In Adelaide it was a grey old morning, but we had agreed to try to achieve our recce of Kinchina conservation park for a walk we are planning to lead in October, so we packed our rain jackets, thermoses and a change of shoes and headed off into the hills.
As we passed through the hills it was very foggy, but as we emerged on the other side it was a clear day (if still a little grey). By the time morning tea time arrived we had a blue sky and sunny day and we were glad to have taken the opportunity.
We had a basic plan for the walk in theory, offering us a good parking spot, about the right length of walk and a pretty good spot for our morning tea, but weren’t really sure of how it would work out, and were particularly uncertain about the crossing back from the other side of the railway line.
We took longer to do the walking than we would if walking with our group (mostly due to bird spotting and caching stops) , so actually stopped for morning tea before our planned morning-tea spot, but were pretty happy to have found some historic relics to show our walking friends which only required a small change to our walk route. As we ate our morning tea we chatted to some spotted pardalotes and yellow rumped thornbills (and swatted at numerous mosquitos).
The crossing spot turned out to be a really scenic tunnel with stepping stones and then a beautiful rocky river crossing.
There were very many twists and turns of the track (which we cut across at times), which seemed to add a little to the real length of the walk, but overall we were happy with the plan. Where we will stop for our lunch break will depend on the time – but there are plenty of possible scenic locations to use.
Although we were pretty tired by the end, we decided to deviate on the way home past Ferries McDonald CP and try to locate some orchids. Jan and Ross had supplied a really good description of the location of a little hybrid orchid that we were particularly interested in seeing, but Trevor spotted a number of different ones as well on the walk in and back along the path (about 100m). A very worthwhile little diversion. There was also a very cute little pea type flowering plant that deserved a photo.
Luvapuzzle 