Saturday, October 15, 2016 - 18.7 km I began walking around 8:00 AM this morning. Therein followed a long episode, of which I should feel very ashamed, of me trying to avoid fording the muddy reedy creek and eventually fording it with a show of great drama witnessed by no one, the result of which …
Category: Heysen Trail
The Heysen 40: Stake Death
Friday, October 14, 2016 - 13.62 km Today was a beautiful sunny day with cross-country/animal trail walking (picture me sobbing with appreciation) along a lovely stream on private property. Two people were driving down the road from the house as I was approaching, and they didn't return my wave. I wondered whether the landowners weren't …
The Heysen 39: Swarms
Thursday, October 13, 2016 I decided to take a rest day at Curnows Hut to be kind to my foot/because it's so peaceful here/because I can. For most of the morning I basked in the sun on the picnic bench, ducking once into the hut when a giant swarm of bees rose from the trees …
The Heysen 38: See How Little I Ask for
Wednesday, October 12, 2016 - 28.01 km My mood wasn't great this morning. The Heysen has been mostly road walking since Melrose, which has its benefits (no crazy Heysen terrain that takes forever to cross) but also distinct negatives (boring, mostly bad scenery). So I don't want difficult hiking, but I don't want easy hiking …
The Heysen 37: Birds in a Hut
Tuesday, October 11, 2016 - 22.9 km The Heysen left Crystal Brook via road walking, then followed fences across grazing land to the Rocky River. https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49465443003/in/dateposted-public/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49465445753/in/dateposted-public/ The river wasn't wide or deep when I arrived, so I was pleasantly surprised when the HT directed me to a small cement bridge for the crossing. A …
The Heysen 36: Crystal Brook
Sunday, October 09, 2016 Rest day in Crystal Brook today. I was lazy and didn't return to the caravan park for laundry. Sylvia Plath made some reasonable points in The Bell Jar, right? I contacted the Friends to ask whether there's any access to the maps online, or whether I could purchase one in Crystal …
The Heysen 35: Annoying Mapchild
Saturday, October 08, 2016 - 5.72 km The Heysen website claims that the distance from Bowman's Hut to Crystal Brook is 5.72 km, but it seemed shorter. Maybe it's 5.72 km to the other end of town, where the Heysen leaves. https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49465438298/in/dateposted-public/ After some road-walking, the HT turned onto a golf course and meandered across …
The Heysen 34: NO HELP
Friday, October 07, 2016 - 20.23 km Before falling asleep last night, I saw the clouds start flashing and thought 'uh oh, storm'. The flashing wasn't accompanied by thunder though, and shortly I heard the sound of a vehicle. I buried my face in my mummy bag in case it was drunk/creepy people and lay …
The Heysen 33: Tannins
Thursday, October 06, 2016 - 19.8 km https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49465412778/in/dateposted-public/ There was some head-scratching this morning as I studied my map, trying to decide whether the trail to Ippinitchie Campground is part of the official Heysen route. It's not listed on the 'Heysen Trail distances' section of the website, which is what I've used for planning. It's …
The Heysen 32: The 28.34
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. …
The Heysen 31: Roads and Planes and Snakes, Oh My
Tuesday, October 04, 2016 - 18 km This morning I hitchhiked from Crystal Brook to Melrose to continue from where I had left off before the storm. Traffic was sparse, so I was lucky to catch two rides within a reasonable time frame. The Heysen started out on a road, then directed me to walk …
Continue reading The Heysen 31: Roads and Planes and Snakes, Oh My
The Heysen 30: Crystal Brook
Monday, October 03, 2016 I spent a few days in Adelaide waiting for the weather to improve and the floodwaters to recede. Today I took the bus to Crystal Brook, which is the next trail town heading SOBO after Melrose. I had to stop in Crystal Brook before returning to Melrose because my bounce box …
The Heysen 29: Bailing out
I decided this morning to bail out to Adelaide for a few days to 1) escape the bad weather, since I was unable to get a bed in Melrose; 2) see about fixing my tent by either replacing the carbon fiber pole extender with a PVC tube or getting the damaged part of the extender …
The Heysen 28: Tentpocalypse
TENT CRISIS!! TENT CRISIS!! STORMPOCALYPSE!! After a lovely blue-skied morning, the weather turned sour. The change began with torrential winds while I was puttering around away from my tent, and I returned to see that it had collapsed. I assumed the problem was a front stake(s) issue, but when I got there, I found that …
The Heysen 27: Resting + Nervous
Tuesday, September 27, 2016 Rest day in Melrose. I picked up my resupply package at the PO, played cricket and footy with a family who fed me homemade bread and baked beans with tomato sauce, read a book from the campground's offerings, and chatted nervously with people about the weather. All of the caravanners from …
The Heysen 26: Mt. Remarkable Day
Monday, September 26, 2016 - 12.35 km Onwards and upwards! I was glad to be starting the day with a climb up Mt. Remarkable, because it's all downhill to Melrose after the summit and I could use a nice prolonged downhill. The path up was a road, quite steep in parts. The summit offered a …
The Heysen 25: Hilly McHillface
Sunday, September 25, 2016 - 13.98 km My current tent is a Zpacks Altaplex, bought to replace my Big Agnes Fly Creek. You know that saying, 'I hate every new tent less than my last one'? No one could hate the Altaplex in fair weather. It's light, spacious and offers a great view with the …
The Heysen 24: $6 Poncho
Saturday, September 24, 2016 - 25.15 km It rained steadily in the last few hours before dawn, but the downpour had dwindled into drizzle and a sky filled with patchy clouds by the time I started walking. I put on the $6 grocery store poncho I had bought to supplement my old rain jacket, which …
The Heysen 23: Maybe There’s Rum
Friday, September 23, 2016 - 16 km More stream crossings this morning. I counted six within the first half hour, but then was treated to a beautifully constructed trail up to the summit of Mt. Brown, where an observation tower offered a fantastic view. https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49464888367/in/dateposted-public/ After the tower, the HT crossed a rocky piece of …
The Heysen 22: Return to Quorn
Thursday, September 22, 2016 - 21.27 km After toying with thoughts of the Bibbulmun, I decided to finish the remaining ~950 kilometres of the Heysen this fall/Australian spring. Though the scenery was usually pretty rather than spectacular, the Heysen always interested me in a 'drunk boss at office party displaying increasingly erratic behaviour' sort of …
BANE OF THE TRAIL 