"Fastpacking"

SA, WA & NT specific bushwalking discussion.
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"Fastpacking"

Postby Adventure Racer » Sun 01 Mar, 2015 12:07 pm

Hi all,
I have a question to ask that I hope someone can help me with. I was all set to do half the AAWT next Friday "fastpack" style (ie minimal weight/running where possible) as a fun but challenging training thing for upcoming Adventure Races but it's fallen thru and now I'm all "trained up with no where to go".
I was planning on doing a 6 day/300km with a back up car meet up every second day instead of drop bags but now I am probably looking at a solo thing somewhere else with little time to plan logistically..

I am looking for something that is:
a) is at least 150km/days up to 250/5 days.
b)has some decent "hills".
c)is somewhat accessible either by my car (coming from Melbourne way) or public transport.
d) has access to reasonable water (only want to carry 3 litres if possible as I have to carry more food....)
e) is relatively (as much as one can know :-) safe re avoiding "hunters/boguns/nut cases" for a solo female..part of it is over the labour day weekend most likely.
f) that is relatively straight forward Nav wise.

I have heard there is something called the Southern Island Trilogy (KI and Bruny) does any one know anything about it? Cant find anything under those details...

I'd prefer something in NSW, Vic or SA or maybe Tas.... re travel expense budget. Have done South Coast Track, Great Ocean Walk (well..that one was a running race :-) and some runs/hikes in Wilsons Prom so don't really want to revisit those.

I'd like to cover 50km a day. If I end up choosing something around 250km, somewhere that may have access to a store once or twice that may have something for a Vegan (getting harder all the time eh :D ) would be a bonus but not critical. I don't plan on carrying a stove. I will be eating homemade bars, oats/chia, liquid nutrition, nut, seeds and fruit/dry fruit and some wraps for early on.

Thx in advance...
Adventure Racer
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Re: "Fastpacking"

Postby walk2wineries » Thu 05 Mar, 2015 7:08 pm

Sounds like the opposite of my gentle hedonistic approach.

But seriously - have you considered concatenating walks within reasonable distance of public transport - there's a sale on at the moment and airfares are ridiculously cheap. For example, if you looked at http://www.southaustraliantrails.com/pdf/yurrebilla.pdf and also at the http://www.burnside.sa.gov.au/Discover/ ... ing_Trails then your first day could be a lot longer than the suggested Day 1 of the Yurebilla by doing a detour to Waterfall Gully and/or Chambers gully - actually lots of choice including some of the Heysen within Waterfall Gully area - then back up to Mt Lofty House or somewhere for the night. Lots of hills. But several places to top up with water. Similarly day 2 - Horsnells gully has quite steep tracks heading down to the city, easy enough to plan to extend your walk - or indeed just continue through to the end. While I haven't counted you should also find 50km of tracks within Morialta - also nice and hilly, there are 3 sets of waterfalls. The last bit, to Ambers Gully/Black hill is close to me; as you come out of the Ambers gully walk which is the end of the Yurebilla trail, you meet the main ridge track which is steep enough that most of the fire trail has been reinforced with bessa brick type pavers, there's a good network of hill trails up there. Or (and btw loos and water at that point) you are now at the hills end of the Torrens Linear Park which runs I think about 35km to the sea; its labelled "level" - bits are undulating of course, probably more urban than you would normally look for but you'd need to carry very little water and there's transport to various points.

There are several other linear, or creek trails, in and around Adelaide which provide green corridors to parks- eg 4th and 5th creek trails to Morialta, or the Dry Creek system of linear parks, and they would take you up to the hills conservation parks such as Morialta, Black Hill, and Anstey. Ditto on the south side but I'm less familiar with those.

I suspect you've probably considered - there are vendors on the GOW which provide drop-offs and pickups, and certainly if you are going 50km you'd be passing campsites each day with water. Ditto on Great South West.

Good luck!

Good luck
walk2wineries
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