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| The Waitpinga Cliffs. |
Last weekend I decided to make the quick road trip over to South Australia to catch up with some old friends, do a little walking, and a lot of eating, drinking and talking;) My first port of call, so to speak, was the pretty seaside town of Victor Harbor. It was a fairly tired Feral traveller who pulled up at the hotel just after 10pm after managing to cram in a days work as well as a nine hour drive into the day so far. Now a sensible person would probably call it a day about now but no one's ever accused me of being sensible, and besides it's not every day that I'm reunited with an old friend. Petra and I have walked together in various countries over the years and is one of those like minded people that as soon as we meet up, even if we've been apart for a year or so, it's like we've never been apart and the friendship resumes from were it left off last time we were together. I might of waffled on about my travelling friends before but I have a theory....What's that? I'm glad you asked. My theory goes along these lines. I reckon when you walk or trek with someone it can turbo charge the relationship, living and relying on someone closely for days on end seems to quickly build a strong relationship. I've got numerous friends scattered around the world from my travels and when we meet up, sometimes after years apart, the relationships normally continues on as if we were never apart. Petra definitely falls into the never been apart category and we spent the next couple of hours catching up, chatting, laughing and probably making the neighbours wonder what was going on.
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| Looking towards Newland Head from Waitpinga Beach, the start of our walk. |
We were up pretty early the next morning and after breakfast headed off under perfect blue sky to the start of the walk at Waitpinga Beach, dropping my ute off at King Beach on the way. Our stroll today was along a 12 kilometre section of the long distance Heysen Trail so once we were on the way navigation wasn't going to be much of an issue. After watching the somewhat mesmerising sets rolling into Waitpinga Beach for a little while we eventually headed off up into the coastal scrub towards Waitpinga Camp, me assuming my usual position when walking with Petra, that being struggling along twenty metres behind her trying to keep up. Passing through the camp we headed gently uphill along some old vehicle tracks, avoiding a few side tracks we followed the Heysen Trail markers through the coastal scrub of Newland Head Conservation Park before eventually topping out out at a high point where views up and down the coast started to open up.
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Initially we climbed up to the Waitpinga camping area, looks I'm already struggling to keep up with Petra!
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| Reaching the high point above Newland Head the ocean views started to open up. |
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Our route soon started to drop gently towards the coast again although we wouldn't be dropping back down to sea level for a couple of hours or so. Meeting the Southern Ocean again we turned north east and started the highlight of todays ramble, the cliff top walk to King Beach. The cliff top walk starts off a little rough initially as it descends and climbs steeply in and out of rocky gullies. When the path wasn't climbing and descending it was passing through the low coastal scrub, the flowering coastal heath perfuming the air with a sweet aroma which only added to the day. Stopping for a bit of a break on the cliff tops I noticed something below us in the turquoise water, a pod of dolphins slowly making their way along the coast towards Newland Head, hmmm, this was turning out to be a pretty special walk.
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The limestone track along the cliffs is a little rough under foot in spots, but generally it's pretty good.
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Now if you squint and use a fair bit of imagination you might be able to see a pod of dolphins making their way along the coast towards Newland Head.
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| The cliffs of Newland Head. |
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Leaving our dolphin viewing spot we continued along the cliff tops, the track along here is mainly limestone which makes it a little un-even under foot, although it's never too rough. Continuing on our journey towards King Beach the coastal reserve started to get fairly narrow and we sometimes found ourselves walking beside farmland, the paddocks baked golden brown with the recent dry weather. Walking along a short stretch of duck boards gave us a great view along the coast all the way down to West Island, Rosetta Head and along the cliffs into the distance which were slowly descending to sea level.
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The flowering coastal heathlands were quite a pleasant place to be today.
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| Sometimes the Heysen Trail headed inland a little bit. |
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Once again the track along here alternated between the edge of the cliffs and the more open country slightly inland, a few sections through some twisted and contorted eucalyptus trees also added a bit of interest and also a bit of pain for me as I managed to smack my head into one of the branches, yeah I've got the reflexes of a cat...a dead cat! Eventually we descended into a wide grassy gully, the suddenly open country allowing us our first view west back along the cliffs that we had just walked. Climbing up onto King Head the end of the walk was now in sight, but what was actually drawing our eyes was a large fur seal playing in the breaking waves just off the point. I tried to get a photo of the seal but to be honest it's pretty underwhelming, still it was another great encounter on what was turning out to be a very nice walk.
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The trail winds in and out of these twisted eucalyptus trees.
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The Waitpinga Cliffs descending down to sea level at King Beach.
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| Looking back towards Newland Head. |
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After watching the seal for awhile Petra and I decided to wander off on the last short section of this walk. Leaving King Head we contoured around to Kings Beach, our first beach since leaving Waitpinga Beach at the start of the walk. King Beach looks like a nice spot for a swim, with it's scattering of orange lichen covered boulders and white sand, luckily for Petra there were a few too many people around for me to strip off for a skinny dip today! Climbing up to the car park from the beach the great views continued all the way back to the ute. After one last photo looking along the coast to Rosetta Head we climbed into the ute, sinking into the comfortable seats savouring what had been a very good stroll. The day wasn't over for us though, we now made our way back to Adelaide to drop Petra's car off before heading over to the Yorke Peninsula to visit another couple of great friends....but that's a story for another day.
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That's West Island ahead of us.
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Once again if you squint and use a lot of imagination you might see the seal frolicking in the swell just off King Head.
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King Beach
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| West Island from above King Beach. |
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The Dirt.
We walked 12.6 kilometres and climbed 456 metres on this great medium grade stroll. The walk itself is pretty easy but it can get a little rough under foot, the limestone isn't something that you'd want to fall on. Make sure you stop and take in the sea views occasionally and you may be lucky enough to see dolphins, seals or even whales in the right season. I used the notes and map out of Melanie Ball's Top Walks in Australia. The book is published by Explore Australia but strangely isn't on their website - so no link. We stayed at the cheap and cheerful Comfort Inn in Victor Harbour, the hotel had everything we needed including free wi fi, I think I actually stayed in the exact same room years ago on a trip to Kangaroo Island with Sam and Belinda.
Relevant Posts.
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| Rosetta Head, sometimes called The Bluff is a bit of a Victor Harbor icon. |
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| Our last 100 metres on the track, the great scenery lasted from the start to the end of the walk. |
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