Australian Hiker | Journeys | 2026 Heysen Trail

2026 Heysen Trail

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Day 9

And now its over!

Frowny Face

For those who have been following my journey on South Australia’s Heysen Trail you will have noticed my radio silence over the past week. My last post on day 8 had me arriving at Elm School Campsite on Wednesday evening after a very hard day walking up and down a very steep ridge that took its toll physically. At the time the impact was a concern but I put it into the watch and see category.

The next day I planned to head on to Calabrinda Creek Campsite which was my next site and one of the shorter days at just over 16km but things didn’t go as expected. In addition to my leg issue becoming much worse, a head and chest cold which had been coming on for a couple of days hit the night before and I found myself only managing to walk 6.5km in 3 hours. This pace was unsustainable moving forward. I was concerned my hip replacement had taken a backward step as it felt like the metal shaft running down my leg bone was moving. For this reason, along with the head and chest cold, I decided to pull the pin. My first plan was to continue on to Quorn and finish there. However, given the speed that I was moving and my leg pain, it would have taken an additional two days – more than I had planned with insufficent food and should my symptoms worsen, there was no easy way out on this section.

Around lunchtime after much thought I decided to backtrack and finish my hike at Hawker. The pain in may leg was such that I managed to make it back to the Elm School Campsite and that was as far as I could manage; going the additional distance to get to Hawker on that day wasn’t possible. The next day I made my way back to Hawker and my very understanding wife Gill, arrived later in the day after driving nearly 1500km.

On returning to Canberra I contacted my surgeon and arranged for some testing. The x-rays turned up nothing showing the prothesis to be perfectly fine but the ultrasound identified a torn quadricep which was what was causing the leg pain. On-trail the pain felt like my prothesis was moving within the bone. Even now, eight days after both the cold and the leg issue first surfaced, the leg is still causing me pain and my cold is lingering making it difficult to breathe.

For me this was all a bit of a shock given that only a couple of months earlier I had successfully completed the 260km Great South West Walk without issues. In that case the elevation change, when there was any, was gradual. The track surface on that trail was relatively flat with no rocky obstacles like the Heysen presents.

So where to from here? My next step is with my physiotherapist, to work my way through my muscle tear and to hopefully build the resilience I need to deal with the more challenging hikes. As disappointed as I am not to complete the Heysen, it was the right decision to pull the pin rather than keep on going and need assistance to get off-trail.

Thank you to those who followed me, as well as providing assistance on this short journey that ended up being just over 151km. The Heysen is till on my list but just when remains to be seen.

Without a doubt this was the hardest day on this trip so far. Before I get into that, this trail continues to surprise with another day that was unexpected and different.

The day started early given I had just over 25km to travel and as usual I was creek bed walking, first past Wonoka Station that provides private accommodation and located about 3km in. For the first time a bit of a challenge with the creek bed to avoid permanent water bodies and slippery rocks due to some short showers. Around three hours in it was time to turn off but the signage and exit wasn’t clear so after checking the Far Out app I managed to locate the turn about 20 metres back. I also came across a hiker doing this trail day by day, parking his car at a convenient location, walking in to his chosen destination then turning around and heading back to his car.

After a short distance I crossed the Mai road and had a few kilometres of fence walking and opted to sit on a stile for lunch before I headed bush. I had a picture of heading up the hill, over the saddle and down into the valley below but that was not the case. My journey continued upwards as I made my way around 5km along a stone ridge line. And when I say ridge line I mean type 2 fun! In fact there were some stages that if you lost footing it wouldn’t have been a good outcome. A warning here that if you are afraid of heights, you should definitely take the Hawker bypass. While I don’t have a fear of heights I did take it slowly. I was travelling so slowly that I ended up taking just on 11 hours for the day. I had two goats towards the top look at me very strangely as to why I was here.

Finally I came off the hill and onto private management road and headed towards my campsite for the night. My problem at this stage was as soon as I hit the dirt road, my right leg complained very loudly, something I hadn’t felt since pre-hip operation. It actually felt as if the prosthesis was moving within my leg and causing some pain which definitely was a new experience, and a worry – something I will need to keep an eye on over the coming days.

I arrived at the Elm School campsite and am surprised to find another hiker setting up for the night. She’s doing part of the trail as a holiday and is in no hurry. Another campsite overgrown but also one that has a single water tank, toilet and wooden platform. The water tank is almost a mini shelter and I know from talking to the northbound hikers that many sleep cowboy style under the shelter so they don’t have to set up their tent – in this case the other hiker is doing just that.

