Wednesday, October 05, 2016 – 28.34 km

The distance between Murray Town and the next campsite, Go Cart Track Shelter, is ~28 km. Normally I would say NOPE to doing that distance in one day on the Heysen, but the HT uses mostly roads in this segment and the first 15 km are fairly flat. Daylight savings time has also kicked in, so it doesn’t get dark now until after 7:00 PM, though I haven’t fully adjusted to the time change yet.

The first half was easy walking as expected, and I completed it without rest breaks since I didn’t want to sit by the roadside. Pesticide here, pesticide there, pesticide everywhere… is what I was thinking. Please remember that I’m traumatized. Reaching Wirrabarra Forest before noon, I gratefully sat down for a snack. The map says ‘pines’ but pines did not appear to be the dominant tree.

The terrain became much hillier and more scenic as the trail approached and began running along the edge of Telowie Gorge Conservation Park. There were good views of Spencer Gulf and the elevation gain and loss was comfortable after I passed the big hill at point D on the map.

I reached Go Cart Track shelter in good time. I’m not usually a huge fan of the Heysen campsites, which sometimes find a scenic spot but more often seem to be thrown in wherever is convenient. Go Cart Track shelter, a large flat roof suspended on four poles, is one of the sites that I’ve enjoyed. It has a view! The night is balmy and I’m looking out over the twinkling lights of Port Pirie.

A long day. Goodnight!