Daily distance: 19.9km
Total distance: 222.02km
After "Man United" had departed we sorted out our beds, cut the mains electricity and feel asleep. At about 2am a convertable car came racing in, skidded to a halt in front of us and wheel spun out again to go park under one of the trees. The occupants then proceeded to get out, take a walk round the areana then go park on the far side under a tree. About an hour later they came back, got in thier car and disappeared with skretching tires. I dont think too much explanation is needed as to what they were up to.
Great, back to sleep...... next thing I have this heavy breathing over me and when I open my eyes I have the biggest labrador dog looking down at me out the darkness. Well to say I got a fright would be an understatment.... I shouted, which gave Dee a big fright, the dog shat itself and the owner behind the dog shat himself..... Welcome to our morning.
After we had cleaned everything up and the rain showers had subsided we headed off out of town, uphill ofcourse. The walk was great with water on the leaves and bright sunshine. Also fantastic to be in a natural vegetation again rather than plantations. The road meandered along heading towards Bridgewater and our path followed the road but in the bush off to the side. The scenary was excellent and it was great seeing all the houses along the road. Is was so good that I missed a vital marker in the road and continued staright..... Dee pipped up after awhile and said why are we heading to Aldgate? Naturally I knew exactly where I was and said cause thats what the book said we should do. I then sneakily checked the GPS and saw that we had overshot by about 600m. SHIT.....
No problem, Dee got speaking to a local person with a kid and she said to take the next right and it would take us into Briodgewater. Well it took us straight to one of the trail markers, the Old Mill House in Bridgewater. We found an organic eatery, not that I would have minded anything else, and had a sitdown breakfast. Topped up on supplies at the next door supermarket and then headed off up the trail.
The trail took us along the old waterways and aqueduct system, under the highway then up towards the Mount Lofty area. We passed through the Bridgewater golfcourse, through the South Australia Scouts grounds up towards the Mnt Lofty Botanical gardens. Here the route split and we were advised to take the Bot Gardens route as it was less steep. Mmmmmmistake.... It was .........g steep and also 5km longer than the other route. Anyway we got through, up and over the Mnt Lofty gardens part and came out on Mnt Lofty summit road. We then proceeded to walk up and over every little hill and criss cross the road a whole heap of times. It's that Heysen Ausie sense of humour again!
Eventually we got into the natural veg on the eastern side of Adelaide and had awesome veiws of the city below us. We stopped at an old house that was now a Youth Hostel South Australia property, and promptly camped on the verandah for the night. The house was right on a trail from Waterfall Gully up to the Mount Lofty summit, so we had hundreds of runners coming past on the way up. This did not stop during the night and head torches came past all night. It was bitlerly cold so we rigged a shelter, on the veranda to stop the wind and went to sleep.
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