By the time I set up my tent and cooked dinner, it was dark but soon after I was in bed and within seconds of my head hitting my pillow fast asleep.

Today I left Red Range campsite and made my way to Mayo Hut. Although it was only supposed to be 17.1km it was hard due to much of today being spent walking through very large creeks up to 80 metres wide with larger boulders. I must admit I would love to see these creeks in full flow but wouldn’t want to be walking when they were.

I had two off-trail adventures today. The first was me missing a detour sign that cost me about 1km in extra distance by the time I was back on-track. The second was by choice with the trail being so overgrown it made sense to cross the creek early.

Wildlife wise I saw two Emus today and around 100 goats. I first saw about 20 goats that were grazing just off the creek – they bolted across to the other side and proceeded to make their way up the steep hill away from me. Then when I had gone a short distance further, I saw a very large number of goats grazing further up the left side of the creek and far enough away that I wasn’t a threat.

I had considered doing the extra 3-ish km to Wonoka campsite which is a privately run campsite to shorten the next day but my feet needed a rest and in all honesty, I’m glad I chose not to.

Just after I had turned out my light and settled into sleep another hiker turned up, dropped off by a local as he was road walking. He had started the Heysen as a section walk from the southern trailhead and loved it so much he kept on going.

Mayo Hut is an excellent hut being constructed of the local stone and around 10m x 6m in size. It has timber sleep platforms including a loft that would comfortably sleep around 10 people. It has two water tanks including the one attached to the outdoor toilet. Overall it has a great feel about it and while this is a bold statement, I think as far as huts go, this one is hard to beat.

It’s day six and I’m back on-trail just after 6:30am. Today was the longest day of the trip so far travelling just on 28km to Red Range Camp and as a result, I taped my feet to prevent hot spots which I know I will get doing this sort of distance this early in a hike.

I expected today to take around nine hours which would have gotten me into camp some time around 4:30-ish pm.

The taping process takes me around 20 minutes but it pays the dividend at the end of the day. After about a week on-trail my feet have toughened up so it’s only a short process.

My mild panic over the last two days was resolved with my resupply box being ‘found’ here after all – it just needed the right person to locate it. Lesson learned; I’ll double check prior to turning up to make sure it’s there. As such I don’t need to go into Hawker on Wednesday to buy food. I will however change a campsite which will even out what was supposed to be 34km and a 16km day. I don’t know why I did that but the new campsite makes much more sense.

The other change is that I now expect to be on my own given the other hikers on the trail are now a day ahead of me but given I’ve come across five people so far, you never know. There are more people on the trail than I ever expected.

Off I go!

Follow Me

One thing that I do on my long distance hikes is share my location through Garmin Mapshare. Through this online map you will be able to see where I am, with a time delay built in, and how I’m progressing. If you are out on-trail and have internet access to be able to use this map, say hi if I’m nearby. The farther apart the pins, the faster I am moving! In addition if you zoom in you can see the terrain from close up however it doesn’t really reflect the lush state of this area at this stage. On occasion I am taking a rest day so if I don’t appear to be moving then that’s where I’ll be.

You can see where I’m at via the following link:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/HeysentrailAH

If you have any questions about my journey drop me an email at info@australianhiker.com.au and I will reply when I can within the whims of the internet signal which will be erratic on the northern end of the trail so it may be several days before I can respond.

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My first rest day today and while I didn’t need it physically, my next section is 10 days to Quorn so I needed today to release the first of the on-trail podcasts.

I had a really bad night sleep last night and only dropped off after 2:00am. Strangely enough I didn’t feel tired and that was because I had long, if broken sleeps, over the past few days.

I stopped in at the reception this morning after opening and the learned that the location of my food resupply box wasn’t looking good so decided to check later. If it can’t be located it would mean I would have to purchase food from the IGA supermarket to get me through the three days to reach Hawker to hopefully pick up my resupply box or purchase more food. Lesson learned is that I need to physically phone to make sure the resupply box has arrived! I checked out what was on offer at the supermarket and purchased breakfast. While I was hoping for no change to my food box, I checked what was available just in case.

Today I spent most of the time doing social media and putting together and releasing my first on-trail podcast. Most people who were here last night have gone so it was very quiet. Speaking of quiet, my bathroom window opened out onto a small enclosed alley and the sound echoed. It wasn’t a problem last night but tonight there are some conversations that needed to hear to believe even though I wasn’t trying.

