Cold night, around or below freezing, I reckon. We’ve set alarms to get up in the pre/dawn light and I find the outside of my tent is covered in a thin layer of ice. We have brekky in the predawn cold and watch a thin ribbon of red grow on the horizon as the sun rises. I finish eating and pack the final things. Packing my tent still makes my gloved fingers ache but at least I can shake much of the ice off. I hate packing a wet tent! It’s a long straight dirt road walk for much of the way into Burra. I finally pick up reception and see it is -0.5 degs out (feels like -2.5 deg C!). I take the opportunity to upload yesterday’s trail journal. My uploads will become more sporadic as I go north and have to seek out signal opportunities on peaks etc. It’s easy, boring and chilly walking. Fortunately there is no wind like last year as the freezing wind can make the walk miserable. Geert is not a conversationalist as we walk, although quite chatty in camp. I blather on and on but finally stop in embarrassment at my lengthy monologues. So no point in trying to use conversation as a distraction to make the kilometres pass by faster. He is lucky I don’t sing out loud which is how I sometimes pass the time when solo. I walk on ahead and wait for Geert when the trail finally leaves the road. Yay! A change after 11.2 kms of mostly straight boring road walking. Can you tell this isn’t one of my favourite sections of the trail? We follow a straight fence line so it ain’t exactly interesting. The only breaks are two detours to get to passable areas of these huge three metre deep erosions gullies. Eventually we come out on the bitumen Burra Highway and have to walk several kilometres on this somewhat busy regional highway. I hate walking along high speed highways and it hurts my feet. The only saving grace are the broad patches of colourful gardenia wildflowers on the verge! Eventually the trail leaves the highway for a 4WD climb up into the hills behind Burra. I wait for Geert to catch up and we take a rest together. Then we climb but I’m happy: this is the prettiest part of today’s walk and in four kilometres, as coffee and slice of pie awaits! The walk into Burra passes reasonably fast although clearly Geert is footsore. We finally catch our first glimpses of town and before too long we are sitting outside the St Just Cafe (excellent btw) and having coffees, fruit salad (oh, I miss fruit on the trail) and a slice of banana caramel pie. Geert’s partner Kate arrives soon after. It’s nice to meet her and she is lovely and friendly. They say goodbye and take off so Geert can have a shower. I wait a bit longer for Lisa, get cold so I walk to the historic Paxton cottages and check in. No sooner am I in the cute historic room, Liss arrives! It’s great to see her. I’ve now showered, changed into normal clothes in the bag Lisa brought and even did Laundry. Rest day tomorrow. Rest day tomorrow. In a few minutes, we’re off to La Pecora Nera for a great meal with Geert and Kate and our dear friends Sharon & Chris (who, I expect, will be hungry as they biked you Claire today on the Mawson Trail). Ah, the glamping life for me! Carl / Pilgrim ———— Weather: Very cold morning, below freezing. The day had the potential to be nice but it stayed partly cloudy and cool to cold Calories burnt: 2430

Hiking/Backpacking

Heysen Trail, South Australia

The Regional Council of Goyder, South Australia, Australia

time : Jul 9, 2020 7:37 AM

duration : 8h 0m 22s

distance : 24.5 km

total_ascent : 301 m

highest_point : 546 m

avg_speed : 4.3 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

Cold night, around or below freezing, I reckon. We’ve set alarms to get up in the pre/dawn light and I find the outside of my tent is covered in a thin layer of ice. We have brekky in the predawn cold and watch a thin ribbon of red grow on the horizon as the sun rises. I finish eating and pack the final things. Packing my tent still makes my gloved fingers ache but at least I can shake much of the ice off. I hate packing a wet tent! It’s a long straight dirt road walk for much of the way into Burra. I finally pick up reception and see it is -0.5 degs out (feels like -2.5 deg C!). I take the opportunity to upload yesterday’s trail journal. My uploads will become more sporadic as I go north and have to seek out signal opportunities on peaks etc. It’s easy, boring and chilly walking. Fortunately there is no wind like last year as the freezing wind can make the walk miserable. Geert is not a conversationalist as we walk, although quite chatty in camp. I blather on and on but finally stop in embarrassment at my lengthy monologues. So no point in trying to use conversation as a distraction to make the kilometres pass by faster. He is lucky I don’t sing out loud which is how I sometimes pass the time when solo. I walk on ahead and wait for Geert when the trail finally leaves the road. Yay! A change after 11.2 kms of mostly straight boring road walking. Can you tell this isn’t one of my favourite sections of the trail? We follow a straight fence line so it ain’t exactly interesting. The only breaks are two detours to get to passable areas of these huge three metre deep erosions gullies. Eventually we come out on the bitumen Burra Highway and have to walk several kilometres on this somewhat busy regional highway. I hate walking along high speed highways and it hurts my feet. The only saving grace are the broad patches of colourful gardenia wildflowers on the verge! Eventually the trail leaves the highway for a 4WD climb up into the hills behind Burra. I wait for Geert to catch up and we take a rest together. Then we climb but I’m happy: this is the prettiest part of today’s walk and in four kilometres, as coffee and slice of pie awaits! The walk into Burra passes reasonably fast although clearly Geert is footsore. We finally catch our first glimpses of town and before too long we are sitting outside the St Just Cafe (excellent btw) and having coffees, fruit salad (oh, I miss fruit on the trail) and a slice of banana caramel pie. Geert’s partner Kate arrives soon after. It’s nice to meet her and she is lovely and friendly. They say goodbye and take off so Geert can have a shower. I wait a bit longer for Lisa, get cold so I walk to the historic Paxton cottages and check in. No sooner am I in the cute historic room, Liss arrives! It’s great to see her. I’ve now showered, changed into normal clothes in the bag Lisa brought and even did Laundry. Rest day tomorrow. Rest day tomorrow. In a few minutes, we’re off to La Pecora Nera for a great meal with Geert and Kate and our dear friends Sharon & Chris (who, I expect, will be hungry as they biked you Claire today on the Mawson Trail). Ah, the glamping life for me! Carl / Pilgrim ———— Weather: Very cold morning, below freezing. The day had the potential to be nice but it stayed partly cloudy and cool to cold Calories burnt: 2430