Heysen trail - Hale Conservation Park

Introduction

Sometimes when I talk to people about this "blogging" thing, they do ask, "So what is your favourite bush walk?" and I reply, that "All walks are great, and they change every time you visit, but if I had to choose one, it would be Hale."

Hale is a small Conservation Park located near Williamstown (the "southern gateway to the Barossa"). It is probably the hardest park to find - we have had 5 visits that I recall and we drive past the turn off every time! To get there go up Main North Road through Salisbury and then take a right hand turn to One Tree Hill. Take this road (nice views for the passengers) to Kersbrook and then through a few corners, following the signs to Williamstown. From Williamstown (great toilets on the main street - always clean) take the Birdwood Road and from the 80 km speed sign it is ~2.1 km to a very concealed right hand turn. You can just see the green Hale Conservation Park sign from the road (if you look carefully...).

Hale has a clearly marked 4 km track suitable for children as young as four. There are poles, indicating how far you have been and how far you have to go, every 200 metres along the trail. There are some steep sections, a waterfall, rocky outcrops, ledges, sensational views and mica. The mica can make the track quite bright in places, so if you have a choice of sun glasses for this walk, choose dark ones. From this trail you can do a longer walk that takes you into the Warren Conservation Park.

You can learn more about Hale at this web site PDF document

What Happened

We had a very pleasant day to do this walk. We normally go around the trail in a clockwise direction, but, to make it a bit different, we went around anti-clockwise, which worked well. The waterhole and water fall, where we have our picnic lunch, was almost dry - certainly the driest we have seen it, but we were kept busy picking blackberries (the treat and the torture for the summer-time bush walker). The bush looked lush and smelt great. We saw the Oyster Bay cyress pines - a tree that normally doesn't grow in SA, particulary on top of the ridge. Many new blue gums have germinated along the path. However, being summer, there were hardly any flowers in bloom. We heard a few birds and were not troubled much by flies. We normally see groups of kangaroos along the trail - but not this time. Perhaps the dry conditions means the birds, animals and insects go elsewhere.
We were back in under 2 hours, with Peter commenting "These walks are getting shorter each time" - but we are all getting much fitter I think. You do get a hearty dose of serenity on this walk.

Dan says ...

When we have done this walk before we have always gone up the high road, but today we took the low road. The low road leads to a blackberry patch where we got a supply.
TIP: when you are picking blackberries always look for the clusters that are all black. If you are going summer bushwalking, remember to bring gloves, scissors and a few band-aids - just in case you find a blackberry patch.

We found some great mica - Mother Nature's mirrors. On the ridge top there is a sign to a mica digging site that you should check out. I got some samples that

Oyster Bay Pine trees

look like mirrors and you can see right through them.

This week's joke is a riddle:

Q: What is at the end of time and space?



A: The letter e

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