ay 52: Mt Compass to Heysen's Rest 26km

Today was a much better day for walking. Cool morning and sunshine. Little bit of frost but not enough to worry me.

I walked out of the caravan park about 6.45am after a cold night. No power meant no heater and I was stuck to a very small area in the bed as it was also cold an the only spot warm was what I made warm. The power did come back on about 4.30 am as I had a light on that woke me up. If I was more with it I could have remembered to turn the heater on but I just flicked the light off and rolled over.

The initial walk is up a road.Not to arduos but I was feeling a strain in one of my legs. Worried that I may be hobbled so close to the finish, I took some voltaren and kept going. First pills I have had to take on this trip.

When you climb up the hill it then turns into a grazing property and follows a ridge line for a couple of hours. Being a pleasant day meant the walk was enjoyable and not at all difficult. It looked like most of the walk was through one property. I thought from the ridge line I could see the ocean in the distance. Then its a drop of that ridge then down a road and a climb up to another grazing 

property.

The highlight of the day was the Yulte Conservation Park. Just a pocket of native vegetation and some steep climbs but lots of birds and I saw another echidna. Just the general feel of the place made me happy. At one stage I sat and tried to distinguish how many different bird calls I could hear and I got up to 15. A true birdman could tell me whether they were same birds calling each other or not.

I read that a lot of these zones generally came from the farmers giving up the land as it was too difficult for them to farm. They would pay for a lease and of course they were expected to stock it to certain levels or clear it etc. If they could convince a bureaucrat to take the difficult areas back then they were saved a few dollars. 

This is probably why there are so many of these areas in steep gullies and hidden valleys.

I sat on a ridge line and had lunch overlooking Myponga. then after descending the ridge it was a road walk to a B+B called Heysen's Rest where a beer comes with the room. The room is much flasher than I expected.

Got in around 2.30pm for a 25 kilometre walk. Tomorrow is only 15 kilometres so no need to leave too early and the lady is making me breakfast in the morning.