Short hikes in South Australia

Australia
Written By Mark Eaglesfield

In South Australia, I went on three Outback hikes and two Adelaide hikes. Two of the three Outback hikes are on my Wilpena Pound page. The other three hikes are on this page, from north to south:

  • The Dutchman’s Stern, near Quorn in the southern Flinders Ranges (entry fee to be paid in advance)

  • Third Falls circuit in Morialta Gorge, Adelaide Hills

  • Hallett Cove & The Sugarloaf coastal walk, Marion, Adelaide

The Dutchman’s Stern loop, Quorn, Flinders Ranges

Around 15 minutes’ drive west of Quorn, I parked in The Dutchman’s Stern Conservation Park. From the parking lot, the small mountain has a double humped appearance, which resembled the stern of a Dutch sailing ship to the person who named it. The park requires a pass, so I left this on my dashboard, and appreciated my first sight of wild kangaroos.

Then I started along the track, which is initially mildly sloped with undulations. Just after crossing the long-distance Heysen Trail, the track forks. I went right, because this ascent was steeper, then descended via the left track, for a counter-clockwise loop. Nearing the end of the loop, I switched to the much wider, road-like Heysen Trail, because I wanted to focus on spotting kangaroos instead of veering around trees.

The best viewpoint was from the lookout with a bench, at around 820 meters of elevation. The trail doesn’t go over the summit, Dutchman’s Peak (844m).

According to AllTrails, the route is around 10.3km with 438m of elevation gain. AllTrails reports an average of 3 hours 21 minutes. My slightly modified route took me around 3 hours 10 minutes, including breaks.

Links

Mother and joey scratching themselves.

Third Falls circuit, Morialta Conservation Park, Adelaide Hills

Morialta Conservation Park is in the hills on the eastern edge of Adelaide. The upper parking lot is around 25 minutes from the center of Adelaide. There are one or two other parking lots a few minutes’ walk downhill. They fill up early on weekends especially, but I was lucky with my timing. Entry is free.

After parking in the upper lot, I began a clockwise loop, which started immediately with a steep uphill on the northern slope of the gorge. I hiked along this until it descended to a Y-intersection, where I began a short out-and-back section to see the small Third Falls. They are the furthest upstream of the three Morialta Falls.

Back at the Y-intersection, I returned along the shorter, less steep southern side of the gorge. This made a clockwise loop. This return route passed over the top of the much larger Second Falls, and I later got a view of its full height in the distance. However, I never saw the First Falls.

It was easy to follow the route, past various intersecting tracks, because of brightly painted wooden trail markers.

Another hiker told me that koalas were sometimes present, but I didn’t see any.

AllTrails reports 283m of elevation gain over 6km, while WalkingSA reports 7.3km over a slightly different route. Including breaks, my route took me around 1 hour 40 minutes.

Links

Hallett Cove & the Sugarloaf, Marion, Adelaide

I parked on Peera St, a residential street around 40 minutes southwest of central Adelaide. Peera St terminates in a T-intersection with The Esplanade, a short street along the top of the sea cliff. I doubt that parking was permitted on The Esplanade, because it would make driving very difficult for homeowners and for anyone trying to turn around, but I didn’t see any signs forbidding it.

Following The Esplanade south, I passed through a small park, then followed Clifftop Crescent south to the beginning of Hallett Cove Conservation Park. In the park, I continued south on a well-formed trail over Waterfall Creek and Black Point, then went down to Hallett Cove Beach.

Google Maps refers to a Black Point Cave, but there are no photos on Google Maps, and, at high tide, I walked as far north as I could without seeing a real cave. It might be an exaggerated reference to a shallow space under the intersection of two cliffs.

From the beach, I walked uphill past a cafe and then the Sugarloaf, an unusual red and white geological formation. This is part of the Conservation Park’s Glacial Hike, so named because the formation is glacial in origin. After seeing the formation, I crested the hill behind Black Point to rejoin the same cliff-top track on which I had arrived, and followed it back north.

This track was easy on a calm day. It would be unpleasant in high wind, as there is no shelter.

It took me around 1 hour 45 minutes, including a long break at the beach. The route was probably around 4km return.

Links

Mark Eaglesfield
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