National / Conservation Parks, Adelaide

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We have two main zoos in Adelaide and Monarto Zoo is located just outside of Adelaide and houses the larger animals which need loads of space. Poor thing must be struggling with the heatwave here this week as these photos will show:

Onkaparinga Estuary is located between Port Noarlunga and Old Noarlunga, located within Onkaparinga River Recreation Park. The "Pingle Farm track" gives you an idea of what the area was like before it became urban sprawl. There is an abandoned farm property built in 1862, given that most of it is in ruins I am surprised to learn that it was occupied until the 1970's.
The track forms a loop and you can choose a short or a longer route depending on the time available and physical condition. It is mostly level ground with well defined paths.
The track can be started from Commercial Road or Sauerbiers Road in the suburb of Seaford Meadows.

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Onkaparinga National Park, about 35km directly south of the city centre is a good park for adventurous exploration, with a number of walking trails of varying quality found at various access points. A map of the park found at the "main" entrances is quite useful. One problem with some trails is overgrowth, due to what must be a lack of park management.
The greenery is at its best in Winter and Spring, before the Kangaroo Grass has turned brown in anticipation of the dry summer.

A large part the central area of the park was subject to a bushfire in late December 2006 (due to arson).

For people visiting the park the first time, my recommendation is:
1. Enter Piggot Range Road, Onkaparinga Hills, from Coxs Hill Road. The first entrance encountered with a dirt carpark and pedestrian gate leads to several trails. A good sense of direction is advised.
2. Alternatively, further down the road there is a larger carpark. Walk down a gravel road and turn left at a dirt path where there are signs pointing to a lookout and Sundews trail. Follow this path until encountering a wooden platform.

Kuitpo (pronounced kai-po) Forest is situated about 40 km South-East of the city centre. It consists of a number of individual plantation forests near the towns of Meadows and Kangarilla. Densely packed Pine and Eucalyptus trees are to be found, bordered by farmland and Vineyards. There are walking trails and evenly spaced dirt roads to walk on.
Any of the various sections is worth exploring, there is a campground along Razorback Road (not covered by UBD maps) which has a pit toilet and a small cottage for hire.

Directions:
From South Road, turn onto Chandlers Hill Road, and follow the road signs to Clarendon and then Meadows.

Cleland Wildlife Park is situated in the Adelaide Hills only 20 minutes from Adelaide. Here you can interract with Australian animals in an environment that is made as natural as possible...You can see them feeding, feed the Kangaroos and emus..and just have a beautiful relaxing day out..
Cleland can be found at
mMount Lofty Summit Rd
Crafers...
Just follow the freeway out of Adelaide.

Last year my girlfriend and I stayed at the Ridgetop Retreat in Deep Creek conservation Park, about 1 and 1/2 hours drive south of Adelaide. The place is really well designed to be energy efficient, warm in winter and cool in summer. The three retreats are made mostly of recycled materials, and glass facing the sun to trap the heat during the day. It was the middle of winter when we went, and the place was very warm inside (Deep Creek can get very cold in winter). One of the days we went for a hike around the cliffs that look on to Kangaroo Island, getting very wet, and risking life and limb climbing 'cliffs' we got this photo. On May 16,. it will be on the ABC news weather.

This is pretty small for a conservation park but it also has a lot of stuff in it's relatively small area.
It's another one of those nice, out of the way wilderness areas where you can pretend civilisation is a million miles off and has lots of good walking trails. No need to worry about getting lost here as you'll never get too far away from where you parked. Near the car park there are old mining trenches here and there and a mineshaft going in the side of the hill (bring a torch or you'll probably decide give it a miss upon reading the "do not go in without a torch" signs at the entrance.) It takes you back in time and makes you think about these people who went out to the middle of nowhere (as it was at the time) to manually bore their way through solid rock all day long.

Directions:
It's not too far from the city, the simplest way to get there is to take Main Road through and past Blackwood, turn left onto Cherry Gardens Road, then turn right onto Dorset Vale Road which leads to the car park area.

The Nullabor plain the longest,flattest road in the world, its goes for some 4,000km. Thats a LONG way and this place is notorious for UFO abductions etc..Hmmmm! (Thanks for pic John) We travelled a majority of the time here at night, so no shot available from me.