the trail there's no better way to experience the trail but with a pack and tent.

8 days: Red Range to Parachilna Gorge
Northern Guidebook, Maps 5.5-6.8

Spent the week out on the Heysen Trail, camping and hiking with Graham. We thought we might get away from the big group of End-to-End 2, make our own path for the week. We joined them on the final day's hike into Parachilna Gorge.

Me and Graham at Aroona Hut

On Saturday we drove up and did a scenic flight over the Flinders - taking in where we would be walking over the next 8 days. An amazing view, what a clear understanding we now had of the journey we were about to undertake! A few days later, hiking from Wilpena Pound, Graham waved at random planes who might have Bev on them (as it was their rest day). We thought it wise to stop that though, per chance a plane thought we needed assistance!

Bunyeroo Gorge

What I love about camping on the trail, is being able to witness what I consider some of the best times of day - sunrise and sunset. From Bridle Gap on Wilpena Pound's edge we were witness to not only a spectacular sunset but also the sunrise. However, it was quite cold, overnight temperatures ranged between -1.5C and 0C - but a fire each night kept us warm before bed.

Sunrise from Bridle Gap with Elder Range in the background

Mid week we stayed in backpacker's accommodation at Wilpena, it was nice to have a shower, warm room and bed and a nice pub meal. The following day we detoured slightly to go past Old Wilpena Station, which used to be quite close to the trail, but now, I guess due to money making concerns, the trail gives it a wide berth.

Old Wilpena Station

Of course, water is the biggest issue of this section of trail. When fully loaded so to speak, we were each carrying 4.5kg of water, which to say the least was quite heavy. We had to carry this much water to campsites with no water supply, or on the occasion we chose a random spot to camp. Camp E we called it, beside a creek, the name derived from the E symbol on the profile of that trail map.

Camp E

It was a highlight to receive a gift of Ice Coffee and chips at Aroona Valley on the Friday near the end of the week. We met up with the main group for the first time, which was quite intense after a week on the trail largely by ourselves.

Hilary, bring us Ice Coffee!

Aroona Valley was a special place to me - I had camped here for the first time back in 2007, indeed, only my second time to this area of the Flinders. It's an amazing place, so quiet at the start and end of the day. My hopes for a spectacular sunrise were thwarted by a cloudy sky and fog over the Heysen Range.

Aroona Valley

The first time I came to this part of the Flinders, back in June of 2005, I fell in love with hiking after doing the St Mary Peak loop. Despite a knee injury - a sign of things to come hiking - I was inspired to join a hiking group, which is how I came across the Friends of the Heysen Trail.

The climb up to St Mary peak

The final day we hiked an hour from Aroona Valley and waited at Pigeon Bore for 2 hours for the group. Here we walked the final 13km to the end of the Heysen Trail at Parachilna Gorge. It was quite surreal to watch the distance to the end of the trail decrease on my GPS unit. Walking this day was through quite an unknown area to me, and truly a stunning and fitting end to the trail.

The final few kilometres

Well, some 580 photos later, the week was done as we climbed over the stile marking the end of the Heysen Trail. Nine of us were finishing today - Me, Ralene, Elizabeth, Hilary, Jim, Nikki, Bev, Rhonda & Gavin.

After a ride home from Richard and Nikki via the Parachilna Road, that night we celebrated at The Woolshed restaurant at Rawnsley Park. Various awards were handed out:

Me - the Nelson Mandela Award for dealing with the South African problem
Hilary - the Garmin GPS Award for walking the whole trail without having any idea where she was
Ralene - the Shrinking Violet Award
Bev - the Attracting the Waitress Award for her unique style at Laura
Nikki - Award was for Determination
Rhonda - the Ants in Her Pants Award for her two encounters
Elizabeth - (I can't quite remember)
Jim - (I can't quite remember)
Gavin - the Mathematics Award for genius maths or for producing plausible & convincing answers

And Nikki sang us a special song - Climb ev’ry Mountain (words and music by Rogers and Hammerstein, adapted by Nikki Birrell. With apologies to the Reverend Mother!)

Climb ev’ry mountain,
Hike high and low.
Follow ev’ry trail sign,
Ev’ry path you know.

Climb ev’ry mountain,
Ford ev’ry creek.
Follow all the leaders,
‘Til your legs grow weak.

Climb ev’ry mountain,
You’ll start at the KI ferry.
Somewhere, someday along the way
You’ll be led by a guy named Jerry.

Climb ev’ry mountain,
Descend into Deep Creek.
You’ll think you’ve reached the depths of Hell.
Of this I’ll no more speak.

Climb ev’ry mountain
From Bryan to Mount Brown.
And when you’ve climbed the loftiest peak
You’ll lunch... and then climb down.

Climb ev’ry mountain
Until their names don’t matter.
You’ll meet a group so debonair
They dine off a silver platter.

Climb ev’ry mountain
Meet Jez whose walking pace is a jog.
Beware of what you say or do
Or you’ll end up on his Blog!

Climb ev’ry mountain
With a fifty year old guy called Trevor.
At morning tea, Tim Tams are free
But they stay on your hips forever!

Climb ev’ry mountain
The Gavins, they come in threes.
One has a coach, number two has Christine
And three hammers nails into trees!

Climb ev’ry mountain
With the nuts from the fruit cake committee.
They aim to replace all the fat from your waist –
That you lost on the way. What a pity!

Climb ev’ry mountain
It’ll rain along the way.
The roads are boggy, the kilt gets soggy
But Barry will save the day!

Climb ev’ry mountain
Until your muscles harden
And then you’ll try and try again
Until you’ve climbed MOUNT ARDEN!

Climb ev’ry mountain,
The going will be tough.
With blisters, bunions and broken bones
You’ll know when you’ve had enough.

Climb ev’ry mountain,
And when your legs, they fail
You’ll walk with Tail-end Charlie
Along the Heysen Trail.

A trail that will need
All the strength you can give.
Just one weekend a month
For as long as you live.

Climb ev’ry mountain,
Walk the Heysen Trail.
Sing-a-long with Simon,
Or you’ll end in Gladstone Gaol.

A trail that will need
You to walk with a ‘friend’.
Just one step at a time,
‘Til you reach Flinder’s end.

Climb ev’ry mountain,
Ford ev’ry stream.
Follow ev’ry rainbow
‘Til you find your dream.

I’ve climbed ev’ry mountain
From Cape Jervis by the sea.
I’m over the hill at Parachilna.
So what’s to become of me?

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

The Missing Link

2008-08-03T17:23:00.006+09:30

No, I didn't find ape-to-man fossils in the mud of Mt Crawford. I did the last catch-up hike today, I've now completed the Heysen Trail all the way from Cape Jervis to near Wilpena Pound.

Mt Crawford to Pewsey Vale
Southern Guidebook, Maps 3.9-4.2

Pretty cool stuff today, Wirra Wirra peaks is a real treat. Lots of farmland laneways too which were a bit special. And ruins of a quite large church on an isolated track, cool.

I've now completed 92% of the trail. Soon, the final episode - Red Range campsite (just south of Wilpena) to the end of the trail at Parachilna Gorge - some 92km.

Mt Crawford from Wirra Wirra Peaks

from Wirra Wirra Peaks

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 19.2km
Start time: 10.45am
End time: 2.40pm
Moving duration: 3h 01m
Stationary duration: 18m
Moving average: 6.3km/h
Overall average: 5.8km/h
Max speed: 11.7km/h

The hardest two days on the H-Trail

2008-07-20T20:47:00.003+09:30

Two hard days that Graham, Steve and I caught up - endless creek walking, and very windy ridgetop walking.

Dutchmans Stern to Mt Arden South campsite
to Buckaringa Gorge
Northern Guidebook, Maps 4.2-4.6

Sunrise at the Dutchman Hut

Saturday we set out from Dutchmans Hut. The previous night we had left a car at the end of the two-day hike, and we spent the night in this hut, just a short walk from the carpark in Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park. Very nice hut - electricity and very lean - but I woke up heaps of times that night because of some loud thing banging outside in the wind. Next morning, discovered it was a loose bit of wire holding one of the old doors on the back of the hut closed - damn it, it was so easy to fix. Beautiful sunrise in the east, lightning flashes in the west. But it was dry at that moment, so at 7.15 we set off. Oh my such amazing views.

Despite our heavy packs - complete with tent, cooking stuff, sleeping bags etc - we made it to Eyre Depot by 11.45, had an early lunch in the gorge further on - a much needed break, in the past 17km we had only had one break. The weather was holding off, amazing - cloudy, strangely warm day. The next 11km though took fooooreeever. It took us 4 hours to get to camp, making it there at 4.15, but gosh we were exhausted. The creek was beautiful, but so long. I had set up my GPS by pre-loading the trail onto it, so with amazing accuracy we could always tell by looking at the GPS if we were on the trail and exactly how far it was to the campsite (via the trail, not in a straight line), it was demoralising how slow our progress was. I slipped over at one point and got some lovely grazes, although for all the bandaging they are not very impressive. We went up the waterfall rather than the re-route, nothing huge but thankfully someone had tied a rope from the top to the bottom - otherwise it just wouldn't have been possible. Wouldn't want to do any of this creek in the wet.

After an exhausting walk we found the campsite, thankfully complete with shelter and water. After a nice warm dinner, it was off to bed for an early night.

Made fast progress up to Mt Arden where we were welcomed by the morning sun and an incredible wind. From here it just got madder and madder - the wind just got absolutely crazy. We had no care for the view, it was so much work to put one foot in front of the other to stay on the trail. At some gusty points we had to stop and do this weird crouch thing and prop-up with out poles to ensure we didn't get blown away. It was so funny yet seriously tiring. The end of the ridge couldn't come fast enough.

Made it back to the car at 11.30am, just 4 hours after leaving camp. A brisk walk at the end to avoid the impending rain, as I opened the car boot to put my pack in it started (while Graham and Steve madly tried to clamber over that weird stile on the sanctuary gate). Driving home it rained constantly, and on some roads there was water all over the road and beside it. I looked up the Bureau of Meteorology website and it had rained over 10mm near Snowtown (which is where there was just water everywhere).

Stopped off at Stone Hut bakery on the way home for some lunch with attitude, and Graham for his insolence got an extra helping of attitude.

A good weekend, but easily the toughest any of us have ever done on the trail.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Saturday

Distance: 28.8km
Start time: 7.10am
End time: 4.20pm
Moving duration: 7h 01m
Stationary duration: 2h 32m
Moving average: 4.1km/h
Overall average: 3.0km/h

Sunday

Distance: 14.6km
Start time: 7.30am
End time: 11.20am
Moving duration: 3h 03m
Stationary duration: 45m
Moving average: 4.8km/h
Overall average: 3.8km/h

Confessions

2008-07-13T21:46:00.003+09:30

Uh... couple of confessions to make. Might have missed a couple of very short sections whilst doing some catch-up walks some time ago. All good now though.

So firstly, back on 17 Sept 2006 I walked from Old Burra Road to Worlds End... or so I said. In fact, it's a little complicated to explain, but I was 1.75km short of finishing that walk. I was standing at the top of the hill, looking down at the road where I was meant to end, and frankly I couldn't be bothered walking down there to turn around and walk back up the hill.

Hilary needed to catch-up from Webb Gap to Old Burra Road, so I joined in, and at the end of the walk Leonie walked with me the short distance up to the top of the hill so I could complete my missing piece.

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Secondly, I repeated almost exactly the same scenario on the walk from Curnows Hut to Raeville, back on 6 May 2007. I caught this walk up on Sunday.

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

The Cedars - Hans Heysen

2008-06-29T19:54:00.003+09:30

I had thought a good idea before completing the Heysen Trail in August would be to walk the spur trail from Bridgewater to Hans Heysen's studio - The Cedars - near Hahndorf. The opportunity came up today whilst walking the Pioneer Womens Trail.

Hahndorf spur trail
Southern Guidebook, Map 3.3

I walked the Pioneer Womens Trail today, from Hahndorf to Beaumont, the first section being the spur trail of the Heysen Trail from Hahndorf to the main trail at Bridgewater. On our way we stopped at Hans Heysen's studio - The Cedars, near Hahndorf. It was early, so not yet open. I will return sometime before August to visit the studio and see some of the Heysen works on display there.

View the Pioneer Womens Trail blog entry on my Training Camp blog.

Solstice

2008-06-22T18:01:00.005+09:30

With it being the winter solstice, I camped out at a hut on Saturday night, and the following day hiked the End-to-End 3 hike.

Scotts Shelter to Mt Crawford
Southern Guidebook, Maps 3.8-3.9

As I have been walking the trail, I have been photographing huts and campsites for inclusion as a layer on the Heysen Trail Google Map. There are numerous alternative routes through the Mt Crawford sections of trail, and many camping and hut options. So it seemed easier just to spend a day driving and walking short distances to each one to take the photos.

Photographing huts

The final hut was Rossiters in Pewsey Vale, near Kaiserstuhl Conseration Park. I walked the short distance to the hut, and spent the night there.

Watching the sun set on the shortest day

Marcel's earlier log entry

The End-to-End 3 hike was pleasant, along forest trails and tracks. A good balance of ups and downs and spectacular views. The conservation park was a special treat.

A hike through Mt Crawford forest

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 20.6km
Start time: 9.32am
End time: 2.39pm
Moving duration: 3h 59m
Stationary duration: 1h 06m
Moving average: 5.2km/h
Overall average: 4.0km/h
Max speed: 8.3km/h

84% of Heysen Trail complete

2008-06-15T20:23:00.006+09:30

Just completed 7 days hiking on The Heysen Trail, now just 172km remains before I finish the trail in August of this year.

Buckaringa Gorge to Red Range Campsite

Rain disrupted the first two days, however the next five days went without a hitch:

I now have the following sections to complete:

June 22: Scotts Shelter to Mt Crawford (End-to-End 3)
July 19-20: The Dutchmans Hut to Mt Arden South campsite to Buckaringa Gorge
July 27: Mt Crawford to Pewsey Vale (End-to-End 3)
August 9-17: Red Range Campsite to Parachilna Gorge

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

The Pound is here

2008-06-14T19:03:00.000+09:30

Reached within close sighting distance of Wilpena Pound today. It has been on the horizon for a few days, but now it's immensity is before us.

Mt Little station to Red Range Campsite
Northern Guidebook, Maps 5.3-5.5

Wilpena Pound is a huge landmark for me in completing the Heysen Trail. The Pound is now just one day's walk away, and only 6 days from the end of the trail.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 17.6km + 3km
Odometer: 139km
Start time: 9.40am
End time: 3.53pm
Moving duration: 5h08m
Stationary duration: 2h03m
Moving average: 5.0km/h
Overall average: 3.4km/h
Max speed: 12.7km/h

Lucky Miles

2008-06-13T18:58:00.003+09:30

The spot for today was the rock pools in Wonoka Creek in Mayo Gorge - the filming location for the WA rock pools scenes in the movie Lucky Miles

Old Wonoka to Mt Little station
Northern Guidebook, Maps 5.2-5.3

Mayo Gorge - the filming location of scenes from Lucky Miles

We followed a creek all day, Wonoka Creek. Just 15 months ago the floods near Hawker had seen this creek up to 10 metres deep with raging water - evidenced by the huge trees deposited high up against standing trees and up on the bank. Typical of the Flinders, the creek was wide and flat, but high on the banks you could see just how wide this huge creek would have spread.

We had lunch at Mayo Hut, a great spot to spend the night on a bend of Wonoka Creek. Jerry stretched the start of lunch out so we could reach the hut, however after lunch it was just 1 kilometre of the trail before we left the trail and walked another 1 kilometre out to Mt Little station. Here was another good camping spot, including toilets, showers and a great camp kitchen and shelter.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 15km + 1.7km
Odometer: 118.3km
Start time: 9.16am
End time: 2.34pm
Moving duration: 3h40m
Stationary duration: 1h37m
Moving average: 4.5km/h
Overall average: 3.1km/h
Max speed: 14.8km/h (that was a run btw)

Special places

2008-06-12T18:44:00.003+09:30

There are a few spots along the Heysen Trail that are very special, and this walk is along one of them - Yourabulla Range.

Jarvis Hill to Old Wonoka
Northern Guidebook, Maps 5.1-5.2

View from Yourabilla Range

There are just breathtaking views from the ranges over the Yilson Valley towards the Yappala Range in the west and The Wide Range and Red Range in the east and Wilpena Pound in the north.

