Heysen Trail, Victor Harbor to Mylor (many photos)

[photohiker]

Day 1. Newland Hill to Robinson hill. 18km 561m elevation.

The day started with a bus trip from Adelaide to Victor and a taxi ride out to my start at Newland Hill, walking by about 11:30. Good walking weather and I was down to thermal top after about an hour. The trail skirted around paddocks and tracks with little road walking. I stopped for lunch and attracted the attention of a mob of young cattle who showed great interest in my apple. Eventually one of them plucked up the courage to taste the scrap I offered and seemed to enjoy it.


Like those baby demon horns! Cute!

Most fences the trail passes in this setion seem to be electric and the friends have erected stiles to make crossing easy, as they have elsewhere on the trail. I was surprised to come across an electric fence with the whole gamut of barbed wire etc with no stile, and was about to run the gauntlet by chucking my pack over and do the 'crazy fence wobble' in an attempt to get over without shocks or tears when I noticed this some distance up the fence:


Walker-friendly electric fence.

Simple operation to pull back against the handle, release the wire, step through and re-attach. Thank you Mr farmer!

Some steeper climbing began around 13km and the Robinson Hill campsite was easy to find and the views were excellent.


Walkers follow fence

It was a breezy warm night with some rain but no bother, and it had cleared by the morning. A bright moon shone through the gaps in the clouds and was to follow me the whole trip.

[photohiker]

Day 2. Robinson Hill to Yulte Conservation Park. 27km, 999m elevation.


Early morning from Robinson Hill Campsite

Another great walking day, and I got a lot of it in too. The steep trail began at around 8km and it kept it up (and down) for the rest of the day, the two big climbs being Sugarloaf Hill and the Yulte CP (I camped on the other side of Yulte)


Friendly horse at the base of Sugarloaf Hill. I should have saved an apple!


View from near Sugarloaf Hill, looking back to Inman Valley


Now that's a decent sized tree!

I had left a message for Jayne at Heysen’s Rest B&B to see if I could drop in for some water and I was delighted to find a full flagon of water beside the entrance with a note to me on it! Thanks Jayne! My eventual camp was beside a river, which turned out to be a bit of a mistake as even though it was not raining the air was thick with moisture and I woke to condensation everywhere in the morning. At this point I was 10km short of my plan, so the next day would be another long day, 26km+ - every day is turning into a big day!


The view from Yulte Conservation Park

[photohiker]

Day 3. Yulte CP to Finniss Conservation Park. 30km 711m elevation

Clear day, with just a bit of rain in the last half hour that thankfully stopped before I made camp. This was another solid elevation day. I stopped for early lunch at Mt Cone where I had an extended stop to dry out my gear in the sunshine at the new shelter and tank. Nice spot.


Approaching Mt Cone


The new Mt Cone tank and shelter


Kangaroo Underpass Lots and lots of grey kangaroos on this trip!

The track up to Finniss was a solid slog at the end of a long day and I stopped in at the new Finniss campsite to refil my water and check out the site, but then headed on up to the CP where I had a pleasant night with the friendly company of a puppy from a neighboring property anytime I turned on the light.


The New Finniss tank and shelter

[photohiker]

Day 4. Finniss CP to Kuitpo. 28km 595m elevation.


Finniss Conservation Park

A steep climb from camp, starting with the hike up to Mt Magnificent. I opted not to do the side trip as I knew I was going to be pushing the kms today and the weather was cloudy. Generally hilly terrain (again) for the first 14km or so, and then the forest trails began with generally less steep gradients to contend with.


Roos in the blackberries

It was intersting to walk through sections of Kyeema Conservation Park that had been decimated in the Ash Wednesday bushfires and replanted soon after by school kids.


Myrtaceae replanted after Ash Wednesday

As I entered the Christmas Hill area, I noticed an A4 sign stapled to a post, so went and had a look at it. A diversion around Christmas Hill, on the ROAD!


Diverted! Phooey.

