A Once in a Lifetime Experience (Cobbler's Creek)

Quandong tree (native peach)

Been there, done that etc. Monday was a Bank Holiday, in SA anyway. (Yes, I worked the weekend). I’m not sure what Adelaideans do on a Bank Holiday – all the shops were shut and there were hardly any cars on the road. And what few cars there were were all hauling green trailers. So I can conclude that a Bank holiday is just used for moving things.

I failed in my attempt to do nothing and went up to Cobbler’s Creek, a small “conservation park” (island of scrub) straight up Portrush road (Lower Portrush road is north of Portrush road– work that out). It’s supposed to be one of the only remaining patches of Grassy Woodland because...well, I don’t really need to spell it out, do I. So there are three trails. One shows things valuable to the indigenous people (types of plants and things) – which is good, but no leaflets (30 min); a second one that runs alongside a dual carriageway (about 45 min), and the third which is a little longer and goes past a ruined house. Hmm. Not much need to go back once you’ve seen it.

To be fair Cobbler’s Creek itself is very cute in the sort of way that it babbles between grassy banks in the shade of the eucalyptus tree for about half a km. Actually I guess if you live nearby you’d get fond of it – reminded me of the Clumps in a way, but it’s a very local place. As well as the sort of place that I’m not sure is particularly safe, given the graffiti and dumped rubbish.

Anyway, I did Morialta the next day. Probably walked around 16-17km. It’s another park on the edge of town on the edge of the Adelaide Hills. Imaginative naming round here – the Fourth creek runs through the gully, over First, Second and Third Falls. (So it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise to discover that the plant I’ve been thinking of as the “pea-bush” is called the Pea Bush, the one with daisy-like flowers is the.... well I don’t really need to spell it out, do I?). Anyway there’s water in these falls. I kept passing another English girl up there – going back to Leeds to do her final year as a medical student. Either brave or stupid, I reckon. (being a medical student I mean – not going to Yorkshire!)

Morialta is definitely worth revisiting, even if I did do nearly all of the trails in one valley. Including up to the road at the top of the valley, and across to a “look-out” over Adelaide. Most of them run up to look-outs with great views over the valley, but sadly not quite to the top of the hills. The valley is like a big garden and most of the beauty is That tree in front of That bush with Those flowers, if you uderstand. The sort of effects that garden designers try to create. The bottom of the valley is shady with steep rocks dropping into the creek like huge rockeries. Most if the sound is the "pwonk" of the frogs who sound as though they are sitting there hitting large hollow logs with bits of wood. (Maybe they are).

Further up are bushes and then further up still is stringy-bark which is yet another type of eucalypt, and sheoak which whispers as the wind hushes through. I can't describe the smell which is a heady mix of sweet flowers, with the more spicy sheoaks and the brown smell of the eucalyptus mulch. The trail runs up to "pretty view" (over the valley again and then Hogan's hill. There are no photos because firstly it is a beautiful view of high-tension power lines, held up by two Huge stobie poles (which are like telegraph poles but made of two rails of iron sandwiching concrete – they run roughly every 10m alongside the roads, making them pretty much impossible to avoid if you run the car off the road. I think it must be a Darwinian thing). And secondly it would be a view straight into the sun as all of the views over Adelaide from the hills are. And third I left my phone in the car. Next time I’ll have to get to the next valley. To be honest, it is getting a little dissatisfying, just walking along marked tracks following the sign posts - it takes any sort of "discovery" away. I’m still longing for decent maps. I went to the map shop – I could have bought all of the old green OS walking maps for South Oxfordshire, but not for South Australia. Actually the guy in the shop was bizarrely proud of their collection of Landranger maps – I’m not sure they were actually for sale.

And then at the bottom of Hogan Hill, it would have been rude to go to Morialta without actually going to the bottom of the First Falls, and of course then there was another cave to look at. As I say, I think I walked quite a long way. But I must be getting fitter because the 750m path described forbiddingly as “very steep” wasn’t much of a problem. Or maybe the info boards were just overstating the case slightly. The temp was over 31ºC on Tuesday.


Cobbler's Creek