Only 9km today, half along the range, half along the plain.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 9.81km
Odometer: 101.6km
Start time: 9.23am
End time: 1.49pm
Moving duration: 2h50m
Stationary duration: 1h34m
Moving average: 3.5km/h
Overall average: 2.2km/h
Max speed: 7.6km/h

The Paranormals

2008-06-11T18:38:00.001+09:30

The Normals, the Abnormals and the Paranormals. Today we had a handicapped start, the Paranormals first, followed by the Normals - the deciders of these names - and finally by the fastest hikers, the so-called Abnormals.

Partacoona Road to Jarvis Hill
Northern Guidebook, Maps 4.8-4.11

Like yesterday, the bus couldn't cross Kanyaka Creek, so two 4WDs ferried us the 6km to the start of today's hike - the end of yesterday's hike. It would be a long day - 26km - so the slowest hikers were ferried first so they could start walking.

Suprisingly, us Paranormals didn't catch the first yet slow group until they stopped 6km down the trail, we never even caught sight of them.

Not a lot to see today, well, the same view all day basically. Lots of marginal grazing land, old and rundown fencing demonstrating just how marginal the land is. A climb at the end of the bus on Jarvis Hill.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 26.8km
Odometer: 91.79km
Start time: 8.58am
End time: 4.10pm
Moving duration: 5h35m
Stationary duration: 1h35m
Moving average: 4.8km/h
Overall average: 3.7km/h
Max speed: 8.9km/h

We really are OCD

2008-06-10T18:30:00.003+09:30

Due to heavy rains the bus could only make it so far to today's end point, so we had to walk 5km past the bus to ensure we walked that section of trail - then had to return that 5km back to the bus.

Buckaringa Gorge to Partacoona Road
Northern Guidebook, Maps 4.6-4.8

Willochra Creek

Buckaringa Gorge was spectacular - huge surreal rockfaces. Willochra Creek was also a treat, flowing of course, so a tricky crossing and a climb up a rickety ladder.

A few falls today, muddy bums and so forth. The bus ride home was also a bit tricky with muddy roads.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 21.5km + 2km
Odometer: 64.99km
Start time: 9.48am
End time: 4.17pm
Moving duration: 4h 33m
Stationary duration: 1h 55m
Moving average: 4.7km/h
Overall average: 3.3km/h
Max speed: 13.4km/h

Most effort for least trail distance covered

2008-06-08T18:11:00.004+09:30

Today the roads were wet. Our first attempt to reach the trail failed, so we made new plans. Having walked 9km to reach the trail, we made it just 450m along the trail before giving up and returning.

Mt Arden attempt
Northern Guidebook, Map 4.5

The climb towards Mt Arden

We had planned to walk from The Dutchmans Stern to Eyre Depot today, but yesterday due to recent heavy rains we changed it to the second planned day, from Eyre Depot to Buckaringa Gorge. This was so we could do the longest, hardest walk of the week before it got any wetter. Unfortunately it was just too wet for the bus on the muddy track, so after driving 17km from Port Augusta down a track towards Eyre Depot, we turned around. We formed a Plan B, go to the Arganells property - a 4WD, mountain biking and hiking property - to access the trail near Mt Arden, then walk to Buckaringa Gorge.

After three hours in the bus to reach that point, we hiked a short distance before having a morning break in the an old girl guides hall that had recently been moved on site.

We then set off through Hammersley Gorge - this area was just beautiful, stunning indeed. However by the time we had actually reached the Heysen Trail, some 9.5km later, we walked just 450m along the trail before giving up. The walk to the trail was ok, it was in sheltered valleys, but now we were to walk on an exposed ridge for the next 8km or so, it was just too windy and cold. We turned around and returned to the bus.

So we had spent 3 hours driving and 6 hours hiking to hike a mere 450m along the trail. Not much colouring in to be down in the trail guide this day.

The rain had got heavier, and the track wetter as we returned to the bus, so Monday's hike was canceled, pending better weather on Tuesday.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 19.3km
Odometer: 24.59km
Start time: 9.46am
End time: 3.41pm
Moving duration: 4h 22m
Stationary duration: 1h 32m
Moving average: 4.4km/h
Overall average: 3.3km/h
Max speed: 14.1km/h

7 days on the trail

2008-06-01T18:11:00.005+09:30

No not me, I had seen Marcel last Sunday on my hike from Cudlee Creek, and 7 days later he had reached Marchalls Hut

Kapunda to Marschalls Hut to near Peters Hill
Southern Guidebook, Maps 5.1-5.3

Sunset from Marshalls Hut

This is my last independent hike on the trail I needed to complete. I now have a week away next week to go from the Dutchmans Hut (near Quorn) to Red Range (near Wilpena), two End-to-End 3 hikes from Scotts Shelter to Mt Crawford and onto Pewsey Vale, then a final week away from Red Range to the end of the trail at Parachilna Gorge. This weekend's hikes were the last bridge hikes to ensure I complete the Heysen Trail at the finish at the end of the trail and not later in the year at some obscure spot near Burra.

It was tough going, normally considered two walks, I did both on Saturday. I left my car near Peters Hill and rode my bike back to Kapunda, hiking back to Marschall Hut, near my car. I stayed there overnight, then Sunday morning hiked the short distance back to my car.

At Marschalls Hut I met Marcel, who has been hiking the entire trail from Cape Jervis since early May. He will continue northwards, completing the trail by July 12. We watched a fantastic sunset from the hut verandah, then we lit a fire inside from the firewood Marcel had collected. Very interesting guy, and good to hear he used the Google Map on the Heysen Trail website I made to work out his hikes and plan where to stay. I look forward to hearing from him when he finishes the trail to see how he went. A bit jealous really, a fantastic way to enjoy the trail.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats - Saturday:

Distance: 35.4km (15.7km + 19.7km)
Start time: 8.14am
End time: 3.34pm

Stats - Sunday:

Distance: 3.6km
Start time: 7.36am
End time: 8.27am
Moving duration: 37m
Stationary duration: 8m
Moving average: 5.7km/h
Overall average: 4.7km/h
Max speed: 8.5km/h

Another day of breahtaking views

2008-05-25T00:00:00.004+09:30

It seems hard to believe there could be so many different breathtaking views in a single day of hiking.

Cudlee Creek to Scotts Shelter
Southern Guidebook, Maps 3.7-3.8

Lots of forest walking today, and endless panoramas. Views are a challenge to capture in a photo, but I snapped a few I thought might look ok.

The view near Cudlee Creek

Today's walk was amazing, however it was interspersed with roads many of us would be familiar with from having driven along them, so it was like seeing something I have seen many times but from an entirely unimagined angle.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 19.1km
Start time: 9.55am
End time: 3.35pm
Moving duration: 4h 21m
Stationary duration: 1h 17m
Moving average: 4.4km/h
Overall average: 3.4km/h
Max speed: 9.5km/h

The moments that take your breath away

2008-05-24T00:00:00.004+09:30

"Life isn't measured in the breaths you take, but in the moments that take your breath away."

Inman Valley to Myponga
Southern Guidebook, Maps 2.3-2.4

That was a quote I read this week, which suited today's walk. I don't know why I didn't expect much, but this walk was quite impressive. The views from Sugarloaf Hill were breathtaking - at first literally as I climbed up the hill, then I looked up to notice this!

View from Sugarloaf Hill

Myponga Conservation Park was equally cool to walk through. I had left my car near Myponga, and rode my bike back to Inman Valley. I really good ride too, flat-steep-undulating-downhill. Got some amazing speeds coming back down.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 12km + 4km
Start time: 9.27am
End time: 1.13pm
Moving duration: 2h 38m
Stationary duration: 1h 0m
Moving average: 4.6km/h
Overall average: 3.3km/h
Max speed: 13.4km/h

OCD of the Heysen Trail variety

2008-05-11T00:00:00.003+09:30

I remember being told when I first starting hiking the trail, "you'll become obsessed with it you know, you'll plan your life around these weekends". Naturally, I didn't believe them, but now, it's what I tell others. They don't mention the highlighters though, the obsessive need to colour in where you have hiked, and to hike every last section of the trail so it can be coloured-in in the map books.

Peters Hill to South Tothill Ranges (Saturday)
South Tothill Ranges to Webb Gap (Sunday)
Southern Guidebook, Maps 5.4-5.7

This was one of those hikes, a catch-up hike, but not one we have missed yet. Put simply, End-to-End 3 will finish at Webb Gap in October, but I want to have hiked the entire trail when I finish at Parachilna Gorge on 16 August this year. So there are a few of the End-to-End 3 hikes I need to have completed prior to August, this being one of them.

It was two years ago, to the weekend, that I started with the End-to-End 2 group on the journey north, from Webb Gap. And it was here, on Sunday, that the gap between the End-to-End 3 group and End-to-End 2 group have been closed. I've got three walks to complete with End-to-End 3, in late May, late June and late July. And I have one walk from Kapunda to Peters Hill, and one final walk down south near Inman Valley - five walks in total I need to complete before August.

The Saturday hike was fairly ordinary, lots of road walking, although we had fun times. Hilary is in the same situation as myself, and the others had missed this walk earlier.

Saturday night we stayed in the caravan park in Riverton, a four-cabin caravan park. We booked all four cabins so the owners must have got the bubbly out on Saturday night. Meanwhile we ate tea at the Riverton Central pub, pretty average food, but a nice warm fire and cold beer.

Sunday morning we were treated to some surreal sights. As we drove across one valley into the next, dense fog filled the further valley and poured over in the one we were in. So cool to see, I have no idea why fog would form so densely in one valley but not the adjacent valley. This was nothing though to what we saw later, in the valley with the fog the sun rose and as it started to break up the fog it revealed a wave of fog dense fog that still lingered over the South Tothill Ranges. As the valley cleared completely of fog, the ranges looked like a wave of fog crashing on the valley floor - the ranges couldn't be seen at all.

During the car shuffle, we left six of the group standing the in fog, in the cold, with the sun still behind the dense fog, as we drove in our heated cars to the end of the walk and back (to leave three cars at the end, and one at the start).

Sunday's hike was quite unlike the previous day's hike, there were no road this time, just fire tracks. It was eerie to hike over and through the South Tothill Ranges in the dense fog, as those in front of us disappeared into the fog. By mid morning from the top of a hill we got the occasional glimpse through the passing fog to the valley below.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Saturday

Distance: 17.6km
Start time: 9.10am
End time: 2.05pm
Moving duration: 3h 23m
Stationary duration: 1h 09m
Moving average: 5.2km/h
Overall average: 3.9km/h
Max speed: 9.4km/h

Sunday

Distance: 17.1km
Start time: 8.30am
End time: 2.00pm
Moving duration: 3h 39m
Stationary duration: 1h 51m
Moving average: 4.7km/h
Overall average: 3.3km/h
Max speed: 10.6km/h

Party Bags

2008-05-04T00:00:00.001+09:30

It was Carol's birthday, so come the morning break on this hike, out came some candles and vanilla slice - the birthday cake substitute (you can hardly carry a cake in your pack) - and party bags! Yep, Veronica brought party bags out for the occasion.

Melrose to Alligator Gorge Road (Saturday)
Alligator Gorge Road to Horrocks Pass (Sunday)
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.1 to 3.5

Hilary piked out of this hike when End-to-End 2 came through, so she needed to catch up on this difficult hike (I did it with End-to-End 2 last August). So she gathered together some friends and somehow convinced me to join as a guide. A spectacular walk, so it wasn't a particularly difficult effort to convince me to join. Hilary's friends - of course - were hilarious. And somehow in the midst of all the hiking and laughter I think we might have convinced three or four of them to join in with the End-to-End 4 group that will start the Heysen Trail from Cape Jervis next year. I say convinced, but I think perhaps it was a case of them just catching the bug.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Saturday

Distance: 22.9km
Start time: 7.50am
End time: 3.10pm
Moving duration: 5h 22m
Stationary duration: 1h 57m
Moving average: 4.3km/h
Overall average: 3.1km/h
Max speed: 7.8km/h

Sunday

Distance: 14.4km
Start time: 8.15am
End time: 11.55am
Moving duration: 2h 47m
Stationary duration: 45m
Moving average: 5.2km/h
Overall average: 4.1km/h
Max speed: 10.7km/h

Walkers Follow Ridge

2008-04-20T00:00:00.005+09:30

I was just thinking how well marked this section of trail was when I got lost. Just a little lost though, looking at my map and interpreting the contour lines I walked on, following the ridge line, soon passing another marker which stated "Walkers Follow Ridge". But sure enough, yup, I soon lost the trail.

Woolshed Flat to Quorn to The Dutchmans Stern
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.8-4.2

Frankly, "Walkers Follow Ridge" sounds easier said than done. I mean, all well and good, but one needs to keep a good lookout for the marker that is going to lead you off the ridge. I found this one, but even though there were now lots of markers to lead me down into Pichi Richi Pass, there weren't quite enough for me (or I was too stupid for how few markers there were?). I soon got lost, the trail indistinguishable from the rocky landscape. Although, a fairly good spot to get lost, lots of distinct landmarks: Pichi Richi Pass on one side, containing a road and railway and a couple of distinct dirt roads, and Devils Peak and Mt Brown beyond. And I had my GPS, true. But lost I got, I knew where I needed to be and figured at some point I would wander across the trail and see it again, which of course I didn't. I found the trail again when it met up with railway.

Pichi Richi Pass with Mt Brown beyond

I was doing a catch-up walk that I missed late last year, when I had been training with Tim for the 50km Trailblazer event. I had 26km to cover, divided into two days. Short hikes. I parked my car in Quorn on Saturday morning, having got up with sun after camping in some random roadside clearing near the entrance to The Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park. Beautiful sunrise, so incredibly red.

Sunrise on The Dutchmans Stern

From Quorn, I cycled back along the bitumen road towards Port Augusta. The night before, while driving to my campsite, I had assessed how this morning ride would go. The last 5km would be almost entirely downhill and the start would be flat, however the middle section would by mildly uphill. Along a country road though, that uphill can seem to last forever. After resting a couple of times when I thought I was still on the flat section - but was in fact on the uphill section - I made it to the downhill section. I was aware that one can't make a very good assessment of hills whilst driving compared to the assessment one makes whilst cycling.

With my bike stored beneath a bridge on the Heysen Trail, I set off on my hike, up the hill to the ridgetop where I would later get a little misled on.

Once I reached the railway, I came across some sheep and lambs that had escaped the adjacent paddock. A tourist train was coming, I could tell this because of the collection of cars and people armed with cameras aimed at the railway that I could see at a distant level crossing. The sheep saw me, and started running away from me, to stop a safe distance and munch on grass again. Inevitably, I would come closer, and they would run on. This wasn't going to go well though, because the people, the cars and road lay ahead and on the right side, and there was a train coming from somewhere behind. Eventually the sheep chose to run onto the railway, where being animals and dumb, they then followed the railway. After much indecision, they left the railway choosing the road as their preferred fate. Of course that didn't last, they soon returned and ran across the railway - indeed back in my direction, evidently I wasn't quite so threatening compared to the other new threats - with a train just metres from them.

The first section of this day’s hike was good, I quite enjoyed the views, and didn’t really mind getting lost, given all the landmarks. The remaining two thirds of the day’s hike was ok, but pretty flat just following the railway. At one point though I came across a sign on a gate warning of bull camels. What did that mean? Later, when I heard sheep chatting away – this isn’t the first time I have seriously thought I heard sheep chatting and it turned out to be people – I came across the said camels. I think the sign mislead me, I was expecting to have to beat off a camel with a stick – hardly an issue though when the camels are being led by a guide and ridden by tourists.

Saturday night I moved campsite to beside the creek, a spot I couldn’t see in the dark the night before. There was no camping permitted inside The Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park – something I had anticipated. Camping is permitted beside the hiking hut, but this normally has no car access. The creek bank was good though, another awesome sunset.

Sunrise on The Dutchmans Stern

Sunday I did the second hike from Quorn to The Dutchmans Stern. Again, the cycling was easy – almost entirely downhill - it was more an issue of braking rather than peddling. The hike only took me two hours to complete, and initially I had planned to incorporate a loop walk around The Dutchmans Stern, but I didn’t feel that great and was eager to get back home early, being a four hour drive back to Adelaide.

