Sunday, October 11, 2015

Day 59: Cobbler Hill to Cape Jervis

Saturday 24th October 2015

Photos and walk notes to be posted soon.

Day 58: Tapanappa to Cobblers Hill

Friday 23rd October 2015

Photos and walk notes to be posted soon.

Day 57: Balquidder to Tapanappa

Thursday 22nd October 2015

Photos and walk notes to be posted soon.

Day 56: Waitpinga Beach to Balquidder

Tuesday 20th October 2015

Photos and walk notes to be posted soon.

Day 55: Waitpinga Road to Waitpinga Beach

Monday 19th October 2015

Photos and walk notes to be posted soon.

Day 54: Inman Valley to Waitpinga Road

Sunday 18th October 2015


The last week of End-to-End Minus One began with the question "Where's Albert?".  Our designated meeting point for the morning bus was the corner of Range Road and Waitpinga Road.  Most walkers convoyed there from Victor Harbor and hence met at the correct place, but where was Albert.  It turned out that Range Road curves around to intersect Waitpinga Road in two places and Albert was at the wrong place.  Not long after establishing what had happened, Albert's black van shot past our meeting point at a somewhat excessive speed, then reappeared a short time later at a more gentle pace from the opposite direction.

walk notes and photos to be loaded soon

Monday, September 28, 2015

Dinner at Mt Compass September 2015

Saturday 26th September 2015 at Mt Compass Tavern:

The theme was 'cone' for the weekend, as we climbed Mt Cone on Saturday's walk.

Cones were in abundance on the walks and at the dinner.






Monday, September 7, 2015

Day 53: Myponga to Inman Valley

Sunday 27th September 2015:

The theme for the weekend was "Cone" and our leader, Dean Mortimer, used that pretext to extend the education of the group with a brief lesson on conic sections.


Dean's flag of conic sections on this iconic section of the Heysen Trail.

To summarise what I understood from Dean's lesson, conic sections are the non-degenerate curves resulting from the intersections of a plane with one or two cones.

We could immediately see that a plane perpendicular to the axis of the cone resulted in a circle.  That was so obvious that it had not warranted any discussion at the BBQ the previous evening.

However, we were gratified to see our musings at the BBQ were confirmed, where we had discussed the likely results of non-perpendicular planes intersecting a cone.  Today, Dean confirmed that where only one cone is intersected, the result must be an ellipse or a parabola, depending on the angle of intersection, and where both cones are intersected, a hyperbola is produced in each cone.

This was exciting stuff and the group was warming to the topic, but when Dean introduced the variables necessary to understand the standard and general form quadratics used to solve the conic sections, the group lost interest and decided to take a walk instead.

But not before other important business was conducted at the briefing.  Morris Minus was predictably awarded to Greg Kelly for his wrong turn on the trail.  It may have looked right to Greg and David Meredith, and the marking may have been somewhat obscure at that junction, but a fact is a fact - the guys went the wrong way, got a little lost, and were spotted making their way back.  Greg paid the higher price, carrying the monkey on his pack all day and for his part, David Meredith was named and shamed.



Today was to be fine and warm again.  The estimated distance for today's walk was 18 km, but the very hilly sections on this part of the trail seemed to play havoc with the various GPS units carried by members of the group.  The GPS units recorded distances ranging from 15 to 20 km. My GPS recorded 18.4 km for today's walk.

This section of the Heysen Trail is maintained by the Wandergruppe, the bushwalkers of the SA German Club.  The sturdy bridges, stiles, abundant boardwalks and distinctive paintwork are testament to their skill and whole-hearted maintenance efforts.









After leaving the cross-country section, we did a bit of road walking for a while on Causeway Road and Nunn Road.





Neil Nosworthy provided another cryptic interpretation of the 'Cone' theme.

Get Smart. Agent 86 and the Chief using the cone of silence

We took a break for morning tea by the roadside and enjoyed the scenic outlook.





After morning tea, we finished off that section of Nunn Road.  A seat was stationed at the corner where the trail turned back into the countryside....



and I had to check it out.

Your blogger poses on the seat

We headed off the road and into the farming country to climb a big hill.









Beautiful countryside and views abounded again today, but we also had to contend with some overgrown, tangled sections on this walk.  This was made trickier by wearing cones on our heads, which were getting caught in the branches.






The tangled scrub was proving hazardous to our cones. 



Once we got through the tangled scrub, the trail opened up again and we had another hill to climb.





Looking behind







As we gained height, we started to see the view behind over the trees.



As we continued to climb higher, the vegetation became noticeably sparser and the grass around the trail disappeared.


Looking back


Getting closer to the top


Looking back

The long climb took us to the Myponga Conservation Park, where we had a relaxed lunch.




After lunch, Greg Kelly and Dean Mortimer sought comfort in the nearby mens outdoor facilities.  Greg went in with Morris Minus on his pack, but did not bring him out. Fortunately, Dean was several metres further down the track and spotted our beloved mascot on the ground as he returned.


Greg is mortified at the thought of nearly losing Morris Minus

All's well that ends well and Morris is returned to Greg's care.

Not long after lunch, we were able to enjoy lovely views from Myponga Conservation Park.



Then it was into more scrub and again we battled to keep our cones on.






The Myponga Conservation Park has a number of steep hills and some sections rewarded us with beautiful views stretching to the ocean.




Then we began the descent to Inman Valley, finishing the day with a stretch of road  walking.



After the walk we gathered beside the Inman Valley Hall for drinks and nibbles.