One of the tasks that I undertook this morning was to find out where to access the trail tomorrow as given I have a 27km day, I will be starting at 6:00am for what will end up being a 9-ish hour walk to may Red Range Camp. Given the food issue, I will work through the next section to Quorn to see if I can even out the days, distance wise, as I have a 16km day and then a 34km day which I need to average out a bit.

Follow Me

You can see where I’m at via the following link:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/HeysentrailAH

Today saw me head the just over 22km to Wilpena Pound and even though I had only been walking for a few days, I am looking forward to a rest and to pick up my food resupply. I was last out of camp which is not surprising as I do my videos and take respective photos for social media. Another sunny mild day after a cool night and while there was frost on the timber platform outside, it was far colder during the night.

I left Yanyanna at 7:21am (so much for my 7:00am start). It didn’t take long for the sun to crest the surrounding hills. I must admit that the large mountain range behind forms a spectacular backdrop in the morning as the light creates all sorts of vibrant colours.

The first half of the walk was up and over a couple of hills but it was the down that was the problem. The descent on the second hill down to the creek bed was steep in some sections and if it had been raining it would have been be a bit treacherous and slippery.

I finally reach the creek bed below and for about 10 minutes the trail was confusing. After checking my online maps I knew that I shouldn’t go up the hill again but it’s not really clear that the creek bed is the route. I travel back about 30 metres and sure enough, there is small text at the bottom of the directional sign that says to use the creek bed. I’ve already mentioned this but the rampant growth is creating havoc with the signage so you really do need to make sure to check the fine print.

I made my way down the creek bed which at the start had water flowing but there was enough dry ground to hop about and stay dry. Eventually the creek widens and it was much easier going. One advantage on going last was that I have footprints to follow and it’s interesting to see what I consider to be logical is what other hikers did as well. One thing to consider was that at some point the trail leaves the creek bed requiring the need to scan about for the ‘off ramp’. Once I left the first creek walking section I came across two section hikers. The first was relatively new to multi-day hiking and was walking from Wilpena Pound to the trailhead at Parachilna. The other was walking from Quorn to Parachilna. In all honesty while I expected to see people on the trail, I didn’t except to see so many people so soon.

After seeing the first hiker it was up and over another hill and on the down hill slope I came to a sign that said I have done 50km of the entire trail. This is a really good feature and one I hope continues down the trail!

The trail pattern continues until about 10:00am when I reached management road which was the bulk of the walking for the rest of the day. While management road sounds boring, the terrain was anything but. I am really surprised and loving the change and the different landscapes over a relatively short distance.

Animal life was again limited to birds but this time they were more noticeable. Corellas, and what turned out to be Red Cape Robins. In addition I got swooped by a wattlebird (?) or at least something that looked like one. Oh and don’t forget the obligatory Emu. In this case the first I knew was there was a large thudding coming from behind me and all I could think was where is this going to end up? I finally saw it as it ran past about 5 metres to my right. I wasn’t sure what was going on here because it did the same thing a second time and I would not have seen it if I hadn’t moved.

Not long after lunch I came across Wilcolo Campsite which is a paid site. People often use this camp when they don’t want to spend much time in Wilpena which is a further 7km on. Eventually the road walking gave way to walking through a fairly open forest in what looked like old farm land and after one last stint open hillside walking, I made it to Wilpena Pound.

You first enter the resort caravan park area and then onto the information centre and the supermarket, before heading down to the motel style accommodation another 100 metres away. I checked in and had a shower before going down to the supermarket for a snack. I ran into Michael who was one of the hikers I had been travelling with as he was checking his emails and making calls. The website states that there isn’t wifi in the rooms but certainly there was in my room and I had good 4G-4 bars wherever I checked. I also had phone reception when I checked 5km out.

Micheal reminded me about my resupply box so I headed back to reception to pick it up only to discover that it was still in the nearby town of Hawker so I decided to check in the morning to see what’s going on.

I had dinner at the local pub/restaurant and while not cheap it was good hearty food. On the reverse side, the food at the supermarket was reasonably priced which given it’s in a remote area was a surprise.

I spent the rest of the day being working my way through just on 200 emails and starting my social media catch up before eventually heading to sleep.

Follow Me

One thing I do on my long distance hikes is share my location through Garmin Mapshare. Through this online map you will be able to see where I am, with a time delay built in, and how I’m progressing. If you are out on-trail and have internet access to use this map, say hi if I’m nearby. The farther apart the pins, the faster I am moving! In addition if you zoom in you can see the terrain from close up however it doesn’t really reflect the lush state of this area at this stage. On occasion I am taking a rest day so if I don’t appear to be moving then that’s where I’ll be.