With this catch-up hike complete, I now have only 1 more catch-up to do, scheduled with some friends for June. I have another 6 hikes to do to close the gap between Mt Crawford and Webb Gap (near Burra) so I can complete the entire trail at Parachilna Gorge on August 16 this year. I’ve got dates and people scheduled for all these too, except one, which will be easy to do sometime late in May.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Saturday:

Distance: 16.8km
Start time: 9.00am
End time: 12.00pm
Moving duration: 3h 20m
Stationary duration: 35m
Moving average: 5.0km/h
Overall average: 4.3km/h
Max speed: 11.3km/h

Sunday:

Distance: 9.1km
Start time: 8.00am
End time: 10.10am
Moving duration: 1h 47m
Stationary duration: 22m
Moving average: 5.1km/h
Overall average: 4.2km/h
Max speed: 10.0km/h

Exactly how long is the Heysen Trail?

2008-04-17T23:07:00.001+09:30

Estimates vary as to exactly how long the Heysen Trail actually is, although it is generally accepted that the trail is approximately 1,200km long. Is this really a good assumption to make though in calculating my percentage done and remaining?

This blog entry is tediously boring if you don't care how long the trail is. Really, what is the difference between whether it is 1,110km long or 1,200km long? Whichever it is, I and many others will walk the entire thing regardless. Don't say I didn't warn you... (although there is a short story about how someone walked 208 miles all the while measuring the distance with a short chain).

I've been keeping a tally of how much of the trail I have walked thus far - 740km, and have been regularly comparing this to the total trail length to see how much of a percentage I have achieved, and how much of a percentage I have left. I've accepted it as 1,200km, however now as I near the end, I don't want to have 10% still remaining on my last walk, only to discover 20km later at the trail head that the trail is shorter than 1,200km, or indeed longer!

Some sources claim the trail is 1,500km long - noted though only a few sources, few of which can be considered reliable. Some state this as the total distance including hills, ie the total steps taken - but this is simply not how you measure distances. Distances are measured from point A to point B via the given path assuming the land is dead flat.

The official guidebooks (published by the government Department for Environment and Heritage) give the distance each chapter covers, and this figure totals between 1,074km and 1,089km. Quite a bit smaller than the 1,200km they claim elsewhere in the introductions to the two guidebooks. However, I noted that some chapter estimates seem too low, particularly the last few chapters of the second guidebook.

There are spur trails and alternate routes along some sections of the trail and some people have used this to explain the disparity in the trail lengths.

John Chapman (www.john.chapman.name/sa-heys.html) seems to have devoted quite some time to determining how long the trail is, deciding the trail is 1,144km long. He refers to two articles that appeared in the Friends of the Heysen Trail magazine and the Adelaide Bushwalkers' magazine that stated the trail to be 1,060km long (the claim isn't referenced with magazine issues/dates). He arrived at 1,144km by using two potentially reliable sources for 2/3 of the trail, and measuring the remaining 1/3 using maps. Assuming the two sources are reliable, the method for the remaining 1/3 will not have been as accurate. However, it does seem to indicate that the 1,200km figure is inflated.

I do have access to a GPS survey, apparently undertaken in 2000 by some university students surveying the entire trail. This file, infinitely more accurate than other sources, measures the trail as 1,175km in length, including spur trails and alternate routes. Using this data, the spur trails and alternate routes total 65km, so depending on which of the alternate routes you use (I favoured the ones I walked) this gives the total trail length as 1,110km. It should be noted though, that there have been numerous re-routes of the trail since 2000, although I would largely expect that in the give and take they would more or less equal out.

It seems very reasonable to me to use this 1,110km figure as the length. I had one further check to make to confirm it's reliability. I had determined that to date (23 April 2008), I had walked 740km of the trail. The figures used to calculate this come from my own GPS unit distances from each walk, and before August 2007, other people's GPS unit distances. With other people's GPS distances, I've tried to keep this as true as possible by rounding both down and up (within 0.5km) to try and keep an accurate overall figure.

Using the GPS survey, I calculated the length of my remaining walks - which amounted to 369km. Hesitantly, I did some sums: 1,110km minus 369km would equal the amount already walked, which in this sum was 741km - just 1 kilometre off my accumulated total of what I have walked. I was quite pleased that the sums added up so well - at first glance this double-check confirms the 1,110km length from the GPS survey. It does use 33% of that same GPS survey (ie the bit of the trail not yet walked) in the proof sums so probably can't be used as definitive proof, but I hope that as I walk the estimated remaining 369km, my own GPS unit will confirm this figure - hopefully to be 1,110km, plus or minus 1%? Which would be 1,099km to 1,121km. I'll report back in August this year my findings (if I still care). Of course, as already noted, re-routes might affect the overall trail length within a small percentage.

In the meantime though, and without going to the length Richard Norwood went to in 1633 to determine the size of the earth (he spent two years walking the 208 miles between London and York, all the while measuring with a short length of chain), I can use 1,110km figure to calculate my trail percentages, and hopefully not have to make any adjustments to that percentage as I near the end of the trail. I'm quite looking forward to getting into the nineties percentage points! So to date, I have completed 66% of the trail.

Note: the original GPS survey file is 17MB, so I can't offer it up here for cross-examination. It has however formed the basis of the KML file used in the Google Maps on the Friends of the Heysen Trail website.

"At least I would die happy"

2008-03-24T00:00:00.000+10:30

So said Kate as we discussed the way our heavy packs increased our chances of falling down the steep sides of the trail through Deep Creek. She was carrying all the snacks, including the lollies and chocolate, so, in her words, at least she would die happy if she fell.

Hiking 4 days along the Heysen Trail on the South Coast

I have hiked almost all this section before except a short 2km section I needed to do as a catch-up. Read the full blog entry on my Training Camp blog.

A Bloody Hot Walk

2007-12-02T00:00:00.006+10:30

Bloody hot walk. But we bridged the gap between Mt Crawford Forest and Kapunda, via the Barossa Valley

2 hikes: Pewsey Vale to near Greenock and onwards to Kapunda
Southern Guidebook, Maps 4.2-4.7

Today we did a catch-up walk, or a walk we are yet to miss. Thing is, both Hilary and myself plan to finish the Heysen Trail on August 16 this year at the trailhead at Parachilna Gorge. To do this, we have a few of the End-to-End 3 walks that we need to walk before they do, to ensure we finish the trail at Parachilna Gorge and not late next year at Webb Gap (near Burra). So we have 9 walks to bridge, between where End-to-End 3 finished last year, and where they will finish next year. 3 we will do with End-to-End 3 as scheduled, in May, June and July. The next 3 we did over 2 walks, as detailed here, to Kapunda. I then have to walk from Kapunda to Peters Hill, and then we will join Bev to walk 2 days from Peters Hill to Webb Gap in early May.

So we did these two walks. Although the Heysen Trail is closed, the first walk, and most of the second walk, are open year round because they are in forests, conservation parks or on public roads. We had double checked this with the Department for Environment and Heritage before setting out, but between Boundary Road, just beyond Greenock, and Hankel Creek Road near Kapunda, the trail is definitely over farmland. They might be road reserves, but very much not roads. But we had checked with the DEH and positioned our cars before this became clear.

It was a bloody bloody hot weekend, Saturday was high 30's, and much of the walk was in open sun. The road walking beyond Tanunda was especially harsh with no shade whatsoever. As a result, we set out very early for our Sunday hike, finishing before lunch.

We hiked from the forests of Mt Crawford, over into the spendourly green Baroosa Valley, through the valley into the historic mining town of Kapunda.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:
Saturday

Distance: 24.9km
Start time: 9.17am
End time: 2.55pm
Moving duration: 4h 26m
Stationary duration: 1h 11m
Moving average: 5.6km/h
Overall average: 4.4km/h

Sunday

Distance: 21.5km
Start time: 6.56am
End time: 11.38am
Duration: 4h 41m
Overall average: 4.6km/h

Head in the Clouds

2007-10-28T20:10:00.000+10:30

I'm not sure I noticed much of where we walked today, I was busy talking, except to say that we followed windy ridges, and winding tracks through forests.

Montacute Heights to Cudlee Creek
Southern Guidebook, Maps 3.5-3.7

One of the nice country-gardens in the valley near Cudlee Creek

The change to daylight saving is always a good thing - bring on summer! However, when it coincides with a Sunday hike, maybe not such good timing? Getting up very early after being out last night... mmm... that extra hour of sleep would have been nice...

Yesterday it was 30+ degrees, but with a late change today was cool, overcast and very very windy. Ideal for walking along ridges? Mmm, no. But then we soon descended into a valley, and the rest of the day was fairly sheltered, although the wind occasionally blew strong to remind us of it's presence.

It was the last walk of the hiking season, the Fire Danger Season having been brought forward this year.

View photos as full screen slideshow

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 16.5km
Start time: 9.57am
End time: 2.30pm
Moving duration: 3h 22m
Stationary duration: 1h 08m
Moving average: 4.9km/h
Overall average: 3.6km/h

Quorn to Dutchman's Stern

2007-10-14T20:40:00.001+09:30

Meh... I was pretty sore from training for the Trailblazer the previous day.

I'll catch up this weekend walk next year.

Woolshed Flat to Quorn

2007-10-13T20:37:00.001+09:30

Meh... I missed it, I was training for the Trailblazer.

Hey! You! You weren't at the start!

2007-09-23T00:00:00.000+09:30

I took a major shortcut today, avoiding some 13km. Aah, whatever, I just hiked for 5 days, I deserve a shortcut. Plenty of people caught me out, looking rather fresh while they were hot and tired.

Cleland to Montacute Heights
Southern Guidebook, Maps 3.4-3.5

I came back yesterday from hiking the Great Ocean Walk in Victoria, 5 days and 93km. I have an almost-healed blister on my heel, and the bit I short-cutted today I have already done, and will do much more with the upcoming 50km Trailblazer Challenge. So I felt justified in meeting everyone at Norton Summmit, when they had started 13km earlier at Cleland, the finishing point of our last End-to-End 3 hike.

Over the course of the following 15km, people noticed my rather fresh presence, directing various levels of angst against me as we approached the end of the 28km hike. End-to-End 3 has only broken the 20km mark a couple of times in its 12-walks history, so there was plenty of people whinging and moaning. It didn't feel that hard to me, lol. Did anyone care that I thought I would be hiking about 8km? Nope, although my heel blister was well protected, and wasn't aggravated by the extra kms.

We had lunch at the Morialta Barns, something I had skipped when doing the Yurrebilla Trail a little while ago. Took some cool photos here, but didn't take any others for the day.

Finished late today, about 5pm. Warm day, was good. Just for the record, I'm sure I would have loved the full 28km distance anyway, long hiking is cool.

View photos as full screen slideshow

Some cool photos that Robert took can be viewed here.

#Google map feature not compatible with your browser or reader#

Stats:

Distance: 15km
Moving duration: 3h 06m
Stationary duration: 1h 17m
Moving average: 4.9km/h
Overall average: 3.4km/h
Max speed: 31.6km/h ??

Robyn's Tail-End Charlie duty

2007-09-09T00:00:00.000+09:30

Just a few hundred metres before the cars, we assigned Robyn the honourary position of Tail-End Charlie. It was tough, she had to deal with people threatening to jump off bridges and people tripping.

Mt Brown Creek to Woolshed Flat
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.7-3.8

Robyn finished the Heysen Trail with this hike. She had joined the End-to-End 1 group in Quorn back in 2005, as they headed northwards to the end of the Heysen Trail. So as we neared the end of today's hike, we assigned her the position of Tail-End Charlie - the person who ensures no-on is left behind. As we walked under the road bridge near the cars, Tony and Dawn joined us to cheer Robyn on.

Thinking perhaps someone might challenge her achievement - you know who you are - in regards to an incident that took place beyond Burra, when after following a fence along treeless hills, up and down, we found ourselves in a valley where we had to hike up a hill, turn 90 degrees and return down the hill. A few of us, including myself, Robyn and George Adams, decided to shortcut along a creek, thereby avoiding this seemingly pointless hill. That night, George was given such a hard time about it, that in the following days he drove back out there, and climbed up this hill. So, back to today, Robyn was prepared for someone - we know who we are - to challenge her on this. So pulled out her scissors, and just nipped off one of the corners of her certificate.

I really enjoyed today's hike, it was one of the best I've had this year. The day started with a 3km hike from the cars, parked near a homestead (by the gracious permission of the owner), to where we left the Heysen Trail the previous day. It was quite warm, but we had a quick shower of rain. Hiking towards the ominous Mt Brown, we came across a farmer and his family at a shed adjacent the trail. He'd been tipped off that we would be passing by, we had a plaque to erect adjacent a water tank that had been paid for by the End-to-End 1 group. Apparently, during that hike in May of 2005, David Beaton had come across this farmer working hard at erecting a shed. After some interrogation (as the farmer put it), it was agreed that when the shed was complete a tank could be installed that would serve the needs of the farmer, the CFS and hikers. So today we presented the plaque. To Bill's disappointment, it was not to be mounted today, that would wait until the farmer had erected a new fence. Bill didn't need to carry that cordless drill today after all...

Hiking up Mt Brown was a challenge, not the least because we wandered a little off the trail. It was steep, but the views though were the best I have ever seen on the Heysen Trail - stunning!

Lunch at the summit was well deserved. Bill and I set off with my new GPS unit to find a geocache, which we didn't find with the GPS at all, but with Bill's instinct (url cache details and comments).

Hiking back down from Mt Brown we followed in the dust trail Graham left, glimpsing his shadow in the far distance when we rounded corners. The hike down was easy, the gradient and track was very different to the hike up from the south side - it was gentle gradients, zig-zagging down (or up?), and the track was clearly marked with signs every 200 metres.

The last 6kms or so was following Waukarie Creek back to Woolshed Flat. Very pleasant.

I tried a new technique with my GPS unit, fixing it to the top of my pack, so it was lying flat. Apparently it has superior reception like this (the same way you would hold it to read it), and indeed the map tracking was flawless today.

And on a personal note, these blog enties will probably take a little longer to appear in future, I resigned from my job today, taking up a new job with the marketing company Adcorp - promising to be much busier!

View photos as full page slideshow

#Feature not compatible with your browser#

More detailed stats now with my GPS unit.

Stats:

Distance: 19.9km
Moving average: 4.4km/h
Moving duration: 4h 35m
Stationary duration: 2h 44m

Bed at 5 minutes to 8

2007-09-08T00:00:00.000+09:30

It must have been a tough day. Everyone had left the pub by 5 minutes to 8, most heading straight off to bed.

Horrocks Pass to Mt Brown Creek
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.5-3.7

We had a couple of newbies, Hayden and Michelle from Roxby. I think they really enjoyed it, but it was a lot tougher than I think most of us thought it would be. Up and down hills, some really good views, mostly following a fire track and fence. Blisters and knee problems finished Hayden and Michelle off though, perhaps they'll come back for next month? It's relatively close to home (nothing much is close to Roxby Downs...).

We came across a visitor's book near the top of Cudmore Hill, and found the entry that End-to-End 1 had left whilst passing by in 2005.

I tried out my new GPS unit today, but when I downloaded the maps later back at the Backpackers in Quorn, there were two significant areas of about 3km each where the GPS had difficulty tracking, resulting in a crazy almost random seeming map.

We finished back at the cars late in the day, so were treated to some very warm sunset lighting. The end of today's hike was inaccessible by car, but the owners of the Broadview property had graciously allowed us to park on their property, but we still had to hike 3km off of the trail to our cars.

We were based in Quorn this weekend, many of us electing to stay at Andu Backpacker's Lodge, an old converted hospital. About 60 beds, and 3 showers... mmm... Basic but comfortable. We were all awoken (as was the rest of the town) at 5.10am by a 5 minute blast of the fire siren - very loud - with the associated sound of people, trucks and water pumps.

Tea at the Austral pub (one of Quorn's 5 pubs?) was ok, meals were smallish, especially after our big hike. We had to preorder our meals in the morning, and obviously that extended to dessert too, because we didn't pre-order that and they ran out of ice cream. Ice cream is so hard to keep... we enjoyed some wine care of Tony and Robyn, celebrating Robyn's impending completion of the Heysen Trail tomorrow.

View photos in full screen slideshow

#Feature not compatible with your browser#

More detailed stats now with my GPS unit.

