Chris told me last night that he was planning on a slow start tomorrow, so walk on without him and we would meet up at the end of the day at the Point Turton campground. I expect he just wanted some time to himself; both of us are used to walking solo and no doubt my talkative nature must get old fot him. I’ve been increasingly pulling apart from him this week to give him a break but perhaps a long walk on his own today is just what he needs. Despite we have nearly a 30 kilometres to walk today, we are in the tents tonight so there is no point reaching camp too early. I got up by 7am, took my time having brekkie and packing up and was walking by 8am. Chris was up but no idea when he planned to set out. Leaving the caravan park, I walked 400 metres or so to rejoin the WtY trail on the beach. Heading east (we are on the top of the Yorke “foot” as the peninsula looks like a leg and foot on a map), I had the novelty of walking straight into the rising sun. The beach on this end of Corny Point was piled shoulder high with sea grass, only cleared off by the tide near the water. If I was lucky, I had sand to walk on by the water’s edge; otherwise I sunk into deep ankle high sea grass mats which soon made my shoes wet. I was happy when the beach opened up and I had clear firm sand underfoot. The beach was covered by many shells and I listened to them crunch as I walked. I kept seeing large number of sizeable abalone/ paua shells as I walked which I thought was odd as I believe they attached to rocks and I seemed to be walking along a huge sandy tidal flat with no reef? There were lots of bird life including the endangered Hooded Plovers but other than birds there was little variation in the scenery and I had 16 kilometres of this sameness stretching in front of me! I learned long ago when facing long monotonous walks - time to get the EarPods out, put on some fav tunes and lengthen the stride out so that distances just melt away as your mind wanders. The kilometres melted away as I hit a fast >5 kph pace and sang along to my fav tunes. After nearly an hour of walking, I came across a structure built from driftwood and shaded by shade cloth. Good place for my first break; with a heavy pack full of a week’s food, I decided a break every 90 minutes or so would be a good idea. After 10 minutes rest, I was back on the beach edge making time. Soon I saw what seemed to be a black tyre on the beach ahead. When I got close, the black object startled and started moving to the water - I had disturbed a sleeping fur seal. I videoed him as he lazily swam 50 metres out and started paddling around. I also came across a large colony of diving loons; they flew away into the water as I drew close but regrouped on land when I was well and truly past. After a bit less than four hours of beach walking, I finally came to the end of this extensive beach. I exited at a campsite where a couple of RVs were set up. I traversed the headland and soon came to a shelter where I stopped to have lunch. Despite the heavy pack, I was making good time and my body seemed to be holding up. There was a rough boat ramp amongst the rocks at my lunch stop and it was busy with fishermen, some even on small kayaks. Walking on, I returned to a shortish beach with steep cliffs bordering the beach and the cliff top crowded with homes and multi-flight private stairways to provide them beach access. I somehow missed the proper WtY beach exit amongst all this clutter. I came to the beach ends at the headland point and thought I’d be damned if I was going to retrace my steps so I climbed up the last stairs and quietly walked out between the houses, following a private driveway to the public road behind. This is where today’s walk turned less interesting as the last ten kilometres followed the coast but was either shared road walking or a dirt track just back from the road. Either way, dust clouds rolled over me each time a car came speeding down the dirt road. There were a few scenic spots but mostly I leaned into the walk and enjoyed the tunes. Around 3:30 I walked into Point Turton and found the caravan park down by the historic jetty. The caravan park was quite full which was a novelty on this walk. Chris walked in just behind me while I was eating an ice cream after checking in. Great timing. He said he left 20 minutes after me and could sometimes see me in the distance ahead. Pub meal tonight. From here out the walks become shorter at around 22kms. Doing a double at over 40 kms seemed too much. We have the occasional caravan park but also a few rough camps like tomorrow night. I see a change is coming through at the end of our walk bringing high temps preceding the front, then a bit of rain. The fun never ends!

