3rd place: Meadows/Prospect Hill (Kuitpo)
Historical SA running landmark
Common starting location: a) Black Nursery Road, Avenues Picnic Area
https://maps.app.goo.gl/r8PyRS6uLZ33XSdx5
Estimated Travel time from CBD: 45mins from CBD.
Toilet: Yes, drop box at the Avenues Picnic Area
Terrain type: Unsealed roads, fire track and forest single tracks
Severity: Moderate to very hard
Strava Routes:
a) https://www.strava.com/activities/2853500631 (~ 24km, 350m climbing. Predominantly forest loop, moderate)
b) https://www.strava.com/activities/13164760423 (24km, 480m climbing.Prospect hill/Forest combination loop, moderate/hard).
c) https://www.strava.com/segments/10622574 (21.5km, 540m climbing. Meadows/prospect hill white roads loop. Hard with some really hard sections)
Post run fuelling: Pick a Pie (Meadows) / Clarendon Bakery
https://www.facebook.com/@pikapiecafe/
Overview:
The Kuitpo colony region is vast and is a true haven for the long run in the hills of Adelaide. If you go back to my first post (10th - Kuitpo), the tracks/routes have been used by some of SA best runners for decades prior, well before the recent trail running boom and well before the social media era!
Reaching out to Paul Sutcliffe, a Flinders athlete and now coach, he was able to give a snippet of his time running through this region with team mates/competitors in the mid 1980’s.
“I have just been through my diaries. The main thing I remember was that the State 25k Road Championships was up and down the main road starting at the Kuitpo Hall - east 7.5 and back, west 5k and back. First time we ran around Kuitpo region was June 1984 with a Flinders group. We were alternating between Belair, around the city and other spots. Then in October Garry Henry (2.10 marathoner in 1980) was in Adelaide and we started running Mt Bold (from Razorback road east then north were you start now - click here) and Parra Wirra on alternate weeks because David Dowd was out north. In 1985-1986 we were Mount Bold every weekend (minus races etc etc). Highlight was Tim Hutchings who was here for a Mile race who came out with us for a pretty quick 25k on 17/03. We stayed at the start point on razorback road until late 1985 when we move to about the same spot you start from now. All of 1986 was at Mt Bold every weekend 😂. Other figures to run were: Brian Chapman (former CEO SA aths), David Dowd (Enfield harriers at the time), Warren Partland (Enfield and advertiser reporter), Flinders athletes Brendan Hewitt, Ben Phillips, John Kavanagh, and females Lisa Tregenza, Heather Ashcroft and Yolanda Budich.”
I think perhaps some of the best group long runs I’ve been part of with our squad and other running groups have been at Kuitpo, Prospect hill and Meadows. I have memories of group runs here with the Adelaide Harriers, Team Tempo, Flinders and some great small groups which included Michigan athlete Jordy Hewitt when he returned home for holidays. His dad, Brendan (great Flinders athlete mentioned above, who ran here a bit in the 1980s), would join us on the MTB which would have been tougher than running
Leaving from Blacknursery road provides plenty of options to explore the southern side of meadows, prospect hill and within kuitpo forest (Christmas hill & Bells Gully) via the Tinjella trail. The Tinjella trail is very scenic and follows through regions of the forest, over creek beds, winding through single trails covered by a canopy of pine trees. You will venture past some open farm field views with very forgiving pine needles under foot for a lot of the way. There are some sections of gradual climbing up through Bells Gully (Strava segment) or if you venture through prospect hill forest, much shorter, but steeper climbs take you toward Milligan road.
The are many side quests you can venture to via the Tinjella trail. The further south you go, the more native the flora becomes. Kyeema conservation park has some great fire trail with steep undulation, while the land further north towards meadows is flatter scrublands.
In recent times, our group have had some of the best long runs travelling on the white roads that surround Kuitpo. Strava route ‘b’ (above) blends Prospect hill and the Kuitpo Colony, while strava route ‘c’ (above) travels from meadows to collect some of the steepest, most testing climbing in the region. Travelling toward Prospect hill via Black nursery road, you’ll eventually get to Milligan road, which gives amazing sky high views of the meadows landscape. A series of rolling hills will take you south all the way to Mount compass if you’re super keen (via mount magnificent). Vearing off west from Milligan road will guide you back into Kuitpo forest (I found the nicest route is via Oakley road). If you want to travel east, many roads (all unsealed) will take you towards Bull Creek. Milligan road alone is