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...
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.
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.
Blog entry links listed below in geographical order, rather than chronological order (blog entries on this site in chronological order). However, I did start at the beginning of the trail at Cape Jervis, and finished the trail at the end of the trail, at Parachilna Gorge, in August 2008. The maps below refer to the official guidebooks, 'S' referring to the Southern Guidebook, and 'N' referring to the Northern Guidebook.
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...
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.