Stats:

Distance: 19.8km
Moving average: 4.4km/h
Moving duration: 4h 30m
Stationary duration: 2h 20m

Please Miss, when can I finish?

2007-09-02T21:34:00.001+09:30

When can I finish this stupid trail so I can travel the world? Morroco beckons... a moment of frustration when viewing friends OS photos - and they are still over there! I think I have more friends OS than I do here... China, Scotland, UK, Canada... the list goes on.

Teacher Graham's Rules & Regulations

2007-08-26T00:00:00.000+09:30

Today's fast group was led by teacher Graham. He set a fast pace, awarding negative and positive points as we went, but by what rules were these points being awarded?

Mylor to Cleland
Southern Guidebook, Maps 3.2-3.4

Graham led his first walk at an amazing pace. After an hour's hiking we brought to his attention the silence that had descended upon the group. We were all getting tired hiking so fast! Even though Hilary was punished with having to write out lines, she was later awarded positive points! Did I get any? No! We awarded him 2.5 strikes for leading us astray two and a half times... seriously though, he's a natural. He promises to specify the rules & regs in future...

It was a surprisingly good hike, looking at the map it was through residential areas, much of it along roads. But there was little road walking, along most roads there were trails following parallel to the roads, although seemingly far from the road. So we were treated to many special little places.

Some intriging history stuff today, or so I found out after google'ing it later. The photo below shows a tunnel under a main railway. So what, you say? Notice the steel pipe at the top of the photo just beyond the tunnel, and stonework beyond that (top left of photo). That steel pipe - it's cast iron from the 1880's, and with the stone abutment, formed part of a large bridge that crossed Cox Creek, I think it was "filled-in" in the 1920's. Compare to the photo from 1885, see? I presume the method of building up an earth embankment beneath a 4-span bridge that needed strengthening would result in very little disruption and cost compared to building a new bridge and associated earthworks beside an existing bridge. Once the earth embankment was built up to within a metre or so of the bottom of the bridge span, the span could be removed and the rest of the earth built up and the tracks relaid, presumably very quickly.

The photo below shows the millrace that fed water from the dam on Cox Creek to the Bridgewater Mill. The millrace is immediately to the right of the path, in the form a concrete culvert (but not clear in photo, I just thought it was a gutter). Of course the millrace had to be on a slight incline, and obviously involved lots of earthworks in it's construction. Apparently (thanks Google), there was a village further upstream, but the mill was built downstream. The Mt Barker road was re-routed in the 1850's through what is now Bridgewater so a town grew there instead. The Mill built a new dam in 1870, but within a year the dam wall collapsed and washed away the village. More info.

The hike to the summit was tough, ascending some 200 metres in a short distance, but it felt good to reach such a milestone - from Cape Jervis in April last year to the landmark of Mt Lofty now.

I was eager to get a cover shot for the next Trailwalker mag, so I subjected people to various photos which will tee up End-to-End 3 reaching Mt Lofty Summit with the recent Sea to Summit hike.

Michele brought along an old school friend, Ros, and her daughter Jo, who are visiting from Scotland. Ros was particularly concerned about today's hike - it's toughness and length. I'm don't think Michele had been entirely honest with her about the length of the hike, gradually easing her into the idea over the week. As it turned out, the hike was only 16.5km, not the 19km it purported to be. And both really enjoyed the hike, despite the warm weather.

#Feature not compatible with your browser#

Distance: 16.5km
Hike duration: 5 hours
Weather: 25 degrees, clear

Spectacular Views

2007-08-12T00:00:00.000+09:30

Alligator Gorge Road to Horrocks Pass
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.3-3.5

Spectacular views from the top of the unofficially named Lavender Peak. Named in honour of Terry Lavender, architect of the Heysen Trail. The Friends of the Heysen Trail applied to the Geographic Board to have it named so, but apparently current practice is not to name features after people. There was a cairn there, so people added some rocks.

Some bush-bashing out, we headed down the steep hill to Stony Creek Camp. From here, the spectacular finished, we exited Mt Remarkable National Park. My knee was quite sore, so I was glad of the flat terrain.

We hiked along a fire track beside a pleasant creek, then followed a bitumen road and some other road reserves. Near our lunch stop we could see Horrock's Pass in the distance.

The last 4km was following the bitumen road through Horrocks Pass. Not very interesting, walking on bitumen roads, but apparently the last bitumen road walking. Cant overstate how good that would be!

Distance: 14km
Hike time: 10am (??) to 2pm
Clear, but cool, 15 degrees maybe

View map in full screen mode

The End

2007-08-11T00:00:00.000+09:30

Melrose to Alligator Gorge Road
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.1-3.3

No, not my end. Lyn and Helen finished the Heysen Trail today. Previously it has also been the end of people hiking the Heysen Trail - meaning it was so tough they gave up. Also, my end of the Heysen Trail is now in sight, with a detailed itinerary released today for next year's two weeks away, so I will finish the trail in August (2008).

It was a tough hike, harder than the Sea-to-Summit hike of a few weeks ago, climbing up to the summit of Mt Remarkable, then on to the road that leads into Alligator Gorge. The hike to the summit wasn't hard, 7km long but gently winding it's way up, but the 16km after that was tough!

Lyn marks the final section off on her map

Also, the end of the trail is now in sight for me. I was to have completed 50.25% (let's call it 50%!) of the Heysen Trail after tomorrow's hike. But I was told the Heysen Trail was 1,197km long when last officially measured (re-routes would have varied that a little, give and take) around 2000 or so. I thought it was last officially measured at 1,144km... so this weekend I was to hike from 47% to 50% complete... but now with that new info, after Sunday's hike it would be just 48% complete. That may not sound too close to the end, but it is now just 1 year until I will complete the trail. Jerry handed around a detailed itinerary for our two weeks away next year (2008), one week's hiking in June, and another in August. So with the rest of the scheduled hikes for this year, a few extras, and the End-to-End 3 hikes between April and August, I will finish the Heysen Trail at Parachilna Gorge in August. Yay! That's not really so far away, heh?

As today was a long, tough hike, we started at 7am from Melrose, opting to get the bus to return us to Melrose at the end of the day. As it was, the 23km took us until 4.30pm to complete. I enjoyed starting early, we got to enjoy those few wonderful hours in the morning as the sun rose, with superb photos of Mt Remarkable and views over Melrose on the hike up to the summit. I needed to get a cover photo for the upcoming Trailwalker, so I took lots of portrait shaped photos on the hike up to the summit. Maybe I have something. I should really think more about these things in the three months leading up to each Trailwalker.

We walked across a few areas of screed, a nice word for rock fall really. Huge areas had succumbed to rock falls, but were relatively stable - if you can believe it - when a path had been flattened out across it. On one particularly large area, the sound underfoot was unsettlingly hollow. I stepped just off the edge of the flattened path to take a potential Trailwalker cover photo, and oh my goodness, it was very unstable just off the path. It's a wonder that the path is safe. It was in this section we also saw the remains of a light aircraft that had crashed on the mountain in heavy fog whilst descending to Port Pirie from Broken Hill. Everyone was so callous, they didn't even check the wreckage for survivors! What if this crash had happened just last night? Of course it hadn't, the wreckage has been there since the 1970's. I gather that the plane wreckage has been slowly moving it's way down this rock slide, breaking up more and more over time.

There were some very steep sections after the summit, one down a sharp valley and back up the other side. Magnificent views along Spring Creek through Webbs Cutting.

People had left their marks on the water tank at the Summit Camp, but at Grays Hut we found much older marks. There on one of the few remains of the original hut, on the stone chimney, people had scratched their names. Grays Hut is very new and clean, with a nice outside area.

Nearing the end of the hike, we faced this incredible hill, but were relieved to hear we didn't need to climb all the way to the top! Several kilometres on, at the road to Alligator Gorge, Lyn and Helen finished the trail. We had to hike a further one kilometre up the road to meet the bus, but were elated at the sight of the bus coming down the road. Apparently the driver thought it was too steep for the bus, but came out anyway! The next morning we got to see how steep it was when were driven back to our end spot for that day's hike, as the bus slowly laboured up the hills.

Read another's account (a Tale of Adventure, Exhaustion and Sheep) of hiking to the summit and beyond.

Distance: 23km
Hike time: 7.20am to 4.20pm
Clear, 25 degrees (maybe)

View map in full screen mode

Up the Creek

2007-07-22T00:00:00.000+09:30

Dashwood Gully Road to Mylor
Southern Guidebook, Maps 2.10-3.2

I missed out on the fast group this time, I was about 3 people onto the second bus - bummer! Hilary knew that myself and a couple of others would be suffering for missing out on the first bus, and hence hiking in the fast group. But as the first hiking group of the second bus (there were two buses, 2 hiking groups on each bus) though we overtook the second group of the first bus (are you following this, we went from 3rd position to 4th position) by morning tea. A few of us plotted how to reach and overtake the 1st group - the fast group. We didn't think it likely, but inadvertently we did it! It took us quite by surprise! The fast group had ducked off on a short seven hundred metre spur trail to Rocky Hut for their morning snack. Meanwhile, we snuck past them! We didn't keep the lead, but I did defect from my group to the fast one.

Some interesting discussions about teachers returning to their first day of school term tomorrow - the students teachers were looking forward to seeing again and those they feared - and discussions about the Kokoda Track. I didn't want to join the hike cos it seems like such a tough trek, but Simon had an excellent point, we have that idea primarily because of firstly the soldiers, almost legendary, and secondly because it gets so much publicity from people who hike it but who aren't hikers. They just aren't used to hiking. Sure, it's tropical, that can be difficult for us southern Australians, it's no walk in the park, but the days are relatively short, and being tropical the pack loads relatively light. So now if I could just convince myself to spend to $4,000 I'm there. But then... my car broke down this morning and I already know it needs at least $1,000 spent on it... puts a dent in my savings so maybe no Kokoda Track for me. I'm not trying to convince you - I'm trying to convince myself (do I want to go? Do I not? Spend $4,000 on this adventure of another?)

So today's hike? Mmm. We bid farewell to Kuitpo Forest, and Mt Lofty summit looms closer - near the end of the next month's hike. Jupiter Creek was cool, the Heysen Trail passes through an old mining tunnel, that's pretty cool. You need a torch, a mobile phone doesn't suffice. Trust me, I tried. But I have been through it before, in April this year, and the Jupiter Creek Diggings in general, you can read about it here.

You might wonder why I named this blog entry "Up the Creek"... well, basically when I walked around here back in March, I marked it in my Southern Guidebook on the relevant map. When someone saw it today, my messy hand writing being what it is, they read "Jupiter Creek" as "Up the Creek". Fair enough I s'pose.

Distance: 21km
Hike Time: I have no idea (time's not my thing)

Note added on August 7: if you'd like to read a fellow hiker & blogger's account of a remarkably similar hike... visit Hiking Sticks

View map in full screen mode

No-one could eat that steak?!?

2007-07-18T17:00:00.000+09:30

Here is some photos Hilary sent me. It should be noted that she did not eat all her steak, indeed she barely touched it... wasting resources just harms the environment... tsk tsk. Although Hilary would allege it was me who wouldn't share (I didn't order it!)

Yes, the plate is a full 30cm plate, which makes the steak about 'this big' (holding out hands at arms length...)

Melrose welcomes the cyclists and hikers

I look retarded, but apparently the incident at the time got the thumbs up

Fame and fortune, author photographed with the celebrities (who are still awaiting their fortune)

Check out the cover of this little book

New Blog for 'Off the Trail' Hikes

2007-07-18T16:55:00.000+09:30

I've decided to put all my Off the Trail experiences onto a separate blog, to ensure this blog remains dedicated just to The Heysen Trail. I expect to be doing some extra hiking now off the Trail, here and interstate. I guess it shows a transition that has taken place for me, from just hiking the Heysen Trail to now exploring hiking trails elsewhere too.

New blog link: http://jez-hiking.blogspot.com/

Robyn's Three Hour Walk

2007-07-08T00:00:00.000+09:30

Murray Town to Melrose
Northern Guidebook, Maps 2.9-2.11

Robyn had other plans today, so she came up early on Friday and did this hike. It took her just three hours. At the end of the hike it started raining and she only had to run a very short distance to make it to the cover of a shopfront in the main street of Melrose. Groups take longer than one person to hike a distance, but even still, we thought this would be a short walk. But as it turned out, on the Saturday when we parked the cars at the end of Saturday's hike, to hike back to them, she discovered she had started at the wrong spot - about 4-5km north, at a point that was earlier planned to be the start of the hike. So although our hike would be short today, it wasn't going to be super short.

We've been seeing Mt Remarkable looming in the distance now for the past six hikes, today we hiked to it's base. It rises very dramatically against the plains that surround the eastern and southern sides of it.

At the end of the day we missed a trail marker when hiking into Melrose, following the map instead, missing out on passing this wonderful old building in a back street.

Distance: 17km
Terrain: Mostly flat, mostly roads, some farmlands
Hiking time: 4 hours something approx

Ruined Houses and Old Road Reserves

2007-07-07T00:00:00.000+09:30

Block Nine Road (Wirrabara Forest) to Murray Town
Northern Guidebook, Maps 2.7-2.9

Today we bid farewell to Wirrabara Forest, heading up and out of the valley and across the plains towards the dramatic backdrop of Mt Remarkable.

Lots of old road reserves and ruins today - roads set out close together with small blocks. Extracts from a monument at the long defunct Murphy Town explain it well:

The widespread surveying of Homestead Leases or Workingman's Blocks took place during the 1880's and 1890's to increase the population of rural areas and assist workers to provide for their families. Most blocks were about 20 acres and many were spread throughout the district. More than 100 blocks were surveyed...

The purpose of the Blocks was to provide enough land to enable working men to grow fruit and vegetables, some grain crops, keep a cow or two and some poultry...

However, by the 1930's a combination of factors had brought about the demise of these Workingmen's communities. The spread of the rail system enabled the distribution of fruit from earlier ripening irrigation areas into the district and increased mechanisation of farming caused the loss of a large part of the casual labour market. So the Blockers and their families moved elsewhere to find work.

What was interesting about the homes was that they were clearly all built a long time ago and abandoned at a similar time, left untouched since. There was a high incidence of ruins which indicated that the rear of the house, that being the lean-to flat-roofed section, was build first, the front wall of the house consisting of a central door and no windows. This would have been to allow the construction of the more formal front two rooms of the house later, with a gabled or hip roof and verandah. It expresses the hope and dreams the settlers placed in their land, and that the land failed to meet these expectations.

Robyn carried her umbrella today, after Leonie introduced her "hiking" umbrella last month. She didn't need it, it only rained a few brief moments. Jerry confiscated it at one point, after a light shower had started. Tut tut. The Walk Leader with an umbrella... this should be reported to the higher hiking authorities...

Distance: 17km
Terrain: Mostly roads, mostly flat/undulating
Hiking time: Approx 5 hours

Ocean Over the Sand Dunes?

2007-06-24T20:16:00.000+09:30

Kyeema Conservation Park to Dashwood Gully Road
Southern Guidebook, Maps 2.8-2.10

Lots of forest today. Or perhaps more accurately, what was once forest. Now people live in that forest, sleep on it, and put their trail marker signs on it. What I mean is felled forests, the timber long gone and made into building materials and products, all that was left were some stumps, a few areas of fresh plantings, and lots of sandy tracks. Climbing a couple of undulations - yes undulations, not hills - it was so sandy it felt like we would reach the top and see the ocean and smell the salt air. Alas, no ocean to be seen.

We saw forest too, the living variety rather than the cleared. Today we mainly followed tracks through the forests. We did see a hot dog stand. Seriously. Out there in the boonies, amongst the forest trees, on a wide track. Yep. Oh, but to be more accurate, there were many campers around it, and horses, cars, horse floats and so forth. A weekend horse riding event of some sort.

I've graduated to the fast group. I think my friends in the second group are upset. I don't think they will accept me back now. I've never walked in the fastest group in End-to-End 3 before, I don't know why particularly, just that I didn't during 2006, so I didn't think to in 2007. But of course, now I well know, without any knee probs and with improved hiking and general fitness, fast is my style. Just to let you guys on the outer in, with 100ish people on this walk - indeed 120 today - this allows for that 120 to be divided into 4-5 smaller manageable groups. They all set off at different times, so they can stay separate. So obviously, a fast group is sent forth first. Today, we had about 15 in our group, and we set a good pace. But it was an easy walk, 19.5km, with almost no hills whatsoever. Seriously, a couple of mild undulations, but not hills. We were done by 1.45pm.

