Day 17: Quorn to Mt Brown 23km

Left Quorn in the early hours. It was still dark and I got about 2 kilometres out before I didn't need my headlamp. I enjoyed the caravan park. Nothing special just well thought out and clean with plenty of facilities for the camper. No TV though. The pub dinners were great Had a pint and a schooner last night. Mainly to get rid of the change in my pocket. A fair bit of road walking to start with, then you come to a gate with a sign saying "Bull Camel on property". I was wondering how fast I could run when I came across a cross with "Zane 1995-2016" I thought that was the camel. 

The first crossing of the highway and under the Pichi Richi Rail line. A little bit further I sat on a hill and had breakfast contemplating life and the travellers driving the highway. There are a lot of caravans travelling this road north. Then the dreaded fence line and rocky paddock. Then straight up a hill as the Heysen seems to do but the views were spectacular to the west and the east. I came across a silver box on a hill that had a notepad in it. I left my moniker on a page that had faded from what I could see ten years ago....recycling at its best. 

Then there is the drop down of the ridge to go back under the highway and rail line again. There was a car and caravan parked beside the road and as I was coming down the hill they raced down the road, jumped in and took off. I was trying to fathom what they were doing and I remembered there was a geocache (google it) on the rail bridge that Belinda and I had done many years ago. So I wondered if that's what they were doing. 

I walked up a creek line to a camping spot but wasn't too fussed on that site, so decided to start the walk up Mt Brown and see what I came across. Found a beautiful spot on Bald Hill lookout. Set up the camera in timelapse to try and get the best sunset. Used a shit load of memory as I forgot I had it going. But the night was perfect.

Day 16: Quorn

Went for breakfast at the Quandong cafe. They had the fire going and it was lovely and warm inside. Then did a walking tour of the town. It is a very neat and quiet place. A few shops empty but it manages to keep at least 2 pubs going there is a third but it didn't look like it was more than a bottle shop. It looked like there could have been 4 or 5 in its heyday.
I remember thinking a while ago that it was like walking across some old movie sets and I was right. 

There have been few movies made out here with Quorn featured in a couple. The Sundowners was made here plus The Shiralee, Gallipoli, The Water Diviner, Sunday too far Away, Robbery Under Arms and The last Ride. There were a few more older ones as well. Love the architecture of the older houses. It all looked and felt ok in the cold of a winters morning. Wonder what its like in the middle of summer?

A bit of shopping, a postcard for Isabelle and a repack for the next leg. Not a long leg. Only 3 nights, 4 days but two of the bigger peaks to go over in the Southern Flinders. Will have to come back to have a ride on the Pichi Richi train with the family. Another pub dinner tonight and in bed early.

Day 15: Dutchman Stern to Quorn 9.85km

The walk follows a road through the conservation park and eventually reaches an intersection with the Northern Boundary track. This is the same track that I left to spend hours stumbling through a creek bed. Not saying the road wouldn't have been just as taxing as they go up and down with petrol heads in mind. I am sure the Heysen people claim this is the longest dedicated walking trail in Australia. I can tell you there is not much dedicated walking trails I have seen so far. Either fencelines, creek beds, fire trails and station tracks. I think a walk trail is a trail contoured for walkers. The only trail I came across like that was way back at Aroona and I took that by mistake as the Heysen actually followed the road. Whilst the Bibbulmun also follows roads and tracks the trails between are maintained walk trails with switchbacks on steep hills or stairs. It will be interesting further south to see if there is any work gone on there. 
So I came to Dutchmans Hut. You can see where the effort has gone in from the volunteers here. This hut has power, flushing loo, kettle, microwave and a fan in the ceiling. Stopped for breakfast here and a cup of tea. Then back to tracks and onto fence lines to go round the south of Quorn where I could then walk back the 2 and a bit kilometres to town. 
Got to Quorn about 1 o'clock and when the caravan park says check in at 2pm or later they mean it. I dropped my pack at the door and headed across the railway tracks into town. I went past the newsagent and noticed a pepsi fridge and yes they had a pepsi max. Can be hard to find. Lot of coke but the pepsi rep can't be earning much of a living. Back to the caravan park checked in started the normal washing of all the gear and went to the pub for dinner. 
The Quorn caravan park is not bad. The ablutions are a little dated but they have hot water. The camp kitchen is top class with BBQ's, two electric hot plates, Kettle, Toaster and microwave. The laundry is well appointed and has a nice seating area and they also have a camp lounge with a couple of lounges and some games to play. Bunkhouse room was bloody cold though. Has some radiator heater on the wall that didn't do much and I slept in my puffy. I washed my beanie and that was frozen on the table outside in the morning!!

Day 14: Mt Arden Sth to Dutchman's Stern 28.09km

I got up before light this morning. I started walking with my head torch. Which can be a bit tricky when the path is the creek. They have poles with orange glow on them that I was able to pick up but the path other walkers take was harder to see and that meant I went the wrong way a couple of times. It was only half hour but no damage done at that stage. 