You can see where I am at via the following link:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/HeysentrailAH

Today was an early start as I tried to get away at 7:00am and ended up leaving not long after. One hiker headed off before me and another after. A much cooler night last night and when I woke up I had ice on the roof of the tent inner from my breath. My hands were freezing as I packed my tent away but that didn’t last long. I did however have a good night sleep, in blocks as usual, because I was in my sleeping bag for over 10 hours.

Another great day as far as weather is concerned which looks like continuing for the next week. And still not hot – while I don’t know what the actual temperatures until I get to Wilpena Pound, it’s definitely under 20 degrees Celcius.

I started the day with a walk up a hill and then made my way around the adjacent hills and valleys. The trail is so narrow in places that I had one tracking pole down the slope and one up because they won’t fit on the trail. In a couple of places I wouldn’t have wanted to slip as there was a drop off that would have resulted in serious damage if you went over. Eventually this narrow track descended down into a creek bed which I followed for a while before heading back up the hill again through the sparse bushland.

Once I cleared the hills it was walking through the Ilkara-Flinders Nationl Park which also included passing the Ediacaran Global boundary which is a geologically significant location. From there it was lunch at the Tremont Campsite where I came across two cyclists riding the Mawson Trail. One thing worth noting is that the signage changes in the national park and while it’s a bit understated, it still works.

This pattern continued on for the day until I eventually came out onto hard packed road before walking about 1km to Yanyanna Hut. I don’t know what it is about me but I keep being asked by drivers if I need a lift or some water. It happened on the Bibbulmun and now the Heysen!

As far as wildlife goes another emu and other assorted birds, oh and a small lizard but nothing else. Flora wise the plants are heading towards flowering but apart from the ever present Hop Bushes, there aren’t a lot of other flowers out although it won’t be too long.

I made it into Yanyanna Hut just on 4:00pm and given the distance my travelling speed is now 3.2 km per hour. Slow compared to what I used to do and slower than others on the track but I expect this to pick up as my fitness improves and I lose some weight.

Yanyanna Hut is a simple metal shed with a wooden platform outside where we all cooked dinner. All three of us slept inside which meant that we didn’t have to pack up a wet tent the next day. We all took precautions with our packs/food just in case rodents were around but the only one I saw was out in the fields.

Another early night after a warm meal!

You can see where I’m at via the following link:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/HeysentrailAH

Given how early I went to bed last night I slept in blocks until the alarm went off just before 5:45am. I am dressed and have packed away some of my gear. After I finish this post I will pack everything else away with the aim of heading off by 7:30am. Last night was warm and at no stage did I get cold.

Today I’m heading to Aroona Campground which is about 18 km away which is one of my shorter days of this trip and a good way to ease myself into what will be my biggest hike to date.

The day itself went well and I am feeling mentally and physically up for this trip but I am not travelling as fast as I used to so throughout the day including breaks I’m averaging just over 3 km per hour. Given I have just started and am carrying unwanted body weight, I expect my speed to increase over the coming weeks. It does provide a good marker for my speed. I need to leave camp to get to my destination by 4:00pm which allows me to get set up and organised before it starts to get dark. The first half of this day I was powering along but did slow down as the day went on.

Signage wise the trail is easy to follow but I discovered early on that when you come to a fork in the trail you don’t just need to think left or right but also ‘middle’. I had a few times when I should have gone up the centre but I went right rather than take one of the branches in the creek bed. I didn’t go far as I was presented with a three metre tall fence so turned around and found the proper route. I also had one instance here there were no trail markers, possibly due to the heavy rains and took the risk which proved to be correct.

The other issue with the trail markers at the movement is that on a number of them the vegetation is so dense that sometimes they are very hard to spot.

The recent rainfall has also resulted in water channels in some sections of the trail with the biggest one being about two metres wide and almost the same depth which requires a sidetrack to head back up on a more gentle gradient.

Wildlife was pretty minimal on this day with just one emu being sighted along with some other lovely parrots. I did hear a number of other birds but don’t have the knowledge to work out what they were from their song.

Temperate wise it was a good day and at no stage did I feel hot or get sweaty. In fact if I had been sitting for an extended period I would have needed to put my rain jacket on. Later in the afternoon the cloud cover increased and the temperature dropped a little. At one stage I had about ten spots of very light rain but thankfully that was all.

Vegetation wise apart from being lush in some sections the main trees were native conifers. This conifer dominates this part of South Australia and creates a unique environment.

