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Published: August 3rd 2006
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Sandy creek turn-off
From the Barossa Highway, turn on to Conservation Road (dirt) to get to the Conservation Park. Introduction
This week's walk was at the Sandy Creek Conservation Park in the Barossa Valley. We also had a side visit to the Barossa Valley Dam where we had fun passing secret messages along the Whispering Wall.
Our walk was based on Number 5 in George Driscoll's 50 Real Bushwalks - although if you have the book don't try following the map showing that the trail goes on the western side of the water tank - they must have moved it.
George writes
If you have never tried bushwalking, this is an ideal one to start with.
and I agree with him - it is very gentle and there are birds, flowers and animals to entertain. The path is currently marked with ribbons that help you pick it out from all the animal tracks.
Further information about this park is available - but not much. There is a bit at the
SA Park web as well as a page on how to
rent the Youth Hostel.
How to get there
Head to Gawler, and halfway through the town there is a right-hand turn on to the Barossa highway. Take the highway and pass through the town of Sandy Creek (noting, for later, the turnoff on your right that goes to the Whispering Wall). About 2
km further along the Barossa highway from the Sandy Creek township, there is a turnoff on the right called Conservation Park Road. Take this dirt road to the car park. The entrance to the walk is on the western side of the car park. The walk took two hours, with 20 minutes extra for the picnic.
What happened ...
We had the pleasure of Rebecca's company on this walk. Rebecca is a friend of Dan's from school who wanted to try bushwalking with us.
From the car park we headed across open grassland on the Firetail Link and entered into the bush. This is the area where will we saw many kangaroos, some carrying joeys.
We followed the trail until check point 3 - a table-like signpost that gives you your position on well-labelled maps. We then headed across to Mark Bonnin walkway - a narrow link between two areas of the park, named after the founder of the South Australian branch of the National Parks.
Then it was down a gentle hill towards the youth hostel house situated in the middle of the bush. The house was occupied, so we made our way into
Map of Sandy Creek walk
Our walk is numbered 1-6 the nearby scrub, found a fallen log and used this for our picnic lunch. On the way back we got to checkpoint 2, which is at the apex of the Wren circuit. We followed the new part of the circuit and saw many birds, evidence of kangaroos, wallabies and possums, as well as two car bodies. We weren't able to see the ruins that had been marked on most maps.
The bush is really springing into colour with little flowering bushes everywhere. The air was heavily scented with the sweet smell of golden wattle - quite delightful. Rebecca grabbed a sprig as she had promised her mum to bring some home.
We drove back into Sandy Creek and took the turnoff, this time on our left, to the Whispering Wall. there were a few other well signposted turns to get to the Barossa Dam, 7 km away.
The Whispering wall is a dam that is curved such that it is able to carry sounds from one end to the other with great clarity. You can find out more about this nifty tourist attraction at
Keith Conlon's postcard web site. It even gets a mention in
Wikipedia.
Dan says ...
Hello readers!
Sandy creek? Well why not? It was Rebecca's first bush walk after all. Boy was it easy (but perhaps not for Rebecca). The reasons why we go walking is for the serenity and to see what we can see, but mostly it is for the exercise.
Did we see some kangaroos or did we see some kangaroos? Rebecca spotted the first pair, I spotted the second lot and then Mum spotted the one near the end of the walk.
We saw an old ute and a van parked in the Park. One was by the Youth hostel home and the van on the way back to the car. I have no idea why they were there but I think it would have to be something not known.
The Whispering wall - doesn't that name make you think there is a wall that is alive and can talk to you in whispers? Well you are wrong. You can whisper along the wall and people on the other side can hear you as if you are talking normally. It was not meant to happen, it was just meant to be a simple concrete dam, but the curve, which is meant to make the dam stronger, made another scientific discovery in sound. It was something to do with parabolas - I don't know - but the sound gets echoed along the wall.
I hope Rebecca enjoyed the walk and I hope she can come out again - but this time on a tough one - Onkaparinga perhaps?
This week's joke comes courtesy of Rebecca (who was quoting her Dad)
Q: Why did the tide go out?
A: Because the sea weed!
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Jo Tapp
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Rebecca
Great to see Rebecca joining you on your journeys. loved the old trucks