A South Australian Day in the Country

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A SOUTH AUSTRALIAN DAY IN THE COUNTRY Murray Arthur-Worsop "When a man' 's brains or nerves have become sO clogged or worn by city excitements that they can no longer perform their functions, he goes back to the fields and woods to be renovated. # Frank Waugh, 1916 We started with a bog to make me feel at home. Indeed, There were 12 of us on the trip, a good humoured bunch this could have been a small part of New Zealand. The from the Adelaide Bushwalkers Club, the most active farmland was a lush green, apart from the odd field club in the city. They struck me as being rather like a covered in yellow daisies, and the cows and even the cross between Tongue and Meats and Tararuas, but as sheep looked remarkably similar. But where was the usual I was almost the oldest on the trip. This sample of mist, the cloud, the rain and the wind? Instead, the sun South Australian bushwalkers appeared to dress shone brightly against a blue back-drop. And then I somewhat more casually for the bush than Tongue and realised, several thousand kilometres separated me from Meats would, with nearly half in long trousers, including Struan, and this is the driest state in the driest continent. one woman in street shoes (sturdy) and designer jeans. Cotton was the predominant clothing material, and few It was a glorious spring day for my first bushwalk appeared to be prepared for the rain that was forecast for (tramping is something entirely different!) in South late in the day. Australia, a Sunday jaunt along a small portion of the 1800km Heysen Trail, about 60km south of Adelaide. We were only walking in the bush for about an hour before starting on a 2.2km road walk to the next There was the usual panic at the beginning as the trip conservation park Myponga. It wasn't quite as bad as it leader tried to work out where we were going. I had been sounds. Giant eucalypts formed a canopy over the dirt promised, and was kind of hoping for, an easy day as I road, providing shade from the hot afternoon sun, plus a hadn't been out in the bush since the Nelson Lakes trip certain Australian beauty. last Labour Weekend (1991). But things often don't turn out how they were intended! We crossed a creek into farmland and followed the fenceline up a spur and into the Myponga Conservation The first hour was spent on farmland - a dairy farm, Park. The trail followed the western boundary of the hence the bog at the start. There were superb views from park, to Wild Dog Creek "with its grim memories of past the ridge we followed at about 300m, and a fox, a massacre"(?1). The trail then contoured up to the main kangaroo, and brightly coloured galahs, rosellas and ridge (320m), through "scrub". parrots chattering overhead, provided pleasant diversions. The bush, or scrub as it is defined in the guide to the The first piece of bush was Yulte Conservation Park. It trail, was more impressive in this park. I drank in the was a novel experience at first, following a fenceline with warmth, the beauty and serenity of the surroundings, pasture on one side and bush on the other it was almost drowning all my preconceptions and prejudices about the a feeling of being caged in. Australian bush. The bush was very open, comprising mainly scraggy eucalypts with an undercover of native flowers and "There is something immensely flowering shrubs pinks, yellows, purples and blues. The exhilarating when tall white gums flowers added a colourful beauty quite different to that tower into the blue heavens the found in the NZ bush. I noted too, the extremely dry subtle quality ofthe edges where they undergrowth, even at this time of the year, and how easy meet the. sky how mysterious' " it would be to create a conflagration exceeding even the Sir Hans Heysen best efforts of leading Tongue and Meat pyromaniacs such as Buncks. It is for this reason that the parks are closed from December to March. From the top of the ridge, we followed a fire track to a dirt road. There was only a short walk to where most of We basked in temperatures of around 21 degrees during our cars were parked. our lunch break and enjoyed a view of the Myponga Valley, and the sea beyond. For me in my current state of fitness, it was a reasonably hard day; five and a half hours of walking at a Tongue and Meat slow-medium pace over relatively gently terrain purposes, you are required to join the club as a a bit of a doddle ifl had been fit. prospective member before embarking on any trips. To qualify for full membership, three weekend trips of The Adelaide Bushwalking Club is not as active as suitable standard must be completed. equivalent sized NZ clubs. Every second Sunday there is a day walk, and on the other weekends and long There is a great variety of activities including a number weekends, there are walks lasting the whole weekend. of canoe and cycling trips scheduled in the spring There is usually only the one weekend trip, which leaves program. However, there is nothing here that can Saturday morning and is graded medium. There appear to compare with the Tararuas. be only the occasional hard or easy trip. For insurance Murray Arthur-Worsop But if adventure has a final and embracing motive it is surely this: We go out because it is in our nature to go out, to climb mountains and sail the seas, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans. By doing these things we make touch with something outside or behind, which strangely seems to approve our doing them. We extend our horizons, we expand our being, we revel in the mastery of ourselves which gives an impression..that we are masters of the world. In a word, we are men, and when man ceases to do these things, he is no longer man. - Wilfred Noyes