I reached the on-trail water source after midday and stopped for lunch and then continued on to Aroona which snuck up on me as I crossed a fence and saw the ruins about 69 metres to my right. I had a quick look around the ruins before heading down into the valley to the Aroona campsite.

This is a paid site and in all honestly isn’t designed for hiking tents, but vehicle campers and caravans. Ideally they need to set up a site with tent platforms to cater for the small hiking tents. I ended up crossing the creek bed and camping on a grassy flat area which while not as good as it looked from the other side, was far better than anything on offer in the campground.

After setting up and sorting my water out I ended up having dinner just after 4:00pm but not long before another hiker turned up who was also doing the entire walk and in this case it was her second time. I was in bed by 5:30pm after a tiring day. After doing some podcast recordings I settled down for a much needed sleep.

One thing that I do on my long distance hikes is share my location through Garmin Mapshare. This online map lets you see where I am, with a time delay built in, and how I’m progressing. If you are out on-trail and have internet access to use this map, say hi if I’m nearby. The farther apart the pins, the faster I am moving! In addition if you zoom in you can see the terrain from close up however it doesn’t really reflect the lush state of this area at this stage.

You can see where I’m at with the following link:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/HeysentrailAH

Today is my final travel day and also where I start the Heysen Trail. After doing some social media early on I headed into town for breakfast and also to buy some pens as I needed to send my duffle bag and puffer jacket back to Canberra which is a bit hard when you can’t write on the post bag. Once I had all that sorted out I checked out and went up to the Wadlata Outback Centre which was where I was being picked up. After sitting outside in the sun for about an hour I head inside for an early lunch.

By the time I came out the Melbourne hiker that I met yesterday had turned up and shortly after our transport had also turned up so we left about 15 minutes earlier than we planned at 1:15pm. On the way up north we picked up another hiker, Michael, at Quorn who was doing the northern section of the trail so unexpectedly there were three of us starting on the same day.

For some reason the trip took longer than I thought and by the time we got to Parachilna is was approaching 4:30am. After the obligatory social media and trail head photos if was off for what turned out to be a 598 metre walk to the walking campsite according to my GPS. There ended up being only 2 hikers camping this night as the women from Melbourne had pushed on and given her speed she seemed to be making short work of it. Michael, the Tasmanian hiker who was doing Parachilna to Qourn due to timing constraints, and myself.

This site was overgrown due to the heavy rains of the past month which apparently dropped a massive amount of rain which the local said they hadn’t seen in 30 years. I must admit that while I knew about the heavy rains I didn’t realise the impact that it could have on the environment.

The campsite itself was basic containing a water tank with a satellite sensor so the level could be checked remotely, and that was about it. While there was a lot of vegetation the tents sites were bare earth. After chatting for a while and having dinner it was time to sleep.

One thing that I do on my long distance hikes is share my location through Garmin Mapshare. Through this online map you will be able to see where I am, with a time delay built in, and how I’m progressing. If you are out on-trail and have internet access to be able to use this map, say hi if I’m nearby. Please note that while this mapshare will go live on this day but given I’m only walking 500 metres to the first campsite it won’t really make much sense. Tomorrow is an 18km day so mapshare will make much more sense as it drops pins based on time. The farther apart the pins, the faster I am moving! In addition if you zoom in you can see the terrain from close up however it doesn’t really reflect the lush state of this area at this stage.

You can see where I will be able to see where I’m at the following link:

https://aus-share.explore.garmin.com/HeysentrailAH

Today is travel day! A 6:00am drop off at the Canberra airport; thanks Gill, before an uneventful plane flight to Adelaide. Normally I travel to Adelaide to visit friends and family at least once a year but this time was a bit of a surprise with the major upgrade works going on at the airport and the longest walk to the terminal I have ever had.

A quick Uber ride into the city to drop off my bag at the bus station and then a walk to the outdoor stores to pick up a gas cylinder for my stove; one of the disadvantages of flying. As I write this post I’m back at the bus station having had lunch and am just waiting for the bus to Port Augusta which leaves in just under an hour. Supposedly the bus trip will get me to Port August at around 5:30pm. This morning I talked to a South Australian contact on the Heysen Trail who indicated that the rainfall over the past month has been a once in a 50 year event meaning the greenery, wildflowers, and wildlife should be pretty amazing. Sheer luck but I’ll take it!

Previous Post Today is travel day! A 6:00am drop off at the Canberra airport; thanks Gill, before an uneventful plane flight to Adelaide. Normally I travel to Adelaide to visit friends and family at least once a year but this time was a bit of a surprise with the major upgrade works going on at […]