CLELAND : ST MICHAEL’S SPUR

CHINAMAN’S HUT – ATTUNGA – NANGARE – CARRO  

Circuit : 2 hour 50 minutes, 9 km

WINE SHANTY
  ST MICHAEL SPUR



We take the car up the South Eastern Freeway and turn off to Eagle on the Hill.  Just past the old hotel is Measday Lookout – not much of a lookout, but a small turnoff and car park.   There is only one entry to the Park from the Lookout, but a small maze of unsigned paths is not helpful. I found a map essential on this walk, and even then it was not always sufficient!


The early morning view was beautiful with the sun just coming over Mount Lofty ...

... and a friendly kangaroo was a welcoming sight too.

This miserable sign doesn't provide much help, and in fact the track we are supposed to take (just opposite this sign) had no sign at all.

The Chinaman's Hut Track descends gently down to the Corro Track turn-off, and then climbs steeply for 25 minutes up to the Ballet Spur Track.  I don't know where the name came from.  There are partial views from this spur, and a sense of the size of this Park with gum-clad hills in every direction.

The ants were up early doing their housekeeping ...

On to St Michael's Spur - the name coming from the old Anglican Theological College which used to be sited nearby and which was burnt out in the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires.  There are nice views from the spur road in, but in my view it is not worth going all the way down, as the trees down there enclose the track.

The yellow-tailed black cockatoos were practising their fly-overs.

And from the spur we can gauge our proximity to the TV towers ...

Returning to the main track we  shortly come to the very steep Attunga Track - only 15 minutes climb, but hard work!  From here we can see the Mount Lofty Summit.

I then branched right onto the pleasantly near-horizontal Nangare Track.  The occasional pretty heath flowers show we are in the (Adelaide) high country.

Ignoring the various branch tracks to the left, we find that the Nangare Track (part of the Heysen Trail) comes out on Reynolds Drive, itself no more than a well-kept fire trail.

One can actually live down here, right on the edge of the Park and with a glorious view across the Park to the Plains.  But would I choose to be here on a Catastrophic Fire Day?  No way!  It might be a view to die for ... .

Towards the end of Reynolds Drive we find the Carro Track entry.


                                                                                      

This track descends gently until the branch off of the Biriee Track, keeping the TV towers in view ...


... and with nice views to the coast.

After this there is a treacherously steep grade until the track is rejoined by the Biriee Track.   Beyond this point the track becomes a pleasant valley walk until it rejoins the Chinaman's Hut Track, and so back to the car.  Fifth Falls is close by here, but I could see no access track.  No Falls either, just now (summer)!
SUGARLOAF

  ST MICHAEL SPUR