We said goodbye to Karma at today’s drop off. From here, we are on our own with no vehicle support. We have light packs today as we left behind unnecessary items like tents at the cottage but from tomorrow (as Jacob Dillon, of Wallflowers fame,sang) we’ll “have our world strapped against our back.” It rained a bit last evening as the change came through but it’s a partially sunny day this morning; I expect the sky to clear as the day progresses. Starting off from Gleeson’s Landing, we dropped down to the ocean, passing by a few people rough camping along the ocean. We had a short beach walk, crossed over some headlands, then went onto a much longer beach walk. We pass a young family on the beach, hard at work building intricate sand castles. It was spitting a little bit of rain that was misting my sunnies but nothing so bad that I felt the need to pull rain gear out. I walk a slightly quicker pace than Chris so I pulled away on the open beach as I opened up my stride on the reasonably firm sand; I’ll wait for him at the beach exit. Coming off the beach, I climb up the dunes at the beach exit and wait for Chris at the top. It’s starting to sun up now and the flies are gathering. We now follow the coast from an elevated position along dunes and cliff tops. There really is no marked trail and lots of vegetation so our pace slows considerably as we work our away along this - always keeping an eye out for 🐍 snakes!! WtY trail is funny; it started as mostly an over-groomed gravelled bike path four our first week heading south down from Pt Wakefield but here the path is close to non-existent and the trail markings sparse and erratic. I mean it’s not like you can really get lost and at times there is a path to follow; I just don’t like bush bashing through dune ecosystems and would prefer any walking damage is to a confined trail. Plus one would get less scrapes on the lower legs! But I guess people spread out on different paths and there are few of us so the cumulative damage is low. As always, the colours of the ocean below us are beautiful; and becoming better in the brightening sunlight. I get out the head net as the numbered flies grows annoying. We drop down and walk a narrow and sometimes rocky beach. The tide has come in enough to “pinch” us in a few spots but we get through without wet feet. I come around a bend in the beach and see an expansive wooden staircase at the beach exit. It must cost quite a bit to invest in structures like this and maintain them but they are much appreciated! We stop for lunch on one of the two benches at the top where we have magnificent views. I look out at the turquoise water and spot something odd - dolphins! I’m excited as I’ve been looking for marine mammals for weeks and haven’t seen them other than a lone seal at our Cape Elizabeth water drop. And not just a few dolphins, there are multiple large pods - perhaps one to two dozen animals- feeding, playing and breaching occasionally as they traverse just below us. We watch them all through lunch and even as we start walking again as we head up the rocky headland towards the Corny Point Lighthouse that we can now see in the distance. This section of coast is fantastic; colourful and rocky with waves crashing onto the rocks. The trail is a bit more difficult as we bash through the scrub and climb up and down little sand dunes and blows. We reach the picturesque lighthouse and no one else is there. Built in the late 1800s, it was manned for thirty seven years before being automated in 1920. The old light keeper’s cottage had been demolished and the stone used elsewhere. Chris and I split up for a bit after the lighthouse as I chose to climb down and follow the coast and he took the high path on the cliffs above the headlands. I reckon I chose better as I had some lovely photos back towards the lighthouse and on the headland point (which Chris missed) I came across a seal or sea lion colony on the distant rocks off the point. Hard to miss them as they were quite noisy! The water became flat and shallow around the point, becoming more like a large sweeping bay and no longer having the raw energy we experienced the past days. I caught up to Chris on a small cliff overlooking a large bird rookery on rocks out in the water; the largest number of concentrated birds we had seen yet. Multiple species including a few large pelicans. We dropped down to the sea grass littered beach and walked along the firm sand with virtually no waves. I came across a lady with a small dog who was a volunteer looking after Hooded Plovers. She was checking on a chick (which have extremely poor survival rates) but it appears to have finally left the nest. Walking on we had to cut back up to the road where we were dusted by a few vehicles. At Corny Point, we re-entered the beach. Only 3-4 kilometres to go now. We walked past a large tractor with a boat trailer that the owner left standing in the shallow salt water, apparently confident that it would not be swamped by tides nor waves. Chris and deviated up a beach access road 300 metres or so to stop by the general store and a late 2nd lunch. I got a small serve is salt and pepper squid and a Corona. I took mine back down to the beach where there was a lovely shelter. Chris was tired and ate in front of the store in an unattractive table on a parking lot. He was going to road walk the final two kilometres to the cottage while I was taking the slower but more scenic beachwalk. I ate and made friends with a few hungry gulls. I found I had a bar of 4G signal so I posted yesterday’s trail journal and had a chat with Lisa. It was an easy 40 minute walk to the caravan park although I arrived quite some time after Chris. Tomorrow we are back to full and heavy packs, tent camping and no support for the final week. Tomorrow’s distance is long at nearly 30 kilometres but the final six days are relatively short and in the low 20s. Goodby slackpacking! Bring on the backpacking!