Distance: 19.5km
Time: 4.5 hours or thereabouts
Gradient: flat
Terrain: mostly tracks, some sandy

The Lavender Federation Trail

2007-06-19T09:12:00.000+09:30

Just a 15km hike, pretty flat, not very interesting, a few tracks. Well, that's what we were led to believe. Perhaps George Adams was trying out some reverse psychology. Yes, it was pretty flat, yes, it was only 15km, yes, it was predominately tracks, but no, it wasn't boring.

Check out this blog entry on my
Lavender Federation Trail blog.

Re-created, the photo from the front cover of the offical map

Know Your ABC's?

2007-06-11T00:00:00.000+09:30

Wirrabara Forest (old nursery) to Block Nine Road
Northern Guidebook, Maps 2.6-2.7

Do you know your abc's? I don't wish to name names (obviously), but some of us don't seem to. Each map of the guidebook shows a gradient profile along with the map, with alphabet letters to mark ridges and troughs. "No, no, surely we are here, at 'H'." No, no, no - ever so hopeful. 'H' marked the top of today's highest peak. We were only, well barely, at 'E'. Which left 'F' and 'G' still to pass, yet alone the long climb to 'H'. Then of course, there was the discussion about 'H' being the last hill. Well yes, kinda, the last significant hill would be more accurate. We still had to change maps, with numerous small hills - or undulations shall we say - before we made it to the next map, and yet another 'H' marking another peak. Although, I must say, this was, yet again, another long hill. A nice climb though, off of the ridge fire tracks we had been following for the past several days, and along a single file trail passing beside a creek. We had already had some rain, along the long ridge in the early arvo, immediately after lunch, but as the day wore on, so did the rain - getting heavier with each shower. By the end of the day's walk, in the pouring rain, we left another fire track to head up a hill - the fire track passed off along a contour seemingly in a different direction. But no, down the other side of the hill we rejoined the same fire track, pretty much at the same altitude as we had left it. Ha ha. Nice one Terry.

Today marked another curious moment. "Wow, I will be able to comment on your cooking after I have eaten this cookie you baked," Elizabeth said. Um, well, no, actually, even then you won't be able to comment on my cooking. And no, please don't shame your family name like that other person on the walk that suggested that I had purchased the cookies in a shop. Absolutely not! This was a secret recipe, handed down from my mother's mother, brought out on the treacherous seas from England. Using Colonel Light Garden's eleven secret herbs and spices - all I can share is the dried strawberries, a key ingredient. They came off the dried strawberry tree of course, the one in the old orange orchard we came by on the first day's hike. It had been my turn to provide the silver platter - a long standing tradition of the End-to-End 2 group, and one which I shan't go into great detail here, or indeed any detail at all. Since Hilary is taking her turn at the silver platter next month, and due to popular request, I have decided to bestow upon Hilary the recipe, including it's finer points, so we may enjoy the cookies again next walk. Various people, and they shall not be named here, came to my rescue this weekend. I shall not entertain any more discussion on the matter, you know who you are, and those that know me well know my incredible gift of memory so you guys can put two-and-two together.

I can't remember much more. Um, it rained, but it was all good. It wasn't cold or windy. Someone took photos of ants superimposed over people's faces. Mmm, good look that. Apparently ants appear in great numbers before rain, and then retreat once the rains come. What I didn't know was that they retreated into camera lenses for protection against the rain. Mmm... nothing else to mention. We probably gave Russell too hard a time though, but hey, welcome to SA and our club. Everyone welcome, do join us, we have no problem in pointing out any of your shortcomings. It's a burden bestowed upon us. A gift you might say.

Mt Remarkable looms, not for the next walk in July, but in August. Thirty steep kilometres!

I'd worked up an appetite today though, stopping off at both the Stone Hut bakery (fyi Stone Hut is a town) and the Golden North ice creamery in Laura on the drive home. But you don't care about that. That bakery though, it's akin to the Port Elliot bakery. If you ever pass by - stop. If you ever drive to the central Flinders, maybe go via Clare, then you can pass by - and stop for a few moments and enjoy the good bakery food.

Distance: 19km
Total time: 6.5 hours

Lines in the Sand

2007-06-10T00:00:00.000+09:30

Beetaloo to Wirrabara Forest (old nursery)
Northern Guidebook, Maps 2.4-2.6

It was a tough walk. Some people, and at this point it would be worthwhile to retain some anonymity, were eager hikers today, walking far ahead of the others. Now the culture of this hiking club is all about walking at your own pace, however one should always stop to regroup at fences, gates, junctions etc. However, there just weren't many of these today, so the group got quite spread out as we each tackled the seemingly endless peaks and troughs. Our goal today was the tv tower on top of The Bluff, a distinct landmark in the South Flinders Ranges. We followed the ridge leading from the start of the Flinders Ranges, northwards. But each peak revealed yet another trough and peak, seemingly always falling short of the looming tv tower. As it turned out, the tv tower was enormous, and nearby were no less than three other towers, all dwarfed by this mammoth tower. So yes, back to those lines in the sand. They became a necessary control measure at these regrouping points. Us fast ones - opps, I mean, um, those fast ones - would spend some time waiting for the rest of the group to catch-up. Being eager hikers, they were keen to set off again, often not allowing those slower paced ones time to catch their breath. Normally, one would wait for the walk leader to start off again, but that's quite hard to do when you are so eager to keep walking! So eventually, Jerry was forced to draw a line in the sand at one of these regrouping points, which we were not permitted to cross. Russell, despite being the newbie in the group, thought nothing of crossing, sorry, accidentally falling, over the line. Sigh... so much to learn.

A long hike today, some 20km, difficult, but still fun. Lots of views over Port Pirie and the Spencer Gulf to Whyalla. After The Bluff, we had a steep hike back down to Wirrabara Forest. As predicted, by the time masters, Leonnie and myself, oh so humbly, we arrived at the appointed time of 5pm - just 15 minutes shy of sunset.

Distance: 20km
Total time: 7 hours

Colouring-in Between the Lines

2007-06-09T00:00:00.000+09:30

Bowman Park to Beetaloo
Northern Guidebook, Maps 2.1-2.3

Russell joined us for the first time today. He was late, let the record show. Yes Russell, it does indeed take more than two hours to drive from Adelaide to Laura. But to be fair, he has only been here in Adelaide for a couple of months, having moved down from Brisbane. I've got one word for you Russell - whereis.com.au. Anyway, looking rather relieved, he did eventually find us at Bowman Park, near Crystal Brook, at the start of today's walk. Hilary took him under her wing, carefully instructing and guiding him over the weekend in the art of correctly colouring in your guidebook - the record of your achievements along the Heysen Trail. Hilary certainly is the master of this, carefully packaging her guidebook in plastic, so those rains we had on Monday's walk didn't smudge and wash away all that hard work. It is a fine art, one must select the appropriate colours, not just any old highlighter will do. One must also ensure that each subsequent day uses a different, and just as appropriate colour. Myself and Hilary were quite concerned one night, unable to recall the distance we had walked, which could have resulted in a rather a sleepless night, Leonie came to our rescue and was able to put our minds at rest by phoning around amongst the other hikers to find an accurate recording of the distance traveled. These important facts are all part of the colouring-in of one's guidebook. Whilst Leonie spent some time ridiculing us about our colouring-in, more than one of us have caught her out through her carelessness - there has been the odd finger stained with a mark from a highlighter. There seems to be no doubt that she is a closet colourer.

Today we finally entered the South Flinders Ranges. I think I have claimed that before, but this time it is true. We hiked alongside a creek, and once we had decided upon a nice spot to rest for a quick snack, we settled down. However Bev did not approve, and we were forced onwards to find a suitable spot with logs to sit on. Though, I shouldn't diss Bev (yet I just did), with several others she came to my rescue on Monday's hike. But more about that later.

Not many photos today.

Distance: 16km
Total time: I can't remember

The Rhinestone Cowboy that went too far

2007-05-27T00:00:00.000+09:30

Mt Compass to Kyeema Conservation Park
Southern Guidebook, Maps 2.6-2.8

Simon has a habit of singing as he walks. I guess you can't deny him that right. Doesn't mean you should either enjoy it or endure it - especially when his chosen theme for the day is country songs. American, but still, country and western... urgh. Thankfully he didn't seem to know many, and those he did he knew very little of, and he didn't seem to be getting much encouragement.

Well worth walking up along the short - but steep - spur trail to the peak of Mt Magnificent. Simon played his bagpipes at the peak, roll your eyes, actually, no, unroll your eyes, I don't mind his bagpipes. An adrenalin rush coming back down, I ran, yes, you read correct, I ran down, proving how much better my knees are this hiking season.

After discussions with another (who will not be incriminated here) about the activities that took place at the dubious looking Kuitpo Community - it had all the appearance of a cult hide-out. Think guns and terrorists, or at least churches and silly games. It was none of the above, I googled it, it's a drug and alcohol rehab facility with a fairly long history. Now that's cool. Glad I waved at that guy and he was too far away to see my questionably expression.

We escaped the bulls atop the hill near Blackfellows Road and walked onto the end of the walk. Here, just before the end, we set ourselves up in two lines, and led by Simon's bagpipe efforts we marched in to the other waiting hikers. Simon really got a showing this walk, heh? Finished off with some birthday cake for Jerry's 50th. Nice one.

Fast Tracking

2007-05-13T00:00:00.000+09:30

Locks Ruin to Bowman Park
Northern Guidebook, Maps 1.8-2.1

Today was a day with fast results. Finally, after many kilometres travelling from east to west, the trail again returned northwards, heading into the South Flinders Ranges. And much of the day was following parallel to two railways, an old, dismantled railway, curving sharply around the landscape in cuttings, and a second, straighter and flatter railway - the newer of the two - with frequent trains passing destined for Sydney or Perth. There was some discussion, perhaps the Heysen Trail should have followed this old railway - in the cuttings, rather than the adjacent roads. That would be more better, a bit of history as one imagined what once was.

Again, we passed down a mainstreet. This really has been unheard of before this weekend. Today, the main street of Crystal Brook. A few curious, but cool, iron sculptures with a little bit of history. The odd monument to join them.

Passing by the dry, so-called 'crystal brook', we left the town via the golf course, heading for Bowman Park. On a quiet dirt road we found a little oasis, an old, albeit rather dilapitated house, set carefully next to the 'crystal brook', a dam creating a wonderully reeded wet land.

After passing another hut, this time Bowman Hut, a rather modern well-facilitated hut, we reached Bowman Park. After a nice chat with some locals, Bill brought out his journal, a compilation of photos and text - magnificent photos showing landscapes and incredible detailed wildlife close-ups, all well lit and composed - how I love a good photographers work!

Map Reading

2007-05-12T00:00:00.000+09:30

Raeville to Locks Ruin
Northern Guidebook, Maps 1.5-1.7

"That's the ruin on the left over there, see, just under that tree. Marker 'F', that's just coming up in the valley ahead," instructed Raelene. "Ah yes, indeed, I see, so we are here," I replied, also carefully comparing the map to the landmarks around us. "Yup, and 'Dunleath', that's over there on the left." Um, no. That would be it on the right. "Oh, just when you and the other person think you have got it under control, I then go and prove I don't," she stated. We laughed. We climbed down the shallow valley, through the creek, and back up the other side, past the ruin. A different ruin. Oops. Karma. I was wrong too. Quite obvious really, it was about 2mm off the trail on the map, making it about 200 metres in reality - not about 1 km away as the ruins we saw on the hill. Raelene had undertaken a bushwalking leadership course recently. "Maps aren't my strength, but now, I have such a better understanding of map reading. I'm practicing," Raelene earlier stated. Lyn was practicing too, a particularly difficult aspect - intepreting the contours. Perhaps I should have done the course too, but generally, apart from moments of stupidity, I'm not so bad with maps.

Today we walked from the 'Raeville' homestead, near Georgetown, to Locks Ruin, somewhat near Crystal Brook. Some 20km, a good start to the walking season for the End-to-End 2 group. Of course I have done a few indy walks recently, so certainly appreciated walking with others, not having to navigate and having a bus to drop us off at the start of the walk, so we could walk back to our cars.

Lots of farmland today, a bit of road walking at the start, and, unusually, a walk straight down the main street, such as it is, of Georgetown. And you know why that is so unusual? It means a shop! So icecreams it was for morning tea, sitting in the local park - a playground, green lawns, benches and toilets - this was unusual!

Stayed at Gladstone Gaol on Saturday night. Most people had come up Friday afternoon or evening, but I had come up first thing Saturday morning. Don't think I will do that again, leaving at 6.30am for the two and a bit hour drive. The gaol was positively eerie. The guys enjoyed a beer together as the girls showered in the only working bathroom, before we had our go. It was nice, all (almost) staying together in one place. By the time I went to bed, in my cell, I wasn't so spooked by the claustro space, all our night's activities had personafied the space. Earlier, a guide took us on a tour of the 1880's gaol - used right up to the 1970's. So very rundown in places, and somewhat yucky, although not quite as bad as Melbourne Gaol - but perhaps this was because the guide knew so little personal stories of inmates. I never did take any photos of the gaol, I had thought I could take some nice sunrise photos, but the angles weren't right, and I didn't feel adventurous enough. Thankfully though, the place was already booked for the June long weekend. Phew. I might go camp in the Wirabarra Forest for the next hiking weekend.

Riding Rough

2007-05-06T20:50:00.001+09:30

Curnows Hut to Raeville
Northern Guidebook Maps 1.4-1.5

Today featured some rough riding. Well, truthfully, not. Perhaps better stated, "rough pushing a bike up a hill". Today I need to hike some 18km, and return, meaning I had 36km to hike. Too far for me to hike, especially when it is return (return seems so much harder than hiking one way). So I plotted to ride half the distance, and hike the second half, bringing the total riding distance to 18km, and the total hiking distance to 18km. Very achievable. The first 6km or so was on forest tracks, climbing up to the peak of New Campbell Hill - just 6 metres shy of the height of Mt Lofty. It was tough, pushing my bike up those hills. But it would be worth it, I knew riding home would be all down hill, even if because of the rough tracks it would be heavy on the brakes.

Near New Campbell Hill the Heysen Trail follows the ridge, as does a dry stone wall, similar to the High River wall that featured on the Dead Cow Quarry to Marble Hill Road walk. At the peak I was rewarded with magnificent views, with Bundaleer Forest on one side, the North Mount Lofty Ranges petering out, and the start of the South Flinders Ranges in the distant west. A transition point between the two major ranges.

I then rode predominately downhill, undulating, through some farmland, along a track. A little lamb followed me, which was a little unsettling because it was following after me and not the rest of the sheep. Alas, it grew tired, and somehow managed to rejoin the other sheep. It was cute. At the end of the track, I parked my bike on a farm fence next to a Heysen Trail stile, leaving an accompanying note to explain the oddity of a bike in the middle of no-where. I had ridden 8.4km, which took just over an hour.

I then hiked through open farmland, following a creekbed through a shallow valley. Pretty uninteresting. Leaving the farmland, I climbed to follow a ridge of a range, still part of the North Mt Lofty Ranges. Here I was rewarded with impressive views of the distant Bundaleer Forest, New Campbell Hill, the shallow farming valley, and a wide valley with farming, roads, the towns of Georgetown and Gladstone, and in the distance the start of the South Flinders Ranges and Mt Remarkable. Within a few kilometres of following this open ridge, I could see the Raeville homestead - the end of today's hike. I struggled on, determined to get close before turning around. A couple of kilometres later though, I gave up, I couldn't handle hiking to somewhere I could see, only to turn around and return. I had hiked about 1.5 hours, and was probably about 4-5km from Raeville.

I took numerous shortcuts on the way back, across the shallow farmland - rather than following the meandering creekbed, I headed straight for the distinctive windmill near my bike, saving an extra 30 mins from when I passed the first time. Back at my bike, I pushed my bike up a hill, following a fence line, saving almost 3km of riding. It was hard work, some of it I had to resort to carrying my bike (rather than pushing it). It then took just an hour to ride back to Curnows Hut, very heavy on the brakes.

