Trail distances

Calculating distances along the Heysen Trail

When you’re preparing for your hike it’s important to know the distance you plan to cover on the Heysen Trail. You also need to know how much climbing is involved and the fitness level of everyone in your group. We recommend allowing 30 minutes for every 3 km on flat ground, and an additional hour for every 300 m you need to climb. Don’t forget to allow time for rest and meal breaks.

Our tables below will help you calculate the distance between huts, camp sites and towns along the Trail. We have prepared this information for hikers walking both south to north and north to south. You should use this information in conjunction with the official Heysen Trail maps. 

How we’ve calculated the Trail distances

Distances have been calculated using GPS data for the Heysen Trail, version 21-04-2026-v5.0 which uses information from an official survey undertaken in 2000. Due to the technology limitations at the time, we did not initially include elevation data. We regularly update the information when there are permanent Trail reroutes and updates often include elevation data.

Distances are between places along the main Trail and alternate routes, spur trails or temporary reroutes are not included. Spur trails add an additional 17.5 km to the overall Heysen Trail length, and alternate routes add an additional 42 km. When a hut, campsite or town is not on the main Trail (it may be on a spur or slightly off the Trail), the off-trail section is not included in the distances.

Errors do not accumulate which means that, for example, if a campsite is misplaced on a Trail map, the overall section length or the length of the entire Trail will not be affected.

Distances are rounded to two decimal places. This has very little impact overall because it accumulates to a rounding error of about 1 metre over the entire 1,200 km Trail.

Will the distances differ from my handheld GPS?

Distances measured by a handheld GPS unit may not exactly match the figures in the tables. This may be caused by:

• The accuracy of your unit
• Satellite coverage on the day
• Interference from trees, gorges and buildings
• Your battery charge
• Where you have placed your GPS in your pack or on your body
• Settings affecting the frequency of the data being saved

Another reason why distances may vary is because we rarely walk along the Trail in a perfectly straight line. If you take a rest break, enter a building or make short trips off the Trail, the reported distance will be higher. It’s not unusual for handheld GPS units to report an increased distance of approximately 500m for every 10 km.