Daily distance: 16.2km
Total distance: 238.22km
Up in the dark and people were already on the way up the summit with their head torches on. By the time we got moving up the slope there were hundreds of people going up and down. I did think of Jeff-fa-fa at this stage as most of the runners were young women with tight running kit on. Kinda made the climb to the top not so bad. We got alot of encouragement from loads of people which kind of makes it worth while doing what we are doing.
The veiw from the top was something else. The city of Adelaide and the whole coast all the way to Kangaroo Island was visible in the rising sun...... took tons of photos. Once again the amount of runners coming up and down was amazing. We pulled out our cooker and made a cup of coffee, charged the tablet on the solar charger, enjoyed the veiw all before packing up and heading down to try get to the town of Norton Summit by 13h00 for a pick-up by Jeff.
Going down the mountain was worse than going up but with our new sticks it was easier. We turned north off the main runners trail, even though the Heysen was being shared with the Yarribillo Trail now. We went into indigenous eucalyptus woodland and the birds were amazing. Saw my first Golden Whistler, nesting Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Adelaide Rosella, Rainbow Lorakeet and Superb Fairy-Wrens were all doing their thing. The trail did it's usual steep up and down that had us out of breath and struggling. At one stage the path got so steep we were almost on our bums going down when 3 mountain bikers came flying past..... NUTS.....
We stopped for coffee and to have a break and a whole heap of runners came past. On seeing us with stools out and coffee they all ordered cappucino.... funny people...... We kept seeing the odd runner come past and I just marveled at how fantastic it is for these city folk to come a couple of minutes out the city and go for trail runs or walks in bush, even women on their own......
We passed some elderly folk taking a break and they told us they saw Koala's down the gully we were heading to. Heads up and looking round was how we went after that. We stopped at the bottom of the gully at a particular steep section and Dee spotted one directly above us. After that we saw quite a few and I found the best way to find them was by finding their dung and looking up. The art of tracking 101......
We passed a few ruins of folk back in the 1800's and just when we thaught the track could not get any steeper.... it did, again, and again, and again. When we got to the top it was clear we were not going to make the 13h00 pick up time. Not to be outdone Dee put her head down and put foot! The trail crossed the main road a couple of time and both Dee and I though we would see Jeff come past. Later we found he actually saw us....
We walked down into the small town of Norton Summit half an hour late and found Jeff sitting.... UPSTAIRS. Swine...... with a cup of coffee. It was awesome to be off our feet after a long fast walk and have some well earned coffee and lots of sweet eaties. Jeff's warped sense off humour came out again when we left and he took us round the back up-another-fucking-hill to the parked car! 15 Minutes later we were back in Adelaide heading to the footy oval to meet Belinda and watch Nick play footy.
Now I have spoken about Ausie Gaurdian Angels before and have to mention a couple who have snuck up into that category..... Jeff's family Maggie and Mike.... They have put us up again with no hassle, saving us a good couple of hundred dollars, dropped us at the resturant last night, helped with washing...... yeah just amazing and we cannot thank them enough.
Dinner last night was great and the club after definetly an education. To sleep, perchance to dream.......
Today, day 17, we spent with Belinda, Nick and Jeff and headex to Handorf a small German town in the Adelaide Hills area. We had lun h and walked the town before Nick and Belinda left to get Nicks fingers xrayed and checked for fractures from the footy the day before.
Back at Maggie and Mike going to have a roast chicken dinner. Life's tough!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment