The Heysen Trail (South) - Part 7

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24 May 2009

In rainy weather Ruth and I drove the two hours from our home to the Trail head at Tapanappa and were greeted with stunning vistas of the Southern Ocean and Tunkalilla Beach in the distance. We registered with the walk group and climbed on the bus for the ride to the start point at Cobblers Hill where we visited the smelly camp toilet before setting off by ourselves. The first 2 kilometres to Eagle Waterhole were down hill along bush trails and was quite easy and pleasant although a light rain fell along the way. From here we climbed a steep little hill along a car track for about 1.5 km's before I had this bright idea for a short cut, I miss read the map and we followed a track heading towards the beach, before I worked out the mistake we had travelled two kilometres out of our way, fortunately we got some good photographs, unfortunately the slog back up the hill was a killer.

When we returned to the trail marker there was a group coming a long the trail so we took off down the mountain side infront of them building up a substatial lead by the time we reached the valley floor and negotiated Tent Rock Creek at the bottom. It was then a seriously steep and tough almost vertical climb up the side of the hill, by the time we scrambled onto the ridge top and exited the scrubby forest we were both puffing. A short time later we spotted the fast group at some parked vehicles on the next ridge over, Ruth and I set off down the hill and into scrub forest but by the time we emerged from the trees the group had gone.

As we climbed up this small hill we spotted a patch of large mushrooms growing on the other side of the fence near a dam, would have been nice to pick them but I didnt have anything to put them in. On arrival at the top of the hill we encountered some of the walk groups support people who wanted to know why we were walking alone, I told them we were trying to catch the fast group up ahead.

We then continued along the trail overhauling the group ahead while they stopped to eat their lunches, we chose to continue on decending a steep hill down to Deep Creek Waterfall where Ruth stepped in the mud and fell over while I was taking a photograph of the falls. We joined the group here for the near verticle climb up the next steep hill, by the time we reached the top both our legs were wobbling, importantly though we could see our car parked on top of the next hill over.

One more steep decent into a ravine followed by a switchback trail up the the next hill brought us to the end of the walk and some of the best views imaginable.

13 June 2009

This morning Ruth and I drove the 120km to the trail head about 23km south of Burra arriving late but fortunately not misssing the bus. The countryside at this time of the year looks alot like Mongolia with the rolling hills dirt roads and occasional farms. This section of the trail, about 22km in length, was a pleasant walk, although strong winds made walking difficult at times.

The walk would ultimately take more than five hours and incorporate much open farm land. Commensing at Web Gap Rd, an initial easy climb took us through a gap in the Tothill Range before following the foothills north for 5 kilometres before climbing again through Niblet Gap returning the walkers to the western side of the range.

Here we were provided with some great views of Apoinga Lagoon and surrounding country side, from here we marched into a strong breeze for the next 12km, apart from a few horses there was little of interest to see until we arrived at Huppatz Hut. We rested here briefly before all walkers began the final push of about 6km up a steep hill to a ridge line and down the other side to where the vehicles were parked. I especially enjoyed the climb to the ridge top and the wonderful views from the summit.

On completing the walk Ruth and I went to find the next trail head before heading onto our accomodation in Burra, we booked one of the miners cottages near the Kooringa Pub. That evening we went on a pub crawl visiting all of the towns five pubs spending much time carousing with the locals, unfortunately we over did it a bit and I was not up to going out to walk the next morning so Ruth and I went and got a big breakfast and went to see the the scattering of tourists sites around the town before heading back to Adelaide around 11.30.

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Photos

Pretty caterpillar
Deep Creek

Ruth in a ruined fire place
Near Huppatz Hut - Burra