Running the Adelaide Hills
The view from Mt Lofty across Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills
Last week I was in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia facilitating an event on Indigenous Prosperity. (more to come on this later). As my running shoes are the first items to be packed, I look forward to exploring new territory where ever I am. I left the Gold Coast as the temperature sat around 34 degree’s Celsius (93 F) and thankfully threw a jacket into my bag at the last minute. I didn’t take off said jacket for three days, including the first night, when I wore it to bed, before succumbing to turning on the heat in my room. My first morning of running was cold. Foggy. And there was a misty type rain. The cool weather was a welcome relief after the weeks of running in sweltering temperatures on the Gold Coast. Usually I am a map girl. I like to study maps and get the lay of the land. This morning, no maps were available, so it was an adventure run. I did however, have my new Garmin 405 CX with me. (GPS watch). Headed up to the Mt Lofty Lookout. The fog cover ensured no view beyond 10 meters. Discovered that the Adelaide Hills had many trails, so got very excited about the possibility of exploring different trails over the four days. The problem, if you could call it that, was that we were up high, and so the only way to run was down first, which meant up on the way back. And the down was steep. But heck, it was beautiful country and it looked like fun. So down I went, following the trail to Waterfall Gully. The down was for over 20 minutes. I had only set aside an hour so knew I had to turn to give myself extra time to come home. Was very surprised that I met so many people on this trail in the rain and fog, early on a Monday morning. That had me wondering. Were these people part of a running/walking group? Were we closer to a city suburb that I thought? (This turned out to be the case.) Since I had a time deadline, and a breakfast meeting commitment, I couldn’t go all the way to the bottom of the Gully. On my return I started running and soon had to move to a walk. Steep. Very steep. I passed a man who looked very fit, and then we played catch up for the remainder of the climb, which was great as it made me work. I could feet my bottom and my quads being hammered. This is all good. No matter what age you are getting a serious bottom work out is always a good thing, the older you get the more important this becomes. Gravity defying. Day two and I headed down another trail, the Heysen Trail. Little did I know that this was a part of one of Australia’s longest trails, 1200 kilometres in total, stretching from from Cape Jervis on the south coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges. Given that Adelaide had, until a week before my arrival, been burning up with temperatures in the high 40’s, there was a seriously high fire danger and some back burning had occurred along this trail. Never-the-less the part I ran on was fun, very steep downhill, and hard going coming back. I reached a road at the bottom of the Piccadilly Valley. Day three was a walk run through the Botanical Gardens near Mt Lofty House. My co-facilitator, Laurent and I, had to do some planning for the day, so we walked and talked. The gardens are beautiful. Still feeling like I had some energy to burn, I took off for a quick 15 minutes of hard running to sort out the cobwebs.
Beautiful Tree, Mt Lofty
On Day four, and the last day, it was back to Waterfall Gully, determined this time to go all the way down. From the top of Mt Lofty it took me twenty minutes to get down, and 30 minutes to get back up. It was worth it. The falls at the bottom were beautiful.
Waterfall Gully, Adelaide Hills
On the way down I was surprised by a large red Kangaroo. He was either old or was comfortable with people, because he was 2 meters from me, and was happy to let me stop and stare at him as he ate the delicious green grass at the side of the trail. It was quite remarkable. They usually hop away. He would have been bigger than me (153 cm, 5’1) and kangaroos this size can be dangerous. Again I encountered about half a dozen people making the climb to the top, so maybe the Kangaroo is used to people. I am told there is a lovely trail the Yurrebilla Trail, which is about 54 kilometers long, and goes through the Adelaide Hills to the Barossa valley. (This is all serious wine country). On another visit I will need to be sure to plan a day and run the entire trail, which stops at various vineyards. It would be an Adelaide Hills version of the famous Medoc Marathon in the wine region of France. It is always such fun to find new running ground, and to get to know places through running. I get to see so much more than most people this way. Running the Adelaide Hills was a treat to top off a great week. Return from Running the Adelaide Hills to the World from my Running Shoes
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Botanical Gardens, Mt Lofty, Adelaide Hills