That shot my chances of making Rocky Creek before dark, so I elected to just keep walking until 4:30 and then start looking for somewhere to camp. That turned out to be in the middle of a pine plantation, which was fine during daylight, but I have to tell you it was an eerie experience with near total darkness, no critters whatsoever, almost no sound and no wind. I was up and on the trail quite early (6am) after a cold and restless night.


Don't do this if you spook easily!

[photohiker]

Day 5. Kuitpo to Mylor. 26.5km 416m elevation.

The first km or so today was by headlight as I made my way out of the forest and into the adjacent dairy area. I witnessed the best (misty) sunrise of the trip and had several calves following me along fencelines looking for a drink.


Misty morning, pre-sunrise


Here comes the sun


Kuitpo golden light on a crisp morning


Hungry Calf

Someone had carved a table and chairs out of trees on Claren Rd, so I made use of them for a breakfast stop. Made a change from sitting on the ground. Rocky Creek camp came up at around 9km and 9am, would have been a nice place to camp.


Rocky Creek Hut


Rocky Creek camp site

The last steep climb came up at around 20km and then it was a relatively flat run into Mylor and the end of the walk at about 2:30pm


Approaching Mylor

[photohiker]

General gear and food notes for the trip.

Shelter
This was the first time I went without a tent for a walking trip, sleeping instead in a Hammock. I have to say that while I enjoy the hammock, I’m not convinced I will do that again on this sort of trip. The days were pretty long and strenuous, and I found myself faffing about with the hammock and tarp when I knew that had I chosen my tent, I would have been relaxing in it much sooner. I was lucky the weather was mostly kind so it wasn’t a lot of bother, but on a trip like this with a lot of km to do in a set time I think a quick to erect and dismantle tent is my shelter of choice.

General
Other gear choices were mostly as in previous similar trips. The Jetboil remains surprisingly quick and also efficient. The bulk of the down for quilt and underquilt as well as the extra food pushed me to take my large Exos pack, which I again found to be quite comfortable and convenient. Total weight without water was 14.4kg, the most water I carried was on day 2 (2.5L) as I expected I would not easily find water near camp which proved to be correct, and I did not get resupply until Mt Cone. Other days I generally carried about a litre or so.

A new addition was a Thermarest ‘lite’ inflatable seat, which weighs little but affords great comfort for lunch and rest stops. Invaluable and well worth the $40.

Food.
Dinners were a selection of Back Country Cuisine freeze dried. These are all about 1500Kj per serve. I added 2 serves of either BC rice or mashed spud to each meal, which add another 1000Kj to the meal (measured portions from 5 serve pack beforehand) The addition makes the meal more satisfying and bumps up the Kj, some people buy the double packs of the meals for the same reason, I find that a bit too much to eat in one sitting.

I took a few cup-a-soup packs and had them a couple of nights before dinner, not a lot of calories but nice and warming.

Lunches were mountain bread with tuna from the foil packs (the one with chilli was good) and some cheese. I took some cheesestix which taste yucky at home but surprisingly tasty on the trail.

Breakfasts were muesli with skim milk, pre-packed portions from home, just add water.

Snacks were a nice 'bushwalker mix' from the nut shop in the central market (500g). Good mix of nuts and dried fruits. No lollies, I don't think they are necessary. I also had some scrummy organic oat slices in various flavours made by the All Natural Bakery here in SA - 1800Kj per 100g - Half for morning tea, and half for afternoon tea.

I think this mix of food was about right for a trip like this. I weighed myself before and after and the result was a loss of 1kg.

[photohiker]

And lastly, if this isn't enough photos for you, the rest of the photos are on my Zenfolio site

Thanks for looking

[gayet]

Great report! No photos of the puppy ?

All taken with the Fuji? And its nice to know there are times when a hammock doesn't work. I can happily stick with a tent.

Thanks.

[photohiker]

Nope, the puppy didn't stay still for long enough

All taken with the Panasonic with 14mm. Fuji stayed at home as the weather forcast was for WET and this was really a walk trip not a photo trip. I could have taken it though, as it turned out there was hardly any rain.

I've got some prints ordered from the Fuji, 30x45cm to see how well they print. Pick up is tomorrow...