Hiking/Backpacking

South Australia, Walk the Yourke

Yorke Peninsula Council, South Australia, Australia

time : Oct 22, 2021 8:08 AM

duration : 7h 10m 31s

distance : 29.6 km

total_ascent : 177 m

highest_point : 22 m

avg_speed : 4.9 km/h

user_id : gstreet

user_firstname : Carl

user_lastname : Greenstreet

Chris told me last night that he was planning on a slow start tomorrow, so walk on without him and we would meet up at the end of the day at the Point Turton campground. I expect he just wanted some time to himself; both of us are used to walking solo and no doubt my talkative nature must get old fot him. I’ve been increasingly pulling apart from him this week to give him a break but perhaps a long walk on his own today is just what he needs. Despite we have nearly a 30 kilometres to walk today, we are in the tents tonight so there is no point reaching camp too early. I got up by 7am, took my time having brekkie and packing up and was walking by 8am. Chris was up but no idea when he planned to set out. Leaving the caravan park, I walked 400 metres or so to rejoin the WtY trail on the beach. Heading east (we are on the top of the Yorke “foot” as the peninsula looks like a leg and foot on a map), I had the novelty of walking straight into the rising sun. The beach on this end of Corny Point was piled shoulder high with sea grass, only cleared off by the tide near the water. If I was lucky, I had sand to walk on by the water’s edge; otherwise I sunk into deep ankle high sea grass mats which soon made my shoes wet. I was happy when the beach opened up and I had clear firm sand underfoot. The beach was covered by many shells and I listened to them crunch as I walked. I kept seeing large number of sizeable abalone/ paua shells as I walked which I thought was odd as I believe they attached to rocks and I seemed to be walking along a huge sandy tidal flat with no reef? There were lots of bird life including the endangered Hooded Plovers but other than birds there was little variation in the scenery and I had 16 kilometres of this sameness stretching in front of me! I learned long ago when facing long monotonous walks - time to get the EarPods out, put on some fav tunes and lengthen the stride out so that distances just melt away as your mind wanders. The kilometres melted away as I hit a fast >5 kph pace and sang along to my fav tunes. After nearly an hour of walking, I came across a structure built from driftwood and shaded by shade cloth. Good place for my first break; with a heavy pack full of a week’s food, I decided a break every 90 minutes or so would be a good idea. After 10 minutes rest, I was back on the beach edge making time. Soon I saw what seemed to be a black tyre on the beach ahead. When I got close, the black object startled and started moving to the water - I had disturbed a sleeping fur seal. I videoed him as he lazily swam 50 metres out and started paddling around. I also came across a large colony of diving loons; they flew away into the water as I drew close but regrouped on land when I was well and truly past. After a bit less than four hours of beach walking, I finally came to the end of this extensive beach. I exited at a campsite where a couple of RVs were set up. I traversed the headland and soon came to a shelter where I stopped to have lunch. Despite the heavy pack, I was making good time and my body seemed to be holding up. There was a rough boat ramp amongst the rocks at my lunch stop and it was busy with fishermen, some even on small kayaks. Walking on, I returned to a shortish beach with steep cliffs bordering the beach and the cliff top crowded with homes and multi-flight private stairways to provide them beach access. I somehow missed the proper WtY beach exit amongst all this clutter. I came to the beach ends at the headland point and thought I’d be damned if I was going to retrace my steps so I climbed up the last stairs and quietly walked out between the houses, following a private driveway to the public road behind. This is where today’s walk turned less interesting as the last ten kilometres followed the coast but was either shared road walking or a dirt track just back from the road. Either way, dust clouds rolled over me each time a car came speeding down the dirt road. There were a few scenic spots but mostly I leaned into the walk and enjoyed the tunes. Around 3:30 I walked into Point Turton and found the caravan park down by the historic jetty. The caravan park was quite full which was a novelty on this walk. Chris walked in just behind me while I was eating an ice cream after checking in. Great timing. He said he left 20 minutes after me and could sometimes see me in the distance ahead. Pub meal tonight. From here out the walks become shorter at around 22kms. Doing a double at over 40 kms seemed too much. We have the occasional caravan park but also a few rough camps like tomorrow night. I see a change is coming through at the end of our walk bringing high temps preceding the front, then a bit of rain. The fun never ends!