After a few weeks without a long training walk, the harsh reality hit home last weekend! Due to a week’s leave in Coffin Bay, a weekend in Melbourne for the Australian Commerical Radio Awards and a weekend in bed with a rotten head cold, it had been a while since I’d laced on the hiking boots and headed for the hills.

So Saturday morning at 7.30am my training buddy Janet and I set off for a “warm-up” climb up Mount Lofty. How quickly you lose condition! I was puffing like a steam train for the last 800 metres or so, but as always the view from the summit was worth the exertion.

The wildflowers on show at the moment are wonderful – even better in Morialta Conservation Park where Janet and I and fellow Borneo Trekker Sarah spent five hours on Sunday. Apart from the usual suspects – grevilleas, leptospernums, broom and umpteen tiny ground hugging shrubs and creepers – we say some stunning purple native orchids.

Unfortunately we also encountered herds of goats – not the sort of wildlife one likes to see in a Conservation Park. Feral and cloven hooved, they cause plenty of damage to our fragile soils and delicate flora. Mind you, they were certainly more at home on some of the steep, rocky trails to be found on Chambers Track! It was tough work, but some wonderful views are to be found above Fox’s Dam and from the lookout on the northern escarpment of the Morialta Gorge.

Plenty of koalas to enjoy (see photo) and the flitting Superb Blue Wrens are a delight. Happily our only reptilian encounters were with tiny geckos. Janet and Sarah had encountered a one and a half metre brown snake in Chambers Gully a fortnight ago – a reminder to keep a lookout as the weather warms up.

This weekend coming, we plan to walk part of the Heysen Trail between Chain of Ponds and Kersbrook. One of our trek team, Lou, knows this part of the world well, so she’s organised the route for those of us who can join her on Sunday. It will be our longest training walk yet – we’re hoping to put in a solid 6 – 7 hours. Janet and I will also try and fit in a quick Mt Lofty climb on Saturday morning. Wish us luck!

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