Day 19: Norton Summit to Sixth Creek Crossing

Daily distance: 19.7km
Total diastance:  259.92km

Started walking from Norton Summit and headed straight up hill for a very short while then started descending into Morialta Conservation Park. This took us on a nice route around a large mountain back onto the northeastern outskirts of Adelaide. The trail got down to a single track through the gullies and over streams with the most amazing veiws. We passed some public works people doing maintenance on the path and I thanked them for a job well done. They were chuffed.

We circumnavigated the mountain inside the park for 8.5km then came back onto the road 600m from where we had left it. If... big if.... the scenary was not so nice on the "walkabout" we would have been severly pissed off! We stopped for a coffee and chocolate break before taking on a long steep climb..... needed the energy. Once toping out on the ridge we followed the road for awhile before leaving it and dropping down towards Sixth Creek. The description of the route was a flipent "the trail gets a little steep so watch your footing" and boy did they understate that by a long shot. The trail followed a fence which was a firebreak road straight down this flippen mountain which never stopped. It was really tough going with Dee taking a tumble and hurting her shoulder. If we did not have our walking sticks it would've been a lot worse!

We finally made it to the bottom only to scare the wool off a sheep at the bottom who had probably never seen anything, let alone humans, come down that trail. We got onto the track following Sixth Creek and had a very pleasant flat walk for the last 2 kilometers.  When the track joined the main road we saw we were not going to make the designated camp site so we went and asked the farmer if we could camp on his propwrty. No problem!

We got the tent up and the rice cooked just in time before the rain started coming down. Due to unforseen circumstances we now also have a tent with a really strong smell of cappucino!

It was a great walk today getting back onto 'wild' single track routes with great veiws. The downhill was a challenge, as is the rain! However all in all a good day out of many we have had and hopefully many we will continue to have.