Scott Creek Conservation Park

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If you are looking at the route map you will have to zoom out twice (press the minus button on the left hand side of the map twice) to see the whole route.

Planning

Considering today's weather we are planning to head for a Park near Cherry Gardens called Scott Creek Conservation Park which might offer us a little protection from the elements. The last time we did this walk I remember losing the trail and it being reasonably hot and tiring, but today we are heading for a very pleasant 15 degrees with scattered showers.

Information about Scott Creek Conservation Park

The Friends of Scott creek have a detailed web site available which I might use to identify plants and critters we see.

What happened

The park is near Warrawong Earth Sanctuary (which is apparently closed until 2006). We took the freeway from Adelaide to Stirling and then turned off, right at the first round-about and then right at Healthfield oval, left and then right on Scott Creek Road. We parked at Gate three and headed up on the Bandicoot trail.

Peter was in a bad mood at the beginning of the walk because of the threatening showers - he even wanted to turn around and hang out in McLaren Vale instead of walking! We stalled starting and had our normal picnic in the car instead of on the trail - which made my pack quite light 😊 - I had done some leg exercises the day before and my legs were very sore - up hill wasn't so bad, but down hill was a killer!

Although there certainly were a few showers, we managed this walk without getting wet too often. I think Dan did enjoy hunting out shelter and huddling up under shelter when the rain did come down. This type of changable weather is typical of this time of year. The spring flowers that you can see along the path are steadily increasing in number each week - it really is becoming a colourful display.

There were many birds - but some rarer ones (for us anyway) - we saw a red-breasted robin, and also had a close encounter with a giant wedge-tail eagle. The park is known for its bandicoot population - but as these critters are noctural, we had to take that fact for granted.

In another section of this park is an old Silver mine which we passed on the way out. It looked like it was worth investigating next time (the web sites do say that you need to bring a torch to have a look around).

Dan says...

Mum, Dad and I did the Scott Creek walk on Sunday so we could get our exercise.

I thought about how much loving care Mother Nature had put in to this Conservation Park. I heard only a few birds - virtually nothing as it was very quiet. The bush was filled with beautiful flowers which made for a lovely smell. There were lots of big mean ants. We had to move the car as we had parked on top of an ant hill. I was able to feel the serenity of the bush which makes me feel at peace. Life should be just like this walk, do you know why? Because life should have peace and quiet not big machines that go “poot poot”.

And now for my joke of the week ....

Q. What do you call a cow with no milk?
A. A milk dud

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Photos

The cottage
Scott Creek has a few sections, the cottage and silver mine were the parts we will get to explore next time.

Heath
I think this is Common Heath- it was blooming throughout the park and in many shades - ranging from light pink to red.

A mining past
Dan is stading on a metal bucket that would have been used to cart ore from the nearby silver mines

Lemon coloured wattle
Many different types of wattle were in bloom

Flowering bush
Still don't know the name of this one

Heading north
A wedge tail eagle was hunting near by

Bandicoot country
Although we didn't see any, this region is known for its bandicoot population

Comments

[Loretta]

Hejsa
Hi I like your blog. I'm at Coro Valley and youhave inspired me to go and check out Scott Creek Conservation Park, Tak!