26 August 2021
Distance 45.5 km
After finishing up toward the end of 2020, I had a long break from the trail. I did train for a multitude of other events, most of which were cancelled or deferred – thanks so much COVID. Not.
One of those events was Run Larapinta – a four stage race taking in sections of the Larapinta Trail near Alice Springs. So I decided to do my own multi day event covering some sections of the Heysen Trail around the Barossa Valley. Not that the plethora of wineries and fooderies had anything to do with course selection :o). First stop was the Kapunda caravan park.
I started with a longer run of around 45 km from Marrabel heading south to Kapunda. It was a very cool and crisp start to the day – there was ice on my car when I set off! I passed some disapproving alpacas, got swooped by some ferocious and annoyingly persistent magpies and made a navigational blunder within 2 kms of starting. How could I have missed the very clear signage?? Fortunately I found my way back onto the trail without having to backtrack.
The trail is pretty benign through this section, with gradual ups and downs and a lot of paddocks. The countryside was very green, so I was pretty cautious through any overgrown bits and made lots of noise to hopefully scare away any snakes coming out of winter hibernation.
After the frosty start, the day was perfect for a long run. Amazingly I didn’t encounter a single other person on the trail. The trail joins unsealed access roads from time to time, which made for easy running.
After my initial error, I found the trail super easy to follow and arrived back into Kapunda in good shape where it was a short walk from my stopping point on the trail back to the caravan park.
Racecationing.com 