Heysen Trail - Adelaide Trailwalker 2000

It could easily be yet another stunning gorge in the Flinders Ranges... but all of this is a mere two kilometres from bus stop 26 at Rostrevor.

This is just part of the Heysen Trail... a path which extends about one and a half thousand kilometres from the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula all the way to Parachilna.

"There are numerous ways to access the Heysen Trail.... Places like this which are just a few kilometres from the city centre... and when you get here you can look out over majestic Morialta Falls. Most people who access the Heysen Trail take a fairly leisurely approach while others are a tad more energetic".

These people are in training for Adelaide Trailwalker 2000.. a unique event which gets underway later this month and will certainly test their commitment to Community Aid Abroad. They'll cover one hundred kilometres of undulating Heysen Trail from Cudlee Creek to Kuitpo Forest in 48 hours or less. Internationally the years Trailwalker has raised about twenty million dollars for various overseas aid projects and no doubt some of these participants will also be in need of aid when they cross the finish line together.. as they must under Trailwalker rules.

All have been promised sponsorship support and all are determined to finish and collect.

"We've actually got five hundred dollars riding on this that we'll only get if we complete the challenge... from Lew Pejuro at Freshfoods. Make sure you put this on so he has to pay us".

"It's one of these mind over matter things.. seventy percent mind and thirty percent fitness sort of thing. We all know that we're fit and able to do it.. which is why we've been training for it."

"But your mind might tell you your not?. The mind might tell you you're not and that's the challenge.. The challenge is to make the mind think of course you can do it and to keep going even if your maybe tired even if you might be sore is to be able to keep going".

Hopefully it'll still be daylight when they reach this point.. near the old Mill Race and Dam which once powered the old Bridgewater Mill. It certainly gets a mention in the books that Terry Lavender has written about the Heysen Trail.

He was involved in its formation... from when it was just an idea in the late sixties to what he now calls the longest footpath in the world... and he's walked it all... from the very start near Deep Creek Conservation Park.

"That whole area... all that southern coast is a magnificent trail.. it stands as a world class trail on its own."

Heading into the Hills the trail.. cuts through the Jupiter Creek Gold Fields near Echunga.. with its tales of gold fever and an even stranger yarn about a mad miner named Reynolds whose vision lead him to a spectacular find.

"Reynold's got up and said he was going off to find this find that he'd seen in his dream. And he went to the base of a tree and dug and instead of a gold nugget he found a diamond."

"Amazing".

"It's a remarkable story.. and there are just a hundred stories like this along the trail."

"The other spot that's absolutely stunning Bundaleer State Forest and Curnow's Hut places like that they're just amazing."

"Bundaleer Forest.. that was the first forest in the British Empire as it was then. Men of great vision like Boyle Finnis and Torrance.. having lived in a country that it had denuded itself of timber where the British at that stage 1850s sixty percent of their boats were built my the Americans.. they knew that and so they started the forest systems."

The trail passes through the forest where William Curnow.. who's 1890's hut provides a resting place for hikers.. experimented with trees in a bid to determine those most suited to South Australian conditions.

And another of Terry's favourite trail spots is Mount Bryan in the mid-north.

"Your right on the edge and you come down off Mount Bryan and you go out to the east and your right on the edge of the Mount Lofty Ranges and you look down across the great seep of the Murray Valley. And the old timers tell me that when the river boats were plying the Murray you couldn't see the boat but you could see the smoke and the stacks going along the skyline."

Maintenance crews are constantly at work and in faraway places like the top of Mount Remarkable there are majestic views of the nearby Gulf and mid north towns to compensate the volunteers.

And the views just get better as you head north to where the Heysen Trail skirts the perimeter of Wilpena Pound and onto Parachilna beyond. For people like Terry.. this footpath.. as he calls it.. in country like this.. takes on an almost religious aura.

"And it's just this massive ribs of pink rock that rise up and then as you get onto the summit you're right on the edge of the cliff and there's this great overhang."

It's not very difficult to realise why it's got this mystical or some religious feel about it.. the aboriginal people must have live in awe of it.

You can experience the Heysen Trail the hardway and help a worthy cause by joining Trailwalker 2000. To enter contact Community Aid Abroad on 8223 3405. The event gets underway on Friday October the 27.

For maps and details on the Heysen Trail drop into the Environment Shop at 77 Grenfell Street.

And for a personalised tour of any part of the trail contact Terry at Lavender's Trailmaster on 8258 7785. His books are available at Thor Paddy Palin and the Scout Out Door Centre in Rundle Street.

For more information you can email: info@postcards.sa.com.au