SA MapAdelaide, South Australia is a misunderstood and often misrepresented city. True, it is one of the largest country towns in Australia but it is far from the dull location often heard. With Adelaide, it all comes down to what you want to experience. Adelaide provides an excellent launch point for some great wine and food regions, an emerging micro-brew culture, beautiful beaches, and excellent bush walking. If you're into a place where you can relax and explore, then Adelaide is what you're after.

16 September 2012, City-Bay 2012

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Parent Category: South Australia
Category: Adelaide
Created: Saturday, 15 September 2012 14:53

citytobay2012The City-Bay is an annual event held in September in Adelaide that celebrated its 40th Anniversary this year, a Community Fun Run/Walk with a few participation options of 3/6/12 kilometre Runs/Walks as well as one for wheelchair . The primary objective of the even is to support athletics in South Australia, but over its 40 year history a range of other charities have taken part and begun to use it for their own fund-raising purposes. The event costs $40 per adult, less for Children and there are group concessions as well.

For some history on the event, have a look at their history page beginning in 1973 and following the events expansion from 1600 participants to 39000 in 2012. The event aims to be a fun day out with everyone walking for a good cause and you get quite a few people dressing up for the event in Costume. Over the past 3 years that I have taken part I have seen Super-Heroes, Animals, Star Wars characters, people in bright colours and capes, princesses and many more. There are some that do take the event seriously as there are prizes for winning, but I'd like to think that for the most part people don't care about that aspect and just want to do something good in the outdoors. The City-Bay Organisation do make pictures available through Sports In Focus and they use the bib numbers to enable a quick search for participants to find their photos.

The walk itself starts in the CBD by the Festival Centre and heads through the centre of town, before heading to Anzac Highway and on to Glenelg (or the Bay as it is colloquially known).

This is my 3rd year taking part and my partners 2nd. This year I decided that I was going to up the stakes a little for myself and use it to up my training a bit for a future trip by carrying my backpack with me. I packed our 2-person tent (2.95kg), 2 Sleeping Bags (2.4kg), 2 sleeping mats (1.2kg), 2 pillows (0.1kg), 2 sleeping bag liners (0.3kg). So I had 7kg of kit before I added water (3 Litre bladder), 1 Litre backup bottle, and fruit. The pack itself is around 2.5kg. So all told I started with around 13.5kg on my back that would reduce as I drank water down to around the 10kg mark by the end. This also helps limit my ability to surge ahead and thus stay with my team (A valuable skill to developnow that I walk with a companion). My new philosophy regarding these events is: I don't train for events, the events train me.

We started at the very back of the 12km walkers and gradually made our way through the crowds. The strange thing for me this year was how little the crowd opened up, the entire way had a good chunk of people. I'm used to the field opening up for a bit more weaving and overtaking by the 2km mark rather than the 6km and even then it wasn't much. The walk is quite nice down to the Bay and there is a great satisfaction that comes from blocking one of the main thoroughfares for a few hours on a Sunday. The weather was a little brisk and overcast and there was a bit of rain in the middle that made things a bit slippery until it dried out.

City to Bay Fun Run 2012



We completed the 2km in 2 hours 1 minute 6 seconds, which is pretty good considering we had two toilet stops (Hint: Do not over-hydrate, it slows you down due to long line-up at every toilet along the way).

Probably the biggest disappointment for me in regard to this event is the size. It is so big and so many corporations, organisations, and charities are involved now that when you get to the end and want to rest, there are tents everywhere with barbecues and tables of food and drink that you have to be a member of their group to visit. There are no small businesses selling out of their vans and you have to go to a nearby restaurant or takeaway place that is packed to the gills. It would be nice if it were easier to get food, but that's the way it is these days. It's a small complaint when you think that this gets almost 40,000 people out and about together on a Sunday morning.

All participants get a free bus or tram ride out of the Bay and for us that's what we do. Head straight back to the city and get on with our Sunday. All in all it's a great day out.

Feb 25 2012 - Waterfall Gully

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Parent Category: South Australia
Category: Adelaide
Created: Saturday, 25 February 2012 06:53

Saturday 25th February, I decided to test my fitness on the Waterfall Gully track to Mount Lofty at Cleland Conservation Park. I've been told that if you can complete it in 55 minutes, then you are ready for most tracks except the extreme.

So, I thought I'd give it a go to see how fast I could I achieve it in.

My rules were: Walking only, no stopping, must be able to hold a conversation when I reached the top.

I achieved a time of 44:29 from the cafe at the bottom of Waterfall Gully to the Mount Lofty lookout. I impressed myself with this as I'm told it is jogged in around 40 minutes.

A little about the track. Waterfall Gully is located 20 minutes from the CBD and is one of the most popular trails of the Cleland Conservation Park. With the popularity, parking becomes one of the most difficult parts of this track. The track is 3.9 kilometres long, and roughly 400 metres in elevation. The gradient ranges up to 22% and averages around 13%. The track is primarily artificial with some natural and winds up the valley through some beautiful foliage, and at times offers a great view of the city.

Why this track is so popular I couldn't tell you. In Cleland alone there are dozens of better trails, especially if you are in training. Still, for those that like only known quantities, this trail is pretty easy to remember and it has a status amongst the locals so you can compare results.

Here's the GPS data I collected from this trail.

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