I was up nice and early today as I had 25km to walk with some hills to negotiate, and I wanted to make it to the Georgetown Hotel in good time to enjoy the facilities and rest up before my last day on trail. It wasn’t hard to get up early as I slept right next to the window, and could hear the morning birdsong starting up just before 0500! Thankfully there were no furry residents scurrying around in the night. I left the gorgeous Curnow’s Hut at 0730 and was soon enjoying the sunshine and beautiful views climbing up and skirting the edge of Bundaleer Forest, looking back on where I had come from, before heading up and up. I got phone reception so gave my husband a quick call to check in. Heading up Campbell Range was lovely. The spectacular views on both sides were amazing. I had such good weather. The trail markers on this section were sometimes hard to spot, meaning frequent map checking was required to make sure all was well. I think it has a lot to do this the tall grass this time of year. Oh how I wish I’d bought my gaiters! I soon met back up with the lovely dry stone wall and followed that before entering more private farming land and crossing paddocks, skirting ponds and following the creek for a while, before heading up more hills. I had lots of sheep for company, not that they were ever happy to see me of course. Off they ran as soon as they saw me. I made sure not to startle them, as there are still plenty of lambs with their mothers and I didn’t want to be the cause of them separating by quickly fleeing. By this time is was midday and the sun was out in force, meaning for the first time this section hike I actually had to remove a layer! Not wanting to get sunburned I kept my long sleeve, high necked merino layer on, which wicked away the sweat pretty well. Lunch on top of what I dubbed Hill H after the map marking was nice as I caught a cooling breeze. After lunch I surprised myself by feeling done with quiet and felt the need for some company, so I popped my headphones in and listened to a podcast. As it turns out it was the best thing I could have done as once down off the hills I had 8km of possibly the most excruciating and boring road walking yet on the HT. I was hot, it was dusty when cars flew past me, my feet were tired and aching and I wanted a cold drink at the Hotel so bad!! So I didn’t feel guilty at all in getting out the old headphones. Technology has its place. I arrived at the Hotel all sweaty and stinky and so grateful when Lou the owner showed me to my room. She has done a marvelous job updating the rooms upstairs and is very hiker friendly. I felt no guilt whatsoever in staying here rather than Hiskey’s Hut, which is only 2.5km down the trail. After a rest and a wonderful hot shower I ventured out to wander the town, reading the information signs showing wonderful photos of the town of old, then headed back to the pub for a cold cider before dinner of a delicious chicken schnitzel with veggies and a Clare Valley Riesling. Got talking to two other hikers who are up here with an End to End group doing some hiking - this weekend is a long weekend so they are doing three sections but we won’t be on the same section of trail tomorrow. I retired to my room for a quiet evening as the live music started downstairs, full, warm and happy.

Hiking/Backpacking

South Australia, Australia

time : Sep 30, 2022 7:32 AM

duration : 6h 48m 5s

distance : 25.7 km

total_ascent : 538 m

highest_point : 714 m

avg_speed : 4.2 km/h

user_id : sarahc

user_firstname : Sarah

user_lastname : C

I was up nice and early today as I had 25km to walk with some hills to negotiate, and I wanted to make it to the Georgetown Hotel in good time to enjoy the facilities and rest up before my last day on trail. It wasn’t hard to get up early as I slept right next to the window, and could hear the morning birdsong starting up just before 0500! Thankfully there were no furry residents scurrying around in the night. I left the gorgeous Curnow’s Hut at 0730 and was soon enjoying the sunshine and beautiful views climbing up and skirting the edge of Bundaleer Forest, looking back on where I had come from, before heading up and up. I got phone reception so gave my husband a quick call to check in. Heading up Campbell Range was lovely. The spectacular views on both sides were amazing. I had such good weather. The trail markers on this section were sometimes hard to spot, meaning frequent map checking was required to make sure all was well. I think it has a lot to do this the tall grass this time of year. Oh how I wish I’d bought my gaiters! I soon met back up with the lovely dry stone wall and followed that before entering more private farming land and crossing paddocks, skirting ponds and following the creek for a while, before heading up more hills. I had lots of sheep for company, not that they were ever happy to see me of course. Off they ran as soon as they saw me. I made sure not to startle them, as there are still plenty of lambs with their mothers and I didn’t want to be the cause of them separating by quickly fleeing. By this time is was midday and the sun was out in force, meaning for the first time this section hike I actually had to remove a layer! Not wanting to get sunburned I kept my long sleeve, high necked merino layer on, which wicked away the sweat pretty well. Lunch on top of what I dubbed Hill H after the map marking was nice as I caught a cooling breeze. After lunch I surprised myself by feeling done with quiet and felt the need for some company, so I popped my headphones in and listened to a podcast. As it turns out it was the best thing I could have done as once down off the hills I had 8km of possibly the most excruciating and boring road walking yet on the HT. I was hot, it was dusty when cars flew past me, my feet were tired and aching and I wanted a cold drink at the Hotel so bad!! So I didn’t feel guilty at all in getting out the old headphones. Technology has its place. I arrived at the Hotel all sweaty and stinky and so grateful when Lou the owner showed me to my room. She has done a marvelous job updating the rooms upstairs and is very hiker friendly. I felt no guilt whatsoever in staying here rather than Hiskey’s Hut, which is only 2.5km down the trail. After a rest and a wonderful hot shower I ventured out to wander the town, reading the information signs showing wonderful photos of the town of old, then headed back to the pub for a cold cider before dinner of a delicious chicken schnitzel with veggies and a Clare Valley Riesling. Got talking to two other hikers who are up here with an End to End group doing some hiking - this weekend is a long weekend so they are doing three sections but we won’t be on the same section of trail tomorrow. I retired to my room for a quiet evening as the live music started downstairs, full, warm and happy.