Following Never Never Creek

2007-05-05T20:50:00.000+09:30

Bundaleer Reservoir to Curnows Hut
Northern Guidebook Maps 1.2-1.4

The map doesn't make it look that exciting, frankly. The Heysen Trail just follows the creek, forming a straightish overall line on the map. I was surprised though, there were a four distinct sections - each quite interesting. Firstly following one of the Bundaleer channels away from Bundaleer Reservoir, to a weir - with flowing water.

Secondly, there was the creek section, following a valley and fairly dry, the first half containing lots of thriving yacca plants, the second half was distinctly drier, and the hillsides full of dead yacca plants, a bit eerie.

Thirdly, this dry valley turned into an oasis with introduced trees and farms. It was quite a contrast, quite a sudden change too.

Fourthly the trail passed down an old road past some extensive and remarkably well surviving ruins of a farm. There was a cottage, and numerous sheds. They appeared to have been abandoned only within the last 30-40 years, perhaps sooner. There was no electricity connected, but plenty of old furniture and old rubbish around, not to mention the thatched roofs. Later in the day I noticed there were many old homes around Bundaleer, and some new homes - but nothing in between, which kinda indicated in the early years it was a thriving place, but almost everything was abandoned 30-40 years ago, with people only returning in the last 10-20 years, building new homes.

This was a catch-up walk, an End-to-End 2 walk I missed while in Thailand. I camped at Curnows Hut, a beautiful spot in amongst a pine forest. The hut dates from the 1870's and was the home of the first nurseryman at the historic Bundaleer Forest.

Bundaleer Forest was the first plantation forest in South Australia, and also the "birthplace of forestry in Australia". There was early concern that the State's precious native forest cover, never abundant, would be lost forever in the rush to find building materials. From 1873 the South Australian Parliament passed various acts to encourage the planting of forest trees, and in 1876 'Plantation A' - the first forest - was planted at Bundaleer. Many tree species - natives and exotics - were planted to see which would thrive in local conditions, and be commercially useful. Many of these trees, now a century and a quarter old, can still be seen at Bundaleer. The most successful product was the Radiata pine, today widely used in construction. There are other plantations along the Heysen Trail, at Kuitpo Forest and Mt Crawford Forest, but the vast majority of plantations of Pinus Radiatus are in the State's South-East. The first nurseryman at Bundaleer was John Curnow, whose cottage, known as Curnows Hut, is located near the original nursery. The timber from this plantation was used to build Spencer Gulf jetties, railway sleepers and in Broken Hill’s mines.

I rode the Mawson Trail from the hut, south-eastwards to the main bitumen road, then following some dirt roads back down to Bundaleer Reservoir - the ending place of the last End-to-End walk of last year. Well, almost, I got within a kilometre. I couldn't be bothered riding down there to hike back. Rode a couple of kilometres along the Heysen Trail to an aquaduct - part of one of the Bundaleer channels (see the Marble Hill Road to Bundaleer Reservoir walk). The ride was 23km, and mostly good roads so achieved it in about 2 hours. Left my bike there at the aquaduct, hiking northwards back to Curnows Hut. The hike was approx 16.5km and took 4 hours. After a little sleep in my hammock - conveniently tied between two pine trees - I returned with my car to pick up the bike.

A Long Hike

2007-04-29T19:42:00.000+09:30

Myponga to Mt Compass
Southern Guidebook, Maps 2.4-2.6

A long walk for the first walk of the season - 21.8km. After 3 days of rain, a day with lots of brief showers, but no wind and about 20C. Tiring stuff.

Jupiter Creek Diggings

2007-04-22T18:02:00.000+09:30

Did some walks (too short to call them hikes) at the Old Echunga Diggings at Chapel Hill on Diggings Road, Echunga, and at Jupiter Creek. Both are gold mines of the 1850's and 1860's. The Heysen Trail and the loop walk at Jupiter Creek share the same trail, the Heysen Trail passing by 1869 Beatrice Chimney and parallel to the 1930 New Phoenix Tunnel. I walked through the 80m tunnel - with a torch - and climbed the ladder in the shaft at the end. I'm not too fond of small tunnels (well, small spaces in general) but this one was easy. Both mining fields are covered in shafts, particularly Chapel Hill where the shafts are noticeably smaller in both radius and depth, being about 10m down to gold. The Jupiter Creek shafts are fewer in number, yet much larger and deeper (up to 50m deep).

The Jupiter Creek loop walk can be found in the Sunday Mail's publication WalkSA (2006), pp 42-43.

The following is condensed from the Battunga Country website:
www.battunga.org.au/towns/jupiter_creek.htm

A map of the area is also available on their website:www.battunga.org.au/maps/Region-map.htm.

Old Euchunga Diggings (Chapel Hill)
After the discovery of gold in Victoria, many South Australians left the colony in search of the elusive “lucky strike”. In an effort to stem this mass exodus, the South Australian Government offered a £1,000 reward for the discovery of a payable goldfield. The first claim for this reward was made for gold discovered at Echunga.

By the turn of the century, with an area extending from Chapman’s Gully to Jupiter Creek, the Echunga Goldfields had become South Australia’s most productive, though few made a fortune. The goldfields could not compete with the richer fields in Victoria and by 1853 the goldfields were described as being ‘pretty deserted’.

Small amounts of gold continued to be found over the years and there was a renewed interest in the old diggings when there was a change in the gold standard and prices rose during the depression years of the 1930s.

The total production of the Old Echunga Diggings is estimated to have been around 3,100kg.

Jupiter Creek
The second major diggings in the Echunga area opened up after gold was discovered at Jupiter Creek in 1868. By September 1868 there were about 1,200 people living at the new diggings and tents and huts were scattered throughout the scrub. By the end of 1868 though, the alluvial deposits were almost exhausted and the population dwindled to several hundred.

As with the Old Diggings, small amounts of gold continued to be found over the years with three distinct periods – from 1884-1890s, 1904-1907 and during the 1930s.

The Diggings Today
Since being ravaged by bushfires, the diggings are gradually being reclaimed by natural bush and these once bustling areas are now deeply silent. Nevertheless some relics still exist. Visit the old diggings at Chapel Hill and follow the sign-posted path to find some of these relics then on to Jupiter Creek to follow the Heritage Trail which interprets successive phases of mining at that site. It includes the 1869 chimney associated with the Beatrice Gold Mining Company, sluicing dam (1906) and the New Phoenix Tunnel (1930).

Both sites are registered as State Heritage Items.

Camping in Aroona Valley

2007-04-09T20:53:00.000+09:30

Some photos of a camping trip into the Flinders over Easter, camped in Aroona Valley. Not strictly hiking the Heysen Trail, but a weekend of camping and hiking with a couple of friends. We walked a couple of small Heysen Trail sections near Aroona Valley, but also walked through Wilpena Pound to Malloga Falls in Edeowie Gorge, and to the Blinman Pools.

Here are the best 44 photos from the 300 odd photos taken (thanks to Tim for some excellent photos and photo taking expeditions). Might return later to write some funny comments and stuff...

Here I am back...

I really should have had some idea. I had been here before in the Flinders - for the first time - just a couple of years ago. We had driven along roads then where it was difficult to determine whether you were driving in a creek or on a road. It was 11.30pm at night, we had left the city at 5.15pm on Thursday keen to get out camping so we could enjoy every day of hiking. So like I said, it was late, and we still hadn't made camp, we were slowly driving along a creek - or road - or whatever in our little Ford Focus. Tim skillfully steered the vehicle around the rocks, whilst Kate skilfully provided warning and varying "eeks" as feedback to Tim's driving success. I hadn't been on this particular road before, but even in the dark it was spectacular - Brachina Gorge. If you like rocks this would be heaven. I think rocks are pretty. Tim later declared the Flinders as a diverse and rugged part of SA - all good. That's a good evaluation I think. Stunning geography, sunsets and camping.

Anyway, having paid our entry and camping fees at the self registration point, we snuck past the Campground Hosts. We had chosen to set up camp in Aroona Valley because of it's close proximity to various walking trails. We arrived past 12, and set up the tent without the fly or pegs, keen not to wake other campers. Kate pointed out that my method of closing the car doors was not consistent with that intention...

Next morning I took some sunrise photos, exploring the ruins of Aroona homestead. We finished setting up the tent and set out for a hike along part of the Heysen Trail. I've lost my map so I'm not quite sure what the loop trails we hiked were called, but we saw some really impressive stuff - including huge spiders - and got a bit lost. We walked about 11km, spending the arvo resting.

The next day we hiked through Wilpena Pound to Malloga Falls in Edeowie Gorge. Spectacular stuff. Being 23km, hikers were advised to allow 9 hours return. We did it in 6 hours. We were advised the track was unmarked, but it was marked with the same markers as elsewhere, marked every 200 metres, but piles of stones, footprints and arrows in the sand helped us find the way through the overgrown foliage. Kate really found her strength here, both Tim and I being taller seemed to cop more of the foliage in our faces. We were also informed to be wary of falling hikers from the clifftops above. We didn't see any. The falls were dry, just one stagnant pool. Found some disorientated hikers on the way back. We kindly informed them it was "a mere 8km" in the opposite direction back to the Pound entrance.

The mentally awful songs - not one finishing before another started - drove us off the information centre patio immediately after our icecreams were finished. Sawing our one bar of soap into portions we paid for a hot-warm-cold-warm-cold shower in the Wilpena campground - nice. Kate's shower was hot-hot-hot. Go figure. Regardless, rather appreciated the new smell (or lack of bad smell). Drove back to camp along the Bunyeroo scenic drive whilst the sun set - some cool photos and a resolution made for Tim and I to return next morning for sunrise. Tim reckoned the colours would reflect more spectacularly during sunrise - he was right. Clever maths man. We left camp at 5.30am and got some pretty cool photos. It's fun to have a photo partner. Loving my new camera, so much better than my old one. The following morning we climbed up a hill in Aroona Valley and Tim got some top shots of the sunrise on the Heysen Ranges. Must've been a good idea as we were joined by 3 other people for the same purpose, who later seemed to be contenders as spectators for Tim and I to shower under a fire hose fed by the local spring. Got to admire one of them though, getting up early, then climbing the hill to take photos with her broken camera, quite unsure if her photos would work. I reassured her it looked like just a cracked LCD screen, and she then seemed happy that the people at the photo shop would still be able to develop her film (in her digital camera!?!)

Over confident from our previous day's quick walk, we thought today's 5 hour hike to the Blinman Pools would be an easy 3 hours. It was already late in the morning. We thought we were close to the First pool, 5km in, when we reached the half way sign. Our confidence was shattered, and we were pretty tired from the previous day. Apparently 8-10 hours sleep wasn't going to save us. We psyched ourselves up to finish the walk - I found solace in eating, the others by gloating that later they would eat as I enviously watched on having already consumed all my rations. Whatever, there's nothing wrong with slurping a freddo frog out of it's wrapper like an ice stick (it was like 30 degrees). Near one of the larger and more inviting pools we found a family lost in giggles, seriously - they were. Standing behind a tree was an embarrassed girl tightly clinging to the towel around her, I think she felt quietly confident no-one else would be coming along. Beyond this pool we found that the official First and Second Pools weren't as inviting. The Second Pool was drying up, the First fed by a spring but still not so inviting. Tim tested out the durability of his new metal water bottle by dropping it from a cliff. It passed. Eating an icecream later at the shop in Angorichina Village we found a much better map than the rubbish one we had - one that would have allowed us to take short cuts on the way back!

Tim managed to re-establish his love for photographing kangaroos, a given both Kate and I had experienced long ago in Deep Creek. He got some good photos though, roos are such funny creatures, we got very close once when we stumbled across some unawares.

Enjoyed some good food, good wine, good beer and some good times. A very warm weekend, high 20's. Kept up our uncanny matching clothes to the end. The Focus proved to be an excellent car, I'm sure in part to Tim's skillful driving and Kate's always at hand feedback, but we saw many 4WD drivers being more hesitant with their cars. Typical. We should have had the right to swap cars. We drove home in 6 point something hours, a good run compared to our 7.5 hour drive there. Apparently previous clogged Pt Wakefield Road Easter experiences caused everyone to be fraidy cats and stagger their driving throughout the day. Nice. The jerks still drove at their regular time though. Disappointed to see survey markings out in preparation to seal the dirt road from Wilpena to Blinman, it can only mean the driving will get worse, and take a little of the magic away from the Flinders and the quaint town of Blinman. This hiking weekend renewed my love of hiking. I was thinking of not continuing hiking the Heysen Trail this year. I dunno, whatever. But I'm keen to hike and as always, camp.

2007 Walk Programme

2007-03-06T14:16:00.000+10:30

The evenings are getting shorter, the weather cooler (others might say less hot)...

This year's Walk Programme has been released, there are 13 walks planned for End-to-End 2, from Raeville (near Crystal Brook), to Eyre Depot (north of Quorn). There are 8 walks planned for End-to-End 3, from Myponga to Mt Crawford Forest. My plans to travel to New Zealand with Alex in November will only cause me to miss one walk, the second-to-last End-to-End 3 walk (Montacute Heights to Cudlee Creek) which I can easily catch up on.

The Walk Programme can be viewed on the new website of the Friends of the Heysen Trail at www.heysentrail.asn.au/walks.

Walk Season Over

2006-11-23T10:00:00.000+10:30

With the start of the Fire Season, the Heysen Trail is closed (the bits that traverse private land, which is most of it). So no more end-to-end walking until the fire season ends in April 07... or later if the season is extended, which is likely given the drought.

Meanwhile... doing some of the club's Twilight walks and doing a couple of projects for them... and riding some of the Mawson Trail...

Tapanappa to Balquhidder

2006-11-05T17:18:00.000+10:30

It just seemed like it would be too hard. I'd done the first couple of hills ok, but could I ride another 15kms of it? And stupid me, I had not got up early enough, it was 10.30am already. So I canned the ride. I was at my determined end point of today's walk, Balquhidder, on Callawonga Road just past the end of Tunk Head Road. I had missed this End to End 3 walk when I was sick (remember the shortest cold ever?). I had got a copy of the CFS map book page from Tim, why had Robin bought him this neither I nor him had any idea, but it was certainly useful for me. Would have been more useful if I could read contours better; I had determined it was hilly, but manageable. It was mental, so at 10.30am in the morning, I decided not to risk spending the next two to four hours riding, then walking the 15km walk back to the car. I had plenty of water for the ride and the walk, but time? No. So I rode back to the car. Also, I wasn't completely comfortable with the idea of walking out-of-season across the short 2kms or so of farmland. Well, I wouldn't normally even consider it... but it was only 5 days into November, and it seemed such a short distance (if on the map and not in reality!).

So I drove to Tapanappa, to where we had ended the walk back in July (I missed this June walk). I had camped here before, so with that established I felt justified in driving a little along the trail to reduce my walking distance, I was already set to do this section there and back. So I saved about 1.5kms by driving. I really enjoyed walking down to the sea, it was much warmer in amongst the scrub than it was on the bare windy hill before, although this section was overgrown. I taped my knees after my right one started aching, this was a two hundred metre descent.

It took me about an 1.5 hours to reach Tunkalilla beach, a distance of about 3.5kms. The beach, yes, the dreaded beach everyone complained about, apparently the sand was very soft so it was difficult to walk along. It wasn't difficult at all, just long, the trail went for about 4.5kms along the beach. Of course, I took my shoes off, prefering to walk barefoot. It was soft in sections, but it was a matter of walking in the wet bit and following the line of dry sand, although this became difficult to determine sometimes as the tide was coming in. I checked myself off on the map as I passed landmarks, however, somehow I still missed where the trail left the beach. This wasn't a big deal as I wasn't walking this small section of the trail, instead turning around at this point and returning to the car, well, after a quick swim, a snack and a sunblock top-up. I need to check Google Earth perhaps, but from the map the trail left the beach between the last two creeks, and I found both creeks but no sign of the trail, nor any sign of it on any hill leading away from the beach. This apparently, was a tough climb up a fenced hill. Could only see one hill to match that, and it wasn't marked with trail markers at all. I thought maybe I would see the trail when I walked back, I had walked about 1 km past it. I then walked back, choosing to walk along the track just beyond the dunes, so I could see some sign of the trail but also so I could walk somewhere new. Back towards the start of the beach I had to walk a km or so on the sand again. Saw 2 roos, it is so easy to unintentionally creep up on them, even within a couple of metres before they see a lone hiker. Anyway, one with a joey jumped they fence to flee from me, but the joey couldn't or wouldn't jump. Eventually it did with the help of the mother, and then it scrambled into the mother's pouch, even though it looked too big for that. It was too big, with it's legs and tail sticking out of the pouch (it dived in head first), it fell out with two bounces.

