After a long time trying to get our schedules to line up, eventually my friend Petra and I were able to settle on a weekend we were both free, so Sam and I headed off to meet her on the beautiful Fleurieu Peninsula. I met Petra when we trekked together in Patagonia a couple of years ago and this was our first time catching up since we got back from that trip. I have a theory about people I become friends with on walks and treks, its almost as though once your thrown together for days, sometimes in harsh conditions you develop a friendship that allows an easy camaraderie, I find the same kind of friendships take a lot longer to develop in the 'normal world' and are a lot rarer. Over the years I've met numerous people on adventures that I now call friends and while we may live completely different lives in different states or countries, when eventually we do catch back up in person its like we were together yesterday and the relationship doesn't miss a beat. And so it was with Petra, within a few minutes of turning up we kicking back, having a drink, and curing the ills of the world.
Petra had organized a holiday house in the small town of Carrickalinga and after meeting her charming friends Kaye, Dawn and Daryl we settled in for a night of travel stories. Everyone seemed to be extremely well travelled and as usual I came out of the night with a lot of inspiration for some new adventures. We were fascinated to learn that Kaye was planning a trip to Patagonia and then down to Antarctica, very similar to the trip Sam and I did a few years ago. Not to be out done Dawn was planning on climbing Mount Aconcagua in Argentina, a very hard core undertaking which our friends Paul and Rachel attempted a few years ago. With Petra and I planning a trip to Peru next year there was a lot to talk about.
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The Kangaroo Island ferry terminal maybe isn't the most scenic start to the walk.
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The plan for Saturday was to do a bit of a car shuffle, leaving one car at Cobbler Hill camp and driving in the other one down to Cape Jervis and then walk back to the car at Cobbler Hill camp. Sam was going to head off towards Adelaide for some retail therapy while the the rest of us did the walk. We were about to head off around 8am when Daryl realised that he'd bought along two right boots, so after a bit discussion we decided to drop one car off and then drive back to Yankalilla to buy Daryl a matching pair of boots. Starting the trip an hour later was still about three hours before I normally start my walks so I wasn't really concerned, the later start also had the benefit of missing most of the rain that had blown through that morning, so all was good!
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Walking along the low sandy cliffs towards Lands End.
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| The local's checked us out. |
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After parking near the Kangaroo Island ferry terminal we headed into the rapidly brightening gloom. The group quickly spread out with me in my customary position at the back. The views on this walk were a highlight, there was barely a time that the Southern Ocean wasn't in view, and the views across the Backstairs Passage towards Kangaroo Island were also a constant. The first few kilometres wondered along the tops of sandy cliffs with the odd holiday house above us to our left. Passing by Lands End we meandered along the low cliffs before stopping at Fishery Beach for a bit of a break.
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That's Kangaroo Island in the distance.
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I think the Wedgetail Eagle was checking me out for a feed.
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| Fishery Beach. |
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From Fishery Beach the track started to 'Toblerone' a bit over some grassy hills. The lack of vegetation providing even better views as now the track was gaining a bit of height. The only section of the trail that caused any navigational issues was along here, we were following an old 4wd track when we came across a private property - do not enter sign. Fifty metres further on we could see a Heysen Trail marker so we basically ignored the do not enter sign, and kept on going along the 4wd track, not sure what the official line is here though. Crossing into the next valley we decided that it was time for lunch, it was now a beautiful day with clear blue skies, so it was rather pleasant sitting on the side of a grassy hill eating lunch while gazing down the valley at the wild Southern Ocean.
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Leaving Fishery Beach the cliffs got a little higher.
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The track climbed in and out of a series of these shallow valleys. |
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All good things come to an end and soon enough it was time to head of on the next stage, crossing the next hill we came across a UFO. Well maybe it was just a bit of Jetson's inspired 1970's new age architecture but a UFO sounds more dramatic. Whatever it was, it was on a stunning piece of coastline perched above Naiko Inlet, it was populated by sheep however and not little green men. The walk was getting better and better as far as the coastal views go, every twist and turn from here to Blowhole Beach provided another photo op. After another thirty minutes of walking along grassy cliff tops we found ourselves dropping down to sea level at the beautiful little Blowhole Beach, time for another break.
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It's a UFO..........riiiight!
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Crossing another beautiful valley.
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| The sheep seem to like the view above Naiko Inlet. |
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Naiko Inlet.
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| Heading towards Blowhole Beach. |
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| Looks like it would be a pretty windy spot for a nest. |
We now had a little more coastal walking before the crux of the walk a climb of around 250 metres up a spur to Cobbler Hill camp. The first section along the coast was a little rougher than than we had experienced so far, the last gully that we descended into before the final climb was extremely steep, Dawn had to take particular care as she was carrying a full pack for training for her up coming trip to Aconcagua. Once we were all down the steep gully it was time to turn away from the ocean and make the climb up to Cobbler Hill camp. The climb was pretty well graded however and the constant changes in vegetation as we climbed inland added to the interest, before we knew it we were back at the car and the walk was over.
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Blowhole Beach.
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I think its a Pacific Gull.
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Another one from Blowhole Beach.
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It'd be an unusual post without a grass tree.
The track climbing up the spur on the far side of the valley, this was the last climb of the day. |
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We were back at the holiday house in time to watch the Aussie's get there ass kicked in the Bledisloe, ah well there's always next year! After a BBQ dinner Sam and I retired early to bed, tomorrow we had an 800 kilometre drive home. It was a bit strange saying goodbye to Petra next morning as the next time we catch up will probably be in Lima, Peru, as Petra says 'see you in Lima' isn't something you say every day. Hopefully Kaye and Dawn put some photos of there up coming trips online, if they do I'll retro post a link.
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| Climbing through the Casuarina's |
The Dirt.
We walked the first section of the
Heysen Trail which runs all the way from Cape Jervis all the way to Parachilna in the Flinders Ranges. The whole trail cover a distance of over 1200 kilometres, the section that we did from Cape Jervis to Cobbler Hill camp was 15.2 kilometres and we climbed 728 metres according to my sometimes romantic GPS. Sam and I stayed at a beautiful little motel in Horsham on the way over called the
Comfort Inn May Park, I've stayed at a lot of these smaller motels over the years and this place was one of the best, it looks like the owners have put a lot of love into the place, I'll definitely stay again when I need to bed down in Horsham.
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| Our last view of the water from near Cobbler Hill camp. |
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