Congratulations to the 54 End-to-End 3 hikers who completed the Heysen Trail at the northern trailhead at Parachilna on Saturday. By far a record number of finishers on the one day! Celebrations followed and, after a hurried change into “formal attire”, continued at a presentation dinner at the Rawnsley Park Woolshed Restaurant.

For six seasons we travelled with a lovely group of Friends, who became even closer as we neared the final stile. Much mixing between the walking groups, together with the beautiful scenery (so lovely and green, with splashes of yellow flowers, after a couple of good seasons) made this such a special week.

Thank you to all the walkers, and leaders, especially Simon, Julian and Arrienne – plus the laconic Gavin, so loved by his Roses group.

We started as a group of unknowns and reached the end with firm friends with a special Heysen connection. May we see you all on the Trail, and on other treks.

PS Our bus drivers Gavin and Bill made the logistics so smooth and easy. They are such good company. We thank them for the safe transport up, around, and back again.

End-to-End 3 entered the home run this week with their final six days walking to complete the Trail.

80 walkers started from Red Range and will complete the Trail at Parachilna on Saturday. Of those, 54 will complete the whole trail and receive their End-to-End certificates at the celebratory dinner on Saturday night, at the Rawnsley Station Woolshed Restaurant.

Three walkers have completed every day of the five year trek without missing one day. Congratulations to Chris Allen, Margie Marzola and Paul Davill for managing such a stupendous task, in particular Margie as she has flown down from Queensland to complete the last two weeks away.

Of the 144 who set out on the first walk from Cape Jervis five years ago, 43 are with us this week, though not all will complete the Trail at this stage.

The Burra Branch of the Friends of the Heysen Trail are celebrating their 20th anniversary on the weekend of 24th and 25th September.

Two walks are planned for the weekend and a celebration dinner at the Burra Hotel on Saturday night.

The Saturday walk is to be at Ulooloo Station (north east of Hallett) on a private property. The walk follows the Ulooloo Creek past the old gold diggings of Ulooloo gold fields and on to where the Terowie Creek meets the Ulooloo Creek. The return walk is to climb Thunder Storm Hill and following the range through Chewing’s Gap and then back to Ulooloo Station.

The Sunday walk is planned to be at Burra Creek Conservation Park, which is due east of the Burra Gorge. This walk is shorter than the Saturday walk to make it easy for people returning home to Adelaide. The walks follows a tributary creek of the Burra Creek and then follows the Burra Creek in an easterly direction passing a few water pools, and returns to where we started via another Burra Creek tributary.

Accommodation is by your own arrangement. Burra Visitor Centre can help out: ph 8892 2154 or www.visitburra.com

For Saturday night dinner, venue to be confirmed, bookings contact Rodney.

For further information contact Hugh ph 8843 8115; Rodney email rbrees@rbe.net.au ph 0411 134 984 or Meredith ph 0428 832 023.

For one walker, the recent End-to-End 3 weekend away, it was actually the finish. Our new president, Robert Alcock, completed his End-to-End experience on the final day of the weekend, to the acclaim of the assembled multitude.

The group, on its second last trip to the Flinders, experienced great weather to get in four long days of walking. Pushed by Simon, nearly all finished the allocated walks, however many grew crops of blisters to acknowledge the hard terrain.

The birthday theme, climaxed in the giving of presents at the group dinner, with a few getting “just what they wanted!”

The highlight of the weekend was the stunning views from the Yourambulla Range, arguable the best along the Trail.

Winter is back – this means the walk season is in full swing. The End 2 End 4 walkers today battled a very windy and wet day. All 80 walkers copped a drenching with the driving rain increasing to gale force on the bare hills north of Cuddlee Creek. Lunch was in the lee of the lower slopes of Mt Gill. Wet, but out of the wind. Soggy socks in squelching boots, and we hadn’t walked thru a creek crossing. In the end we all survived, with smiles on the faces (or was that grimaces’?) as we collected our choccy frog at the final bend. No delays as all jumped into the cars to get home for hot shower/bath and a hot drink. ‘Cept for Nick and Heather who waited for the last walkers to get in safely. Fortunately it’s not often we experience really chilly days with strong wind and driving rain, and I’m not in a hurry for them to return.

Following the Flinders Ranges north to Mt Hopeless

The first vision for the Heysen Trail was a trail that followed the spine of the Flinders Ranges from the mid-north town of Crystal Brook in the south to Mt Babbage in the north. The trail was constructed from southern Cape Jervis, following the Flinders Ranges spine north from Crystal Brook, to Parachilna Gorge in the central Flinders Ranges.

Extending the Heysen Trail to Mt Babbage is no longer on the agenda but it is a good destination for wilderness walkers. A page on this website has been made available that collates some of the experiences of those walkers, in order to share this with other walkers seeking to follow the way north.

Visit

Today a small band ventured south to the Waitpinga Cliffs. Chn 9 Postcards program filmed a segment for the Friend’s 25th anniversary, and we expect to be seen walking the trail, maintaining the trail, talking on the trail plus lunching on a break. To be shown on 29th May. (Keith Conlon was unavailable so will be filmed and inserted in later – a cut and paste job!). Perfect weather, mild and very calm. We were hosted by the warmth and gererosity of the local bird lady. See the huge variety of birds at Clifftop Creations