Sunday, October 23, 2016 - 14.79 km Last night was the worst I've ever spent on a trail, and not because of the cow droppings. I slept for three hours, then lay awake for three and a half hours in the cold, then put on my rain jacket and managed to sleep for another three …
Tag: Backpacking
The Heysen 48: Korea in Australia
Saturday, October 22, 2016 - 16.53 Tent warming achieved! Getting up wasn't painful this morning! I had slept late again and just as I was packing up the last of my gear, a group of day hikers arrived. We exchanged greetings but didn't talk further, which was fine with me. I've been experiencing a trend …
The Heysen 47: Trees and Shrubs and Hills
Friday, October 21, 2016 - 15 km Brief thunderstorm overnight. My tent dried afterwards in the wind, so when it began sprinkling again early this morning, I quickly took down my tent and moved all of my gear to the shelter. A downpour began and continued for 1.5 hours while I waited lamely for it …
The Heysen 46: Tourilie Gorge
Thursday, October 20, 2016 - 16.42 km Another scenic day as the HT passed into Caroona Creek Conservation Park. With its hard spinifex, the scenery reminded me of what I had seen hundreds of kilometres further north. Tourilie Gorge was beautiful and dramatic, but easier walking than the gorges near Quorn since an obvious trail …
The Heysen 44: The White Truck
Tuesday, October 18, 2016 - 21.92 km https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49465488293/in/dateposted-public/ Today began with another road walk. I kept seeing white trucks and only white trucks. After awhile I started thinking that they were all the same white truck going back and forth, and that even when it came from the same direction twice in a row, it …
The Heysen 43: We Had To
Monday, October 17, 2016 - 27.18 km I've mentioned before that many of the Heysen campsites seem to be thrown up according to convenience rather than attractiveness of location. Whistling Trig Tank, the campsite between Spalding and Hallett, has this description on the Friends' website: 'This is a windy, exposed site, as evidenced by the …
The Heysen 42: Zero in Spalding
Sunday, October 16, 2016 https://www.flickr.com/photos/186593395@N08/49469955146/in/dateposted-public/ Spalding from afar Today was a zero day in Spalding. I purchased supplies and snacks at the general store. The homemade 'veggie square' was delicious - I don't know what was in it, but it tasted like a frittata. I was originally planning to send a resupply package from Crystal …
The Heysen 41: A Quality Machine
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 …
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 …
BANE OF THE TRAIL 