Although it only took me 45 minutes to walk down the beach along the sand, it took me over an hour to walk back. No idea why, thought I was going faster on the track, but apparently not.

So the walk took 4.5 hours total, about 9kms each way, 5.5kms each way on Tunkalilla Beach. I was glad I had decided not to cover that last 2kms, how would I have found the trail? Although later I realised I would have had to close the 2kms to get back to the car, so probably would have followed the creek up to the road.

Inman Valley to Myponga

2006-10-24T12:11:00.000+09:30

I was too tired when the alarm went off... I hadn't slept on the plane the previous night... I wanted to go hiking to catch up with people and see some of Australian countryside, but alas, I missed it (but my 3 weeks in Thailand was very good). Will have to do it as a catch up next year...

Curnows Hut to Georgetown

2006-10-08T00:01:00.000+09:30

Missed this walk, although I heard it was a really good walk weekend. Everyone from End-to-End 2 stayed in the Gladstone Gaol and shared a bbq meal on Saturday night.

Bundaleer Reservoir to Curnows Hut

2006-10-07T00:01:00.000+09:30

I was in Thailand...

Tugwell Road to Inman Valley

2006-09-24T20:37:00.000+09:30

I'm not sure how the cows manouvered themselves along these tight sections of the trail. But evidently they did, and they were there for a while, manourvering themselves, and leaving us large, squishy, sloppy presents. We must have been glad of the gift, you can tell, cos so many of us managed to step in one. Or was it that you spent so much time avoiding stepping in one, that you eventually gave up and ended up stepping in many?

Today's 20km walk was through pastoral land, cows obviously, but most of the trail followed old tracks. This was all unknown territory to me, never having been through Inman Valley. It was all so green, it was hard to believe we hadn't had much rainfall. The corridor the tracks passed through were pleasant, lush really, although strangely overpopulated with cow patties. The vallies were spectacular to look across, the green, the areas of vegetation and pine plantation forest.

The wind had been so fierce the night before, at 4am it was difficult to imagine that it would calm down enough to make today's walk comfortable. The weather forecast was for a clearing day with light showers, I know, I checked it at 5am in the morning. The wind so so gustful that it kept waking me, so I checked the BOM's forecast on my phone. By morning it had settled a little, and increasingly so as the morning wore on. By the time we reached Inman Valley to meet the buses, it was even sunny! However the weather varied throughout the day, with short bursts of light rain, or horizontal heavy rain, warm sun and cold wind.

I don't have much else to write, my mind is too occupied with my holiday to Thailand in just 4 sleeps time? I think so...

Old Burra Road to World's End

2006-09-17T14:02:00.000+09:30

I learnt a few things on this walk. Firstly, walking by oneself can be boring. Although, the boring factor might have come because it was a catch-up walk. So what I really learnt was that catch-up walks are boring. Why? Cos I could see where I was starting, and where I was ending. I knew the kind of scenery to expect. I had already been here and done that. Possibly though, I would enjoy a catch-up walk if I did it with other people. What did I think about during the walk? I pondered whether I enjoyed walking, or walking with people more.

I drove up to Burra Creek on Friday night. It was kinda planned, pencilled in you might say, but it was only late Friday afternoon I decided to do it. Packing at home, I thought I might like to go down to Ray's Outdoor store on West Terrace and buy myself and air mattress pumper-upper (that's the techinical name). Checking the web using my phone, oh how I love that, it was open until 7. Of course, I already have one of the pumper-upper devices, just I haven't seen it in so long I guess it isn't really mine anymore, especially since I have no idea where or with whom it is. I hurriedly packed, but when I got to Ray's it had clearly closed some time before. Mmm. I was later to realise I should have organised this during the week, it wasn't really just a comfort matter, my ribs ached and ached all Saturday from sleeping on that thin foam rollie mattress on the ground. Ah hindsight, what a wonderful gift, that no-one has. At least I now know what I might expect from some of my night's sleeps in Thailand, especially the hill tribe trek. I hope it has healed much more by then, can't believe my scooter accident was over three weeks ago when my ribs are still so sore.

Rode my bicycle, maybe 15 to 20km, on the roads from Burra Creek to the south along the bitumen road, then along the dirt roads across a low part of the hills into the next valley, then back up north to where the Heysen Trail is. This was ride was incredibly hard, one because it was uphill, and I didn't seem to consider this, as I got depressed about how hard it was to ride. Two, I had brought three litres of water for the walk, but forgotton to allocate any for the bike ride, when I needed much more! So I was rationing my water. The day was hot, predicted 24 degrees, but felt much hotter, 29 I think it was. Very dry and dusty. Woah. It was hot riding in the sun. Because of my low water, and hard riding, I cut short the ride to start the walk some 3kms west of Old Burra Road, on Koo-owie Road. I could come back later today when I collected my bike to finish the remaining 3kms back to Old Burra Rd, or simply leave it for some other time (what a bastard!) or just ignore it all together. My mood quickly lifted as I walked, I was much more comfortable doing this then riding. The experience with riding made me question whether I really want to ride the Mawson Trail or not, but also, if I did, I would need a new bike. My balls were hurting from the bumpy road riding. There was just no-where on the road to ride that was comfortable. But it's worth noting that I was riding alone, on an unexpectantly hot day, on a ride for some mental reason I thought would be quick, when it took me almost two hours, and on roads. Road riding is never as good as on a trail. And also I wasn't riding on the Mawson trail, so it seemed goal-less, and without a map. All in all, psychologically it wasn't ever going to be an easy ride.

Got lost a few times, seeing markers in the distance but forgetting to check the arrow direction on them when close up. Yep, I sure was very used to being led in a group, just following others! Had to back track a little, also being by myself it was disconcerting trying to find the next markers, sometimes I was a little nervous of where I was. At one stage, walking along a creek bed, I conceeded I had no idea where I was on the map, and at least I was walking downstream and which would lead out of the hills into the valley where my car was! Walking along the creek bed was my favourite part of the walk, but the rest of the walk was pretty ordinary. It was a quick walk, I never even stopped for lunch, it took 2 hours. When the others walked it, they were right, it was pretty boring walk.

Once I got back to the car, and checked my water supply by sight, rather than just feeling with my hand, I realised I still had 1.5L of my 3L remaining. Doh! I could have drinking so much more! So I drove back to my bike, parked, and walked back towards Old Burra Road. Walked to the top of the hill, and could see down to Old Burra Road. Having to walk to the end and turn around and return to the car, I just couldn't be bothered walking the last remaining 750 to 1000 metres. I took a photo. In the distance I could see that damn hill I walked down that had casused me so much knee pain!

The photos are so boring, is it because I was bored?

As an erratum to this blog entry (written months later), whilst making the Log Book, I noticed that the trail in this region where I got "lost" has been re-routed from that shown on the map. No wonder I could make so little sense of the map, and the trail seemed to go in a different direction! Later, when I climbed past the water pipe back to Old Burra Road, it was obvious then that the map and the trail differed, which might have served as a little discouragement to walk that 750m, again a re-route.

Marble Hill Road to Bundaleer Reservoir

2006-09-10T21:25:00.000+09:30

The channel was interesting, an engineering marvel. We looked at it's various features as we walked. It was impressive, imagining all the hard work that must have gone into building it a hundred years previously. The trail followed the channel, the channel falling at just 1 metre every mile. It followed the channel for some 20kms, and as we walked on our interest waned, we became keen to walk anywhere away from this damn channel! Today was in such contrast to yesterday, today it was breezey, not windy, and consistently warm and sunny. It was the hottest walking day I recall.

The network of channels was built between 1898 and 1902 to feed into the Bundaleer Reservoir, constructed to catch water to serve local towns. The channels harnessed the local rain run-off, directing it in huge concrete gutters. The earthworks and concrete work was amazing, little of it had cracked or been damaged. There were many smaller earth channels and concrete walls that fed into the larger channels, and there were several large overflow areas, a steel bridge that carried the channel over a river, a series of tunnels and even some creeks were directed not into, but underneath the channel. There were timber access bridges that crossed the channel at regular, and seemingly too often intervals, although many had been replaced by concrete bridges, the old timber sometimes piled up and rotting nearby. The gates associated with these bridges featured amazing detail, with large cast iron gate posts. The channels have been abandoned, not sure when, perhaps after the pipeline from Morgan was built in 1944, thanks to Google, but that's all I could really find out about the channels, except they were controversial when built. I wonder how effective they proved to be?

At the start of the day, before reaching the channels, I walked for 300 metres or so along the top of one of the water pipes from the Murray. I felt like a child balancing along it! Later, I wanted to walk along part of the channel floor, and perhaps also through one of the tunnels, but I was wary of my knees to I didn't undertake any such adventures down the sides of the steep channel! At Freshwater Creek weir, we had to walk around a flowing outflow, as the trail bridge had been washed away in the January floods. I wanted to climb over the sluice mechanism as there was a ladder on my side, so I shouted out to Raelene on the other side if there was a similar ladder on her side. Nope. I really wanted a ladder to be there, so I kept asking others, upsetting Raelene by not taking her at her word!

I had my photo taken at Freshwater Creek Weir, the point on the map that changed from the first map book to the second map book. This was the half way point of the trail. The weir, in which the channels and creek flowed into, was controlled by a sluice gate that led into another channel that followed parallel to the creek.

We found refuge from the sun in a shady spot further down the channel, and a couple of cyclists came our way along the shared Mawson Trail, having ridden from Bundaleer Forest that morning. They would continue riding until sunset before camping. They had ridden from Laura a few days previously, and planned to ride as far as they could until Wednesday. They were an inspiration, I want to ride the trail in blocks now and just camp at the end of each day, having ridden as far as I could that day. We shared some of our chocolate from our silver tray with them, I think they appreciated that. This was some of the last shade we saw. I drank my full two litres of water, the day before I had drank only one of my three litres, and had been too lazy to refill it the night before. I have learnt this lesson before - always take the full three litres of water each day! In the hot sun and unrelenting flatness of the walk we became weary of the channel. We enjoyed the spectacle of seeing the whole group holding up their trekking poles to ward off a swooping magpie.

Earlier in the day we had the funny event of Julie becoming stuck on a barb wire fence. The stiles here were modest, usually of only one tall step, and no poles to steady yourself with. Stepping over the fence seemed easier, but poor Julie got stuck!

We stopped at The Citadel in Clare for coffee and cake on the way home. It was my last End to End 2 walk for the season, I would be in Thailand for the last walk. It was a little sad to finish, I particularly enjoyed these weekends away.

Dead Cow Quarry to Marble Hill Road

2006-09-10T21:06:00.000+09:30

One word sums up today. Wind. Today was one of those days when I wondered why I was walking the Heysen Trail. I just wanted the day to be over. The stone wall we walked along was fascinating, but walking along it all day, in a virtually straight line in that incredible wind? It just never seemed to end! We had to be wary of the fallen stones and the naturally stony ground (the source for the stone wall) to avoid any nasty falls.

The stone wall stretched from some 10km or so north of where the walk started, southwards 40km to near Clare. Running along the ridge of the hills, the dry wall was in various states of disrepair, some sections being relatively intact and quite tall, other sections being half that height, and other sections it appeared that local farmers had bulldozed the wall entirely. Although an impressive wall, it would have been hard to maintain and it had been replaced by a parallel convention fence.

For morning tea we sought refuge from the wind by sitting along the wall. Eating our snacks it was easy to forget just how windy it was above us! Walking on, just when the wind seemed it's worst, it would get even stronger. It wasn't particularly cold, being all rugged up with a scarf and gloves. In the windier sections we couldn't talk to each other much, more or less just shout at each other, and sometimes talk to the person immediately next to you.

The areas around the wall were littered with small quarries dug by hand to source the stones for the wall. For lunch, we were lucky enough to find one such sizeable quarry to get some shelter from the wind. The sun was warm out of the wind, without the wind it would have been a very pleasant day. Apparently this section of the trail was always windy, made worse by the fact that it follows the ridge of the hills, the area not surprisingly been marked for a wind farm.

The walk ended with some road walking, which was pleasant because there was little wind and we could talk to each other.

Tea that night was at a pub in Clare, Brinkleys, I think. A pleasant change from the Burra pub, not only were the staff friendly, but there were plenty of people around in this modern pub, and a more diverse menu. I particularly enjoyed a meal of chicken breast on sweet potato with a pesto and tomato salsa base. Yummo!

I had planned to set up tent in the Clare caravan park, but as Lyn, Nicky and Yvonne had a 5 bed cabin, Jeff and myself joined them. It was nice to stay inside with a bathroom and heater!

Article in Magazine

2006-09-04T09:15:00.000+09:30

A copy of the article that I wrote that appeared in the Friends of the Heysen Trail Spring 2006 magazine (full magazine).

Link to read article.

Waitpinga to Tugwell Rd

2006-08-28T09:02:00.002+09:30

Complacency. Or apathy. How very Australian of us. Rain. I hadn't even checked the weather forecast. Someone, who I shouldn't name, hadn't even brought wet weather gear. At least I had brought it, but only because I just always did. I never expected to use it. Even when it started to rain, it was just a light drizzle. Oh, it will just cool me down a bit. If I stop to put on my rain jacket it will mean I'm accepting that it's raining. I would rather continue to deny that it was raining. But I finally succumbed, everyone else was wearing theirs, and I was getting rather wet.

The day started off sunny enough. Rudy warned me of rain in the car. Ah whatever. It never rains for us. From about 11am onwards it rained on and off, just a drizzle, sometimes more. We ate lunch in the rain. It wasn't cold, just a little wet. And it wasn't wet, well, not really, just it was wet compared to all our other walks!

Walking along the clifftops, yep, the clifftops I never even knew existed, was spectacular. They just seemed endless, and around every bend they just seemed to get more spectacular. I took few photos at the start, indulging in some conversation with Sue and Michele and Rudy. I hadn't walked with any of them since the first End to End walk. There was much catching up to do! Later, I got distracted, fell behind and walked by myself for a while. There was no one in front of me, and no one behind. I took many photos, but I had missed taking any good photos of the fauna - I hate that word - and the flora. Today was a day filled with strange smells and wild flowers. I took the odd photo of them. I saw others taking better photos. Well, perhaps.

At the point at which the trail departed from the coast and headed inland, I took a few photos, of which one I used for my featured photo below. We spent much of the day walking towards The Bluff and West Island. Anyway, just past this crucial point of no return for the trail, I realised I had probably misread the map. The trail returned to the coast. Oh well, my photo was symbolic, not factual. We ate lunch on the beach. I didn't even know there was a beach there. With some sharper observation skills I could have established that though. It was called King Beach. It was a beautiful beach though, lots of rocks. And rain. Lunch was a much needed break for my very sore left knee, yep, the left one. Not the right one that I had been concerned about all week. That was fine. But my left one was bad. So a little rest, whilst gulping down my lunch in the rain, was very welcome.

Our group was quite well spread out. I hurriedly finished my lunch as the group prepared to walk on. Then the end of our group, those people so far behind me it felt like there was no-one behind me at all, caught up with us. Oops. So the group split, perhaps a little unwisely. The group leaders, and indeed the group, was in a bit of disarray. It was the rain. Blame the rain. As we turned that crucial corner that led the trail at right angles from the coast inland, for the second time, an ambulance waited by the side of the road. "For you?", enquired Sue. Mmm. Should have taken a photo. That was funny. My knee certainly wasn't. Stupid scooter accident has set my progress back more than six weeks.

We wondered why so many people had been standing in the rain in a paddock by a house. Was anyone as stupid as us? Horse riders and the people that follow that... horsies? Yep, they were as keen as us not to let the rain deter them! Later, we saw them jump a hurdle. Well, we could have, if we'd bothered to wait another ten minutes. They took forever to get themselves organised. So we gave up and walked on, they passed us some time later, and we got to see them jump another hurdle instead.

Michele, let it be known, distracted me on our walk along Jagger Road. We passed the trail turn-off, by about 300m. Oops. We backtracked. They all seemed to blame me. What, was I meant to be leading them? Just cos I had a map? That's why I blame Michele. Well, that's not really fair, but I did get some good advice about flying with cheap airlines: turn up on time, or better still, early. Cos they are cheap, they prob overbook. And yes, they really do.

