The Heysen Trail: A Long Hike

Sunday, April 29, 2007

A Long Hike

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.

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About this Blog

After a hike up St Mary's Peak in Wilpena Pound (Flinders Ranges, South Australia) in June 2005, I was inspired to join a hiking club. In April 2006, I joined the Friends of the Heysen Trail, and took up the challenge of walking the 1200km Heysen Trail (South Australia), from Cape Jervis, on the rugged south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, to Parachilna Gorge, in the Flinders Ranges.

"The Heysen Trail passes through some of South Australia's most diverse and breathtaking landscapes, traversing coastal areas, native bushland, rugged gorges, pine forests and vineyards, as well as rich farmland and historic towns."

I completed the Heysen Trail in August, 2008.

If you visit, please leave a comment on one of the blog entries, or email me a private message: jez@jeremyc.com. Thanks.

GPS Maps

A note about the GPS maps appearing on this blog. Prior to September, 2007, all Google Maps are mash-ups, drawn on-screen. Initially, I favoured the satellite image as the determining where to draw the trail, but later I started to rely on the map view to determine where to mark the track - this being more accurate when satellite images would later be updated (the map and satelite often don't closely match up). As of September, 2007, all maps are generated from a GPS unit, so can be considered accurate (particularly when looking at the map view). Of course that doesn't stop me from wandering off the trail...

How I walked

Intro
I'm walking the trail with The Friends of Heysen Trail. I walk two weekends a month, which is 3 days, for the 8 or so months of the year when the trail is open, for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The Hiking Club
The Friends of Heysen Trail is a club whose primary focus is on maintaining the 1200km Heysen Trail, which stretches from Cape Jervis in the south of South Australia, to Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges. The club does organised hikes, including the End to End hikes. They have hikes almost every weekend, often having several hikes each weekend, some easy, others harder. Anyone can go along, the cost is $7 per walk (cheaper by pre-paying), but after having walked two walks you are expected to join the club, which is about $20 per year. The walk programme is available on the club's website, and also the guidelines as to what to wear and what to bring.

How the Walks Work
We usually meet somewhere near where the walk will end, sometimes in the city first to car-pool to that meeting location, then for $10 each we get taken by a bus to the start of the day's walk. From here, we break into smaller groups if need be, and walk back to the cars. The End to End walks involve about 6 hours and between 15kms and 25kms of walking. It's very well organised, and easy to join in (I joined without knowing anyone). There are always new people to meet, and everyone is always very friendly.

Two Groups
I'm walking with two smaller groups within the hiking club: End to End 3 (the 3rd group to start walking from one end to the other) started from the trail start, at Cape Jervis, in April 2006. This group has about 100 people in it across a broad range of ages. These walks are on one Sunday per month. End to End 2, the second group, was just south of Burra when I joined them, it only has about 20-25 people in it, many of whom are older, but they are still cool! We walk one weekend per month, meeting Saturday for a walk, staying overnight in a local town, then walking again on the Sunday, being too far from Adelaide to travel that far each day. I like this because you spend more time with people and we all share a meal together at a pub or restaurant on the Saturday night. Both groups are walking northwards.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

A Long Hike

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