[jones]

Hi I was considering walking a section from Beetaloo Station to Ippinitche in the Wirrabara forest in a couple of stages soon, and I would like some advice on distances and terrain.

The first stage would be very short on a day I would drive up there; about 4Km from Beetaloo station to the creek and back.

The next section would be from Beetaloo Creek to perhaps the communications tower at the Bluff on the Bluff Fire Track. This looks to be about 30Km return from rough measurement of the map. Is this about right?

After another couple of weeks I wanted to do Ippinitche to the communications tower return via the Go-Cart track. This seems to be over 33Km; does anyone have an approximate distance? Can I get my car further up a track so I don't have quite such a long walk?

I also have seen on the news that there is a fire in the area today. Do such fires normally close an area for long?

[jez]

I'll see if I can have a look at your distances later. When you Ippinitchie do you mean the campground or the old nursery?

For the latest trail info watch https://twitter.com/HeysenTrail (you don't need a Twitter account to view).

Fires can burn for several days or sometimes a couple of weeks, for the very latest fire info watch

https://twitter.com/CFSAlerts or
http://www.cfs.sa.gov.au/site/home.jsp or
https://www.facebook.com/CFSUpdates

You can also phone the CFS info line
_________________
Jeremy
www.jeremyc.com

[jones]

Thanks for that info. Looks like the fire could go on for a while unless there is a decent amount of rain there.

I meant the old Nursery when I said Ippinitchie (hopefully I can drive to that). Of course I checked again and it looks close to 20Km. Doing the loop and to the campground would make it over 30Km.

[jez]

The Old Nursery to the main track, just short of Fry Pan Hill is 6.4km. There's plenty of parking at the Old Nursery. You can drive further past it, to the P before the road becomes TV Track (so named because it is the service road to the TV tower on the Bluff.) But you can't drive into the forest any further up the Heysen Trail (they are only rough forest trails anyway.) You might be able to return via that TV Track, making it a loop walk from the Old Nursery. The trail used to go that way (not the access track itself, but a trail to the south), not sure why it was moved, not sure about public access to the TV Track anymore.

Beetaloo Creek to that junction is 17km. Following a ridge, lots of false summits before reaching the TV tower.

Beetaloo Station to Beetaloo Creek is 2.6km one way.

The bushfire was declared contained today, but the trails are all closed. ForestrySA will advise when they reopen the trails.
_________________
Jeremy
www.jeremyc.com

[jones]

Thanks Jez. So from Beetaloo Creek to the tower at the Bluff should be about 15Km, so the return walk shouldn't be too hard. The tower to the nursery would be about 10 to 11 Km, so the return should also ok. As for further north, I could go from the Nursery to the Go-Cart Shelter, and in another walk from Block Nine Road to the Go-Cart Shelter.

However, all that is on-hold until the forest re-opens.

[jez]

Hey Jones, we have updated our advice about Wirrabara Forest. Refer to http://www.heysentrail.asn.au/?news_id=312

At this stage it is anticipated that the trail may remained closed for up to two months. We hope to have more detailed information available in the next couple of weeks.
_________________
Jeremy
www.jeremyc.com

[jones]

Well then I will leave the whole section between Beetaloo Station and through the forest for a couple of months. There are probably 2 or 3 day walks south from Melrose I can do instead.