Australian Hiker

I’m now under three weeks until the planned start of my 1200km journey on the South Australian Heysen Trail and as the kickoff day approaches I have a number of concerns, two in particular, that are floating around in my brain creating doubt.

The first and most obvious one as this post goes to air is the impacts of COVID. As this new wave sweeps much of the country Canberra residents are currently prohibited from entering South Australia even though we have the best record of any state or territory. I’m still feeling confident that this ban with change prior to my trip but I’m starting to think through alternative options including delaying the trip for a week or two if necessary. Should the lock downs continue past that time it may become necessary to push the whole trip off until autumn 2022 as I have hard commitments that are creating a block in late September/October that can’t be shifted.

My other main concern is one do with physical fitness. My level of training is back to what it was prior to my 2018 trip on the Bibbulmun Track and I feel confident that I am doing what is necessary to get me through the trip but only time will tell.

In relation to everything else such as gear preparation, food preparation, accomodation etc everything else is going as planned as I allocate time each week to tick off various tasks in getting ready. All I need to do now is assume that I am starting on my planned date and see what happens!