Last Sunday morning, I felt like getting out in the woods and stretching the old legs with a good long bushwalk.

The Cleland Conservation Park is just five minutes from our home and offers endless kilometres of quite challenging hiking trails. But as I drove past the Crafers bus stop and started driving up to Mt Lofty I was concerned that I was going to have plenty of company on the trails. Lots of people were getting off the bus carrying hiking sticks and water bottles and starting the trek up to the Mt Lofty Summit. When the road crossed the Mt Lofty/Waterfall Gully Trail and I saw a queue of hikers waiting to cross the road, I knew I wouldn’t be alone in the woods. That trail is a highway most days, but a freeway on Sundays. I wasn’t in the mood for a circus.

So I chose a trail less travelled in the NE corner of the park called the Wine Shanty Trail. I hiked for six kilometres through pristine bushland. Best yet, I had the trail entirely for myself; I didn’t see a single person the entire morning. I found the blissful solitude I was seeking in an outrageously beautiful setting. I searched out a geocache which sent me crashing through the bush until I reached a rocky escarpment. Hidden from view was a cave of possible Aboriginal significance. I looked around and there was no one to be seen in this magical spot.

I was happy that on that day I took the road less travelled. But I was happier that there were those with wisdom who long ago recognised the value of wildlands and set aside parcels of land in their natural state so that someday someone like me could find a moment of tranquillity in a wild setting.

‘Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.’ Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire