Day 57 Eagle Waterhole to Cape Jervis 15km

Last Day. Got to sleep in as I had 15 kilometres to do by lunch time where I would get to meet Belinda and Isabelle.

Got out of bed about twenty past 6 and didn't care how much noise I made packing up as the couple in the tent that had setup about 2 metres behind me didn't seem to mind making noises last night. The track winds through a gully following Aaron Creek and then climbs out of the gully to Cobbler Hill. It then heads back to the coast and down and up another gully before going over the hill to blowhole beach.

People fishing and playing on the beach. Got no time for that. It's a long steep slog off the beach. Then the track winds through some cliffs and private properties and some of the spots these people have make me a little envious. Finally there is the last drop down to Fishery Beach where I had a quick bath in a creek to try and get some of the sweat smell of me. The shirt was a lost cause though.

From there the track winds it way through coastal scrub In parts its sandy and it just seemed to go on and on. I kept trying to see the end. I thought I was close when I saw a Trig marker on a hill. But this is called Lands End and it's still 1.5kilometres to the end. I could see the ferry departing. The bloody thing nearly got to Kangaroo Island before I got to the end.

Then finally I spotted two figures in the distance. My first thought it couldn't be them as the sizes didn't seem right. Isabelle couldn't have grown a foot taller in 8 weeks. Then they waved. I thought that's them then. As I got closer I was going to take a video but I kept tripping on some rocks they had put down. Then Isabelle came running up the track. I had picked a Lilly from the creek when I had a bath and I gave it to her. It looked a little worse for wear but she thought it was special.

So finally I crossed the end. No brass band except the one that plays in my head. The last section of coastal walk is one I would recommend any one to do. Unless you have trouble with narrow paths along a cliffs edge. So it's all done.

 

Day 56: Balquhidder to Eagle Waterhole Campsite

Early start today. Full moon though gave plenty of light to pack up and no torch needed to walk the roads and paddocks to start with.

Had a long day planned not just distance but a long beach walk and a lot of elevation change. After the walk through the roads and paddocks I came to this ridiculous hill that goes down onto Tunkalilla beach. I thought I had made a video but it didn't happen I must have double tapped as its 1 second long. However the hill is steep. Like it drops a metre every step. In the video I didn't make I mentioned any other place it would be used to abseil down but not on the Heysen.

I turned around and went down backwards using the fence as hand hold. If I slipped I would have dropped face first onto the top barbed wire. Anyway I noticed the tides the day before and wanted to walk the beach early at low tide.

The beach walk is about 6 and bit kilometres long and I really didn't want to walk up along the soft sand and rocks. It turned out to be an easy walk along a hard packed highway. I noticed Kangaroo tracks on the beach going down to the waters edge and then back up. I'm wondering whether they like the beach as much as we do.

Getting to the end of the beach I saw a lot of children running around (about 10). As I got closer I could see 1 man at the waters edge and 5 or 6 out surfing. These blokes had it right when they told the wives, we'll get the kids out of your hair and they all go down the beach for a surf and then take shifts on the beach making sure the kids don't inconveniently drown or something.

I stopped and had breakfast watching them surf and a pod of dolphins prowling? the surfline. The trail then climbs back along the cliffs. A misstep would not be nice along here. You then start winding along tracks through Deep Creek Conservation Park. The trail winds up to Tappanappa Camp area. I was impressed with this area as a campsite and would be a good base to have a look around this area.

The walk past here was a well graded walk with a lot of daytrippers and campers doing the trail to the deep creek waterfall. It was getting hot and I was dripping sweat but I climbed back up out of deep creek to another campground called Trig. My target though was a hikers camp about 5 kilometres further so it was down into another gully this track not so formed more like the Heysen I am used to.

The climb out of the gully of Tent Rock Creek this afternoon was a chore. It was the fourth major climb of the day and I was buggered. The track passed through some area that was burnt out then dropped down into the camp site.

I met couple of day hikers who were planning a moonlit walk to finish at Tapanappa camp ground around nine. I didn't have the heart to tell them that the moon wasn't rising till 8 or 9. I had walked by moonshine at 6 in the morning and it didn't set till after 7. Another group of three hikers came in about 5 but it was the two that came in at 7.30pm. It was dark and we had all left the table and were settling into our tents when they arrived by torchlight.

They weren't speaking English and I don't know whether they were tourists but the tent they carried in was 4 person coleman set-up. A very heavy tent. In a box was a blow up mattress which they then blew up with a battery powered blower. I thought to myself what other crap have they got when I heard the clinking of wine bottles. I don't know how far they walked with all this stuff. There was a road about 400 metres away so they might not have walked far. Just hope they took it all out with them.

 

Day 55: Waitpinga to Balquhidder Campsite 13km

The walk today was a short one of only 12 or 13 kilometres. The end day is set so it's no good me getting there any earlier. I managed to pack everything up early though to beat the mosquito hordes. Its then a short walk across a wooden walkway through the dunes to Waitpinga Beach.

There was a lot of moisture and fog in the air as the sea fog had come in overnight and as the day warmed up it moved off shore. There was a walk along the beach and a bloke was fishing he had caught two fish and he had buried them head first in the sand with just their tails showing and I could see why when a large gull landed beside them and started pecking and trying to pinch them. The fisherman was about 50 metres down the beach casting into the surf.

The trail follows the beach then over a headland to Parsons Beach where two surfers were having an early morning start. After that it's a climb along the some coastline before the track headed back up through farmland and diverted inland. Balquhidder campsite is in a paddock visible from the road but just down a hill from a large shearing shed. I arrived before lunch and found nice spot in the sun that was flattish and setup.

The afternoon was spent cleaning and redoing the water sealing on my boots washing up in the creek that went past and washing my shirt. Another hiker came in late afternoon but we didn't talk much just the usual pleasantries as he setup his tent and climbed in and dozed off.

By the time I had finished my dinner and got in for the night he then got out and started his dinner in the dark. I try to get all the work out of the way before dark so I don't have to do everything by torch light. I had an early start planned in the morning so lights out was fairly early.