Hiking/Backpacking

Yorke Peninsula Council, South Australia, Australia

time : Oct 21, 2021 8:58 AM

duration : 7h 27m 2s

distance : 25.3 km

total_ascent : 191 m

highest_point : 37 m

avg_speed : 4.2 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

We said goodbye to Karma at today’s drop off. From here, we are on our own with no vehicle support. We have light packs today as we left behind unnecessary items like tents at the cottage but from tomorrow (as Jacob Dillon, of Wallflowers fame,sang) we’ll “have our world strapped against our back.” It rained a bit last evening as the change came through but it’s a partially sunny day this morning; I expect the sky to clear as the day progresses. Starting off from Gleeson’s Landing, we dropped down to the ocean, passing by a few people rough camping along the ocean. We had a short beach walk, crossed over some headlands, then went onto a much longer beach walk. We pass a young family on the beach, hard at work building intricate sand castles. It was spitting a little bit of rain that was misting my sunnies but nothing so bad that I felt the need to pull rain gear out. I walk a slightly quicker pace than Chris so I pulled away on the open beach as I opened up my stride on the reasonably firm sand; I’ll wait for him at the beach exit. Coming off the beach, I climb up the dunes at the beach exit and wait for Chris at the top. It’s starting to sun up now and the flies are gathering. We now follow the coast from an elevated position along dunes and cliff tops. There really is no marked trail and lots of vegetation so our pace slows considerably as we work our away along this - always keeping an eye out for 🐍 snakes!! WtY trail is funny; it started as mostly an over-groomed gravelled bike path four our first week heading south down from Pt Wakefield but here the path is close to non-existent and the trail markings sparse and erratic. I mean it’s not like you can really get lost and at times there is a path to follow; I just don’t like bush bashing through dune ecosystems and would prefer any walking damage is to a confined trail. Plus one would get less scrapes on the lower legs! But I guess people spread out on different paths and there are few of us so the cumulative damage is low. As always, the colours of the ocean below us are beautiful; and becoming better in the brightening sunlight. I get out the head net as the numbered flies grows annoying. We drop down and walk a narrow and sometimes rocky beach. The tide has come in enough to “pinch” us in a few spots but we get through without wet feet. I come around a bend in the beach and see an expansive wooden staircase at the beach exit. It must cost quite a bit to invest in structures like this and maintain them but they are much appreciated! We stop for lunch on one of the two benches at the top where we have magnificent views. I look out at the turquoise water and spot something odd - dolphins! I’m excited as I’ve been looking for marine mammals for weeks and haven’t seen them other than a lone seal at our Cape Elizabeth water drop. And not just a few dolphins, there are multiple large pods - perhaps one to two dozen animals- feeding, playing and breaching occasionally as they traverse just below us. We watch them all through lunch and even as we start walking again as we head up the rocky headland towards the Corny Point Lighthouse that we can now see in the distance. This section of coast is fantastic; colourful and rocky with waves crashing onto the rocks. The trail is a bit more difficult as we bash through the scrub and climb up and down little sand dunes and blows. We reach the picturesque lighthouse and no one else is there. Built in the late 1800s, it was manned for thirty seven years before being automated in 1920. The old light keeper’s cottage had been demolished and the stone used elsewhere. Chris and I split up for a bit after the lighthouse as I chose to climb down and follow the coast and he took the high path on the cliffs above the headlands. I reckon I chose better as I had some lovely photos back towards the lighthouse and on the headland point (which Chris missed) I came across a seal or sea lion colony on the distant rocks off the point. Hard to miss them as they were quite noisy! The water became flat and shallow around the point, becoming more like a large sweeping bay and no longer having the raw energy we experienced the past days. I caught up to Chris on a small cliff overlooking a large bird rookery on rocks out in the water; the largest number of concentrated birds we had seen yet. Multiple species including a few large pelicans. We dropped down to the sea grass littered beach and walked along the firm sand with virtually no waves. I came across a lady with a small dog who was a volunteer looking after Hooded Plovers. She was checking on a chick (which have extremely poor survival rates) but it appears to have finally left the nest. Walking on we had to cut back up to the road where we were dusted by a few vehicles. At Corny Point, we re-entered the beach. Only 3-4 kilometres to go now. We walked past a large tractor with a boat trailer that the owner left standing in the shallow salt water, apparently confident that it would not be swamped by tides nor waves. Chris and deviated up a beach access road 300 metres or so to stop by the general store and a late 2nd lunch. I got a small serve is salt and pepper squid and a Corona. I took mine back down to the beach where there was a lovely shelter. Chris was tired and ate in front of the store in an unattractive table on a parking lot. He was going to road walk the final two kilometres to the cottage while I was taking the slower but more scenic beachwalk. I ate and made friends with a few hungry gulls. I found I had a bar of 4G signal so I posted yesterday’s trail journal and had a chat with Lisa. It was an easy 40 minute walk to the caravan park although I arrived quite some time after Chris. Tomorrow we are back to full and heavy packs, tent camping and no support for the final week. Tomorrow’s distance is long at nearly 30 kilometres but the final six days are relatively short and in the low 20s. Goodby slackpacking! Bring on the backpacking!