The creek whilst closing in in some areas was pleasant enough to walk along. Then you pop out onto a station property with the increase in sheep and flies. A couple of station tracks to walk and I was at the Eyre Depot Campsite. Campsites can be a bit of a misnomer as there are no formed tent sites and at each one there are normally only 1 or 2 spots a tent can go on level ground. This site was exposed with no trees on a rocky paddock. There was 2 sites that campers like me had cleared of rocks on level ground. But for me it was onwards. Now it was trek across open paddocks. 


Paddocks of rocks that is. Lucky there is not much to look at as you spend your time looking at your feet. The one time I looked up was the first tumble I had taken on the trip. Walking across these rocky paddocks wears the legs out with a slide here a stumble there and no value in a lot of the energy you expend walking across them. So I think it was about another 7km of following fence lines then I started climbing the tracks into the hills to the northern boundary of the Dutchman Stern conservation park. 



All the elevation you gain coming out of the paddocks is lost as you go all the way back down to the boundary where you start following a creek. Looking down the creek I am sure it would lead out and around the hills I just climbed to get here. Now this creek was a tiring business as you are climbing at a fair rate on a creek bed. The walls you have to go around get taller and taller. I did stop to look at an eagle and some falcons having a blue in the air and made a video of the cliffs where I think they were nesting then back down the creek again boulder hopping.
Twenty minutes later the creek runs under a looming cliff and after looking at it for a while I realised it was the same cliff - 20 minutes doing a u-turn around a hill. The trials in this creek went on for hour after hour with some of the by-passes of cliffs as dangerous as climbing the cliff. I finally got out of that creek and I was losing the sun. It may stay light for a while but once I am in shadow the the temperature drops quickly. I found the first reasonable spot to set-up the tent and stopped for the night. It was on a bit of a slope so I knew I was going to slide down the tent a bit but in the end I slept 10 hours.
Today was a chore. A few more of them to come.

Day 13: Buckaringa Nth to Mt Arden South 22km

I couldn't have thought it would have got much colder but it did. Slept ok but packing up this morning was hard with popsicles for fingers. Got it done quick enough and was away by 7.15am. Just down from the camping area is a road and the sun was out when I hit the road. Still not much warmth in it. The wind at that stage had gone and it made for a very pleasant start to the day. 

The trail goes up the road a bit and then follows a fence line through Buckaringa habitat sanctuary. It was a fair way before it turns to run through Buckaringa Gorge. The scenery was much better as I pass through one range to get to another. After the gorge the trail wound into a creek which you follow up. It goes or a fair way and climbs steadily. A couple of rocky walls were in the way. I chanted 'beat the wall beat the wall' Put on my Heysen Ninja pants and climbed up. (If you don't watch Australian Ninja warriors you won't get the reference)

After a fair climb the trail starts across country through sheep paddocks then meets up with a station track. Lots of goats through here so obviously the feral pest management was lacking here. I climbed to the top of a hill and from there I could see Mt Arden in the distance and if I thought I had climbed so far then I was in for a big shock as the track just went up and up. 

As you walk across the ridge line a chilly easterly was blowing. The gloves and jacket went back on. I climbed one last big hill only to see the trail lose half the height you have gained to meet up to the final road up Mt Arden. When I got to the road I looked down to see if some car was coming to give me a lift. No such luck. The road is one steep mother and it took me a fair while to get to the top. At one stage my bum cramped! That would be my gluteus maximus. 

At the top I managed to hide from the wind behind a communication building and was able to appreciate the suns warmth. Made a phone call to Belinda. Then moved off the top down a ridge line to the camping area which is in a similar spot to last nights beside a creek and between a couple of hills. Keeps most of the wind out but it is going to be cold in the morning again.

Day 12: Calabrinda to Buckaringa Nth Campsite 19.03km

Cold Cold start to the day. I had all my walking clothes on. Thats a merino thermal shirt, My normal shirt and my rain jacket. I was itching to start walking to warm up.
As I finished packing I noticed I had only one glove. I must have picked it up when packing. A quick scramble through failed to find it but I was confident I had it as I check the ground before I go and if it isn't on the ground it must be in the pack. Which was the case when I unpacked this evening. It was inside the sleeping bag. I missed that glove as the day wore on. I was going to get out a sock to put on my left hand at one stage.
Breakfast was down an erosion gully where I found a spot out of the wind. A lot of gravel road walking for the first part of the day. Then a fence walk. The most interesting bit was a creek crossing that had a lot of erosion and the banks were a lot of different clay. Played a little with it and wondered if it was useful. Couldn't work out why the erosion on this river bank was so extensive. A long walk up a fence line and then over a couple of hills to Buckeringa campsite.

Only 19 kilometres today and I was glad to get the tent up and in it to warm up. It had been overcast all day till I had the tent up and then the sun came through. The phone said it was 7 degrees. Didn't take any gear off all day even on the hills. Heard some explosions this afternoon. Either a war has started or there is a mine somewhere. Hoping for some kind weather tomorrow as I climb over Mt Arden and get phone signal there. The wind apparently chases most people off fairly quickly.