The drive home, and indeed going down there too, was good. Enjoyed the company of Rudy, Margaret, who I met last time on the beach and featured in my beach photo of us wearing no shoes, and her friend Sunny. Sunny, from Taiwan originally, had walked with another bushwalking club, that one I have heard a few negative things about, but found them quick paced, competitive perhaps. I think she really enjoyed walking with us today, at our relaxed walk-at-your-own-pace.

Hallett to Dead Cow Quarry

2006-08-15T21:15:00.002+09:30

"There are no boring walks on the Heysen Trail," Jerry declared at the start of today's walk. "Just linking walks – they link the more intersting sections". He was right. There weren't many photos to be taken as we turned south after Hallett, and followed some dirt roads shared with the Mawson Trail. It was also one of those walks with very few toilet locations - I mean trees...

We found a spot for lunch, that being the first trees we had seen in a while. There was dispute later as to whether it was a good spot at all, but it was decided that it was a good spot, offering both shady and sunny spots, soft grass to sit on, a fence to lean on, and a panicked sheep stuck away from it's flock. And a smelly water trough.

The rest of the walk was largely uneventful. A landowner had re-used a microwave as their letterbox, Pam deciding that Hotmail had made it's impact out here in the country!

Our walk ended in a disused quarry, with rather amatuerish signs declaring the site was contaminated. We had planned to walk a further 2km to the start of the stone wall, but a festering dead cow was all that was needed for Jerry to decide to end a little short.

Old Mt Bryan East School to Hallett

2006-08-12T00:00:00.001+09:30

Well, for one, I think I had pysched myself out. Stepping out of the bus at the old Mt Byran East school, it didn't look so high after all. Climbing to the peak of My Bryan was going to be that hard. Once we had started the ascent, every time I looked up at the radio tower that sat atop the "mount" – can it really be called that – it just suprisingly closer than I had expected.

The walk started with a road walk from the school, past a couple of old ruined houses, one surrounded by beautiful almond blossom. We even chanced upon an old orange tree near a rickecty old windmill. There were a few people brave enough to try a taste, and were rewarded with possibly the worst tasting orange ever.

The views on the climb up were spectacular. The views from the top not quite so spectacular. The weather was good, but it was a little hazy. I think everyone had talked the views up a little. And I couldn't help but recall the truly spectacular views from the top of St Mary's Peak in Wilpena Pound. This just didn't compare! We could see where we had walked over the past few walks from the south, and could also see where Goyder's Line generally lay. The paddocks contrasted with the saltbush and scrub. The drive in the bus had been curious, on one side of the road were crops, on the other saltbush and just nothing. Odd. There was a cairn on the peak, with various plaques commemorating the discovery of the mount and the first European climbers.

The walk down the other side of the "mount" was began with some confusion. We could see for many kilometres around us, but couldn't see where the trail led off the peak. Further down, we passed through a valley with sheep grazing, and they run away from us, each following each other in several lines, as they ran their along their sheep paths. Certainly looked a little bizzare. We "chased" them for several kilometres down onto the plain.

The weather was, once again, just beautiful. No rain, clear, warm sunny days. Apparently farmers have a term for this, they call it "drought". Mmm. Perhaps best not to brag too loudly in the front bar of the Burra Hotel about the fantastic weather conditions for walking.

Balquidder to Waitpinga Beach

2006-07-24T17:56:00.000+09:30

Sand. Crashing waves. Sea mist. Salt. Yes, it was the beach. But it didn't feel like it. Something was wrong. Was it the hiking boots and backpack, amongst other hiking gear I was wearing? The cool wind? It felt odd. Nope, the shoes definately had to come off. It was the last stretch to the cars, I could clean my feet off under a tap when I got there. I had only walked about 20 metres onto the beach. Further down, Karen and Marguereta caught up with me, and with little encouragement they had their socks and shoes off too! Definately nice to get the shoes off and feel the sand beneath your toes!

Today's walk was a good one, albeit short. Oh, maybe not short, but quick. 16km, walking down from Balquidder following a dirt track, turning off into grazing land and heading down to the beach along a scenic creek. Following the cliffs, we had lunch on our first beach, with the sun on our backs! The weather was good, no, very good. Rain was forecast, and I awoke very early to the sound of the rain. But it wasn't going to put me off, I decided, as I drifted back to sleep. When we arrived in Waitpinga, the wind was cold, and the sky densely overcast. But those clouds retreated to reveal a beautifully warm sun! Only on the drive home did it rain again. After lunch we walked over another headland to Parsons Beach, and walked along the beach for a couple of kms before rising up to the lookout and carpark, then down again back onto Waitpinga Beach for the walk back to the cars. The cold wind was gone.

Lyn reminded me that it was Jeff's birthday the day before, but I never saw him, I only saw my group, being the first group, and some of the second group - both being a coachload each. <blog edited>.As Herta climbed the steps of the new boardwalk up to the carpark, those of us waiting cheered as she finished her last section of the trail. Moments later, Michelle came up. "Herta's just finished the trail," I said, "well that's a pity, because it's over there," pointing to the older boardwalk some 20 metres walk further on. A magnificent moment enjoyed by all when we held up our trekking poles, well, except me of course, because I had forgotton mine, to form an arch for her to walk through.On Waitpinga Beach stopped to take a photo of the crashing waves by some rocks. Snuck past really. This <blog edited>at Parsons Beach!A fun time back at the carpark, <blog edited>Now I've just got to write that bit I always do, as suggested by my Physio, to note the performance and condition of my knees. Like last walk, they were fantastic. As I said, I had forgotton my trekking poles, realising this when I arrived at the Waitpinga carpark and saw other people with their poles, but I knew it was going to be a fairly easy walk. They are mildly bruised. That's it. Not quite good enough to cycle to work today (Monday), but even still, there has been much improvement! I'm so surprised after the Melbourne experience, just 3 weeks ago.

Mmm. I just realised, when uploading all the finished photos and artwork, that I spelt Balquhidder wrong everywhere... with the one exception of just then...

Caroona Creek to Mt Bryan East

2006-07-09T20:15:00.000+09:30

<blog edited>

Today we started walking with me feeling a little disorganised. I had to tape my knees after getting off the bus, because the bus was over-full, so I couldn't stretch out my legs straight to tape my knees. So everyone had to wait while I did some hasty knee taping. <blog edited> Anyway, the walk soon turned good. I had also mistakenly grabbed yesterday's map for today's walk. So I had little idea where we were, just what I could recall from the map. As you can see from the photos, this weekend's scenery was in quite some contrast from the 3 days of last weekend - the bareless hills of the mining town of Burra. This weekend was lots of saltbush interspersed with low trees. Everything looked cool, backdropped by the unknown, the unmarked on our maps, ranges off in the east. <blog edited>Tourilie Gorge was a highlight today. After many of our days of hiking had been heading north and east, after morning tea, we sharp turned westwards to enter this gorge. A gorge soaked in history. History held in time. The settlers on the westward plains, before the railways, had bullocked their produce and supplies through this gorge to the steam paddlers on the river. Their road was still there, built up retaining walls, guard rails on the edges, blasted cuttings, and even old nails from the bullock trays? All the more amazing because this area was so little visited once the railways were established. Abandoned to nature, only to be taken up years later by a hiking trail. Amazing, and it really stood the test of 100 years + of disuse. Most of it was in remarkable condition, the dry wall retaining walls supporting the track in good condition, very few collapses. Even the fence posts and some loose wire forming the guard rails still in place. Carefully routered fence posts. Amazing. Olly found the nails, and even pieces of pottery, amazing stuff! Stumbled across some lovers, and yes, they seemed to be! Their car and double swag layed out, she seemed most awkward about being seen unexpectantly by so many people. Need to do a more interesting lunch in future I think, getting a bit bored of my standard Nutella sandwich and nuts. Fruit is still good, but maybe some celery and carrot sticks with dip? Robin's certainly looked good!

So glad to walk this weekend, really missed not walking at the last End to End 3. <blog edited>

Mt Bryan East School and ruined church were special, we used the combination for the lock from the guidebook. We should have stayed here last night! We, as in Lyn and myself, had discussed it last time. But no-one seemed too enthusiastic. After the walk, which finished by 3pm, we drove off to Hallett to check the accom options there, the pub, or Hallett Railway Station which had been converted to a Heysen Trail hut. John and Julie were also there, and after talking to some locals found an art gallery that would be willing to accommodate us. We are a bit sick of staying in Burra, and if we are prepared to go down for the evening meal, it was a very viable option. Not many others were interested, but Lyn is certainly keen. Hopefully there will be a small group of us there next time! Next weekend we walk up and over Mt Bryan itself, it will be good to walk straight to our place to stay, and not drive for 1/2 an hour.

We stopped off at the Gaslight Tearooms in Burra on the way home, a regular little Burra end-of-walk thing to do now! The scones, which had looked so good, were just too sweet. The drive home was cool, <blog edited> Took a few photos out the car window, oh the shame of it. Well, my cd has ended, and my typing isn't so accurate now, so I shall sign off. <blog edited>

Black Jack's Shelter to Caroona Creek

2006-07-08T19:41:00.000+09:30

I'm didn't expect this. Knee pain, yes. Mild, YES!! No limping! None! Not one step! Melbourne last weekend, I just thought my whole knee thing was hopeless. But now? Woah. True, <blog edited> Now, to the important stuff, my Heysen walk weekend. Day 1.

So, the best day in months for knee pain. That we have already established. To be honest, I really can't remember today much. Looking at the map doesn't help. Let me just load up Photoshop and thumbnail the photos to prompt my memory...

Actually, while that's loading, I do remember some details... this weekend's walk were on the edge of no-where. Literally. Look at a road map of the state, and notice something remarkable about east of Burra. White space. No road. No features. Nothing. Just 100km's of white space. What's there? Nothing, I presume? No dirt tracks, no 4WD tracks, no homesteads, nothing. Dead space. We walked the edge of this space this weekend. Roads where few and far between. Homesteads, water tanks and bores, cattle, even fences, all few and far between on this weekend. It really was the edge of nowhere! But, testament to the original settler's determination, or ignorance, Goyder would say, there were still stone ruins. Some remarkably close together. Far too optimistic, these people! We had morning tea at a ruined one roomed house, within close distance to a similar but more standing house. And aloe vera plants. They survived. Nothing else did though!

This weekend's walk were gentle, Saturday being the hilliest, but nothing compared to last weekend up here. Sunday was certainly gentle up then down. Lunch today was at the top of one of the early hills. We had spent almost two hours driving again. Those bus drivers really aren't concerned about the roads they drive down, or should I say tracks? Newikie Creek was something. The first sign of civilisation since the bus drop off and it's associated sigting of the red sheds of Caroona Homestead (it didn't even really looked lived in, like many homestead out this way - all looked 1950's lived in). A shack. First impression through the distant trees - a bomb shelter. No seriously, that was it's shape! It's almost liked we stumbled across someone's Maurijuana crop!! A little tin shanty, nestled in a man-made hollow in the creek walls, a creek with water in it! A rusty old water tank nearby, very old school, like 1880's style. Not round, but square. Small. We peered through the cracks in the roof (enough cracks for everyone to have a look, should they wish to). Normally, I wouldn't have entered, but there was a sign that said "enter at own risk", it rather assumes people enter! So I did. I was rewarded with a sign, something to the effect that it had been here for 20 years + and to respect other people's property. Almost an invitation to camp here! Certainly a very, very, isolated spot, apart from the odd Heysen Trail walker of course!

I had done my usual map thing. Scanned and colour printed a map from my map book. Why carry 1200km of maps for just 20km of walking? Lucky that. Did a copy for Bev too, she coyly asked for one last time! Lucky that. These were the only two maps present from the current map book. Everyone else, yes, even the leaders (Jerry and Gavin) had the old strip maps, well, Jerry had his map book (secure in his car boot!). So Bev's copy was comandeered for the leaders to use! Apparently there had been many re-routes since the strip map was printed. Phew. Lucky for my maps! Although we did have GPS, and some of the sections today were remarkably well maintained, clearly signposted at regular intervals, branches trimmed, almost like the path had been swept. I think the leaders could have done with that maps this morning though, we parked and were picked up 1 point something kms off the trail, beyond Caroona's Creek. Nice camping set-up there. So super isolated.

The drive back to Burra was like 40 odd kms, some 40 odd minutes. Dirt roads, some not even marked on the map. Some maps showed the Caroona Creek Conservation Park, obviously from the signs and other facilities quite a new set-up.

Saturday night, walking to the pub, it was obvious that me knees were so much better than any other time for months and months. I wasn't cautious when showering, I didn't stiffly limp from the showers back to the tent, I didn't limp to the pub for tea! Tea, what a screw up. Our third time here, and the reservation, despite so many people staying in the hotel, booked for Sunday night, not Saturday. Oh my goodness, did this stress out the staff or what? They gave us so much attitude, despite the fact that they obviously coped with it quite well. We had to be seated in the front lounge, the dining room was closed for a wedding reception or something. They got so grumpy by the many different meals we ordered! But we were, unlike previous times, served very qucikly. And the guy, unlike the women, was much more accommodating and was still nice, not with attitude! Overall though, felt like a bit a rushed meal, having to order and be served so quickly.

Jim, perhaps better known as Olly or Oliver, and Ken, with his pink cheap tent (a mate's pink tent that was cheap!) were in the caravan park in tents. Ah good, some company. Jeff had taken to the pub for his accommodation. We, as in Lyn, had picked up Jeff, from his Modbury North home. Rhonda, Bev and Hilary, despite leaving home earlier than us, got totally lost, going from Wattle Park (to pick up Hilary) to Golden Grove (so not on the way!). When we got to Burra, they weren't there, much a concern for Lyn. How could they not be there when they left home before us? Ah, they went a totally stupid way out of Adelaide! But their extra time still meant they got to Burra at five to nine.

Tapanappa to Balquhidder

2006-06-24T13:44:00.000+09:30

So well before my alarm went off at 5.50am Sunday morning I had decided not to go. Yes, it's true, perhaps I shouldn't have drank what I did the night before, but those effects were long gone. I was sick. Last night having a shower before going out, I felt the first signs of my body fighting an infection. Mmm. Yay. Not. But it would be the first time I have been sick this year, and for quite some months before that too. So when I woke, or kept waking, hot, cold, too hot etc, muscles aching and my throat sore, I dreamt I was walking and it was all good. But then I would awake, cold, sore. Recalling that I am actually doing these Heysen walks for fun, I decided not to go. I could imagine walking today when I was really sore and had a thumping headache. I didn't want to take that risk. So I slept another 5 hours. With the help of that 5am nurofen, my headache was largely gone, and I felt quite good, the muscle soreness and throat had subsided somewhat. So then I regretted not going! But now, here, writing this at 1pm on Sunday arvo, I am feeling quite sore and tired just doing this. True, I'm not that sick at all, and the alcohol wouldn't have helped, or the 5am, always a hard time to try to work out if you feel alright to walk that day.

Wandallah to Black Jack Shelter

2006-06-12T20:46:00.000+09:30

Burra to Wandallah

2006-06-11T16:53:00.000+09:30

Worlds End to Burra

2006-06-10T21:50:00.000+09:30

Here are the photos & journal entry!

Cobbler Hill to Tapanappa

2006-05-28T17:41:00.000+09:30

A good walk for my knees (thanks to tape, braces and trekking poles!!)

Old Burra Rd to Worlds End

2006-05-14T18:09:00.000+09:30

Alas, my knee was too sore & stiff to walk. Have to catch the 15km up sometime. A short walk, about 4-5 hours. Simon was generous enough to loan me his car, so I went into to Burra. But I couldn't really walk too well... so I just drove around a little. My imagination soon got the better of me, and I set myself and assignment to take 5 photos that typified Burra. That was hard, I took 7. I took some photos back at Burra Gorge of things around, my knee had improved a little so I could actually walk by then. Rest is an amazing thing.

Webb Gap to Old Burra Rd

2006-05-13T17:36:00.000+09:30

After this day my knees hurt so much and were so stiff I had to forego the second day of the walk, from Old Burra Road to Worlds End.

Cape Jervis to Cobbler Hill

2006-04-30T17:31:00.000+09:30

Map of Heysen Trail

2006-04-28T16:19:00.000+09:30

More maps available from www.heysentrail.asn.au