Morialta Conservation Park

This weekend, I headed out to Morialta Conservation Park, a short half hour ride from the city via the H30 bus. Watch for stop 26 carefully, as the bus stop was hidden behind some trees. Thankfully, there were a pair of hikers who were also visiting the park that rung the bell.

The bus drops you off mere meters away from the entrance to the park, and from there it's a short stroll to the trailhead.

The park boasts walks and hikes for all levels; one of the easy level course meanders along the base of the hills, and ends up by a platform below a waterfall. The medium and hikes take you up rather high.

Being the idiot that I am, I took one of the medium courses "because it's only 2.5hrs for a return trip". Riiiight. Heaven forbid that a real life hike is not like running around the world map in final fantasy, because I totally did not bring out enough water. I realize about a third of the way in, that uhoh, I've finished almost half my water supply.

Rationing was the word of the day, and I took sips and did not swallow. Even better, I got lost someway through - decided to "go off the beaten path" - and found myself at the top of a very very steep hill. About maybe a tenth of the way down the hill, the gradient was increasingly steep, easily 12, maybe 15 degrees. Fine for walking upwards, but very slow moving downwards. I decided to turn around then to look for a proper way back to the trailhead.

Thankfully, there was another path on the way up that I missed, which lead directly to the trailhead. Much rejoicing was had once I discovered the water fountain. Because of the lack of water though, I was severely dehydrated, and spent most of saturday in a headache filled daze. Guess I will be bringing more water next time!

I'm also re-acquainting myself with the light in South Australia - it seemed like towards the later part of the day, like 2pm, the sun was hitting at a very nice oblique angle, and I think my photos got nicer once the harsh noon sun moved off.

I also spent some time recording birdsong and the little stream that filled the waterfall, will post up a sound clip when I get a moment.

Definitely will be back again, it's nice to stretch the legs. The path I took had a rather steep gradient for the first twenty or so minutes, then it petered out to gentle up/down gradients. So, ymmv!

The H30 bus also runs at half hour intervals, so plan for that. I waited for my bus with several arachnids, one of which is displayed below:

Can't wait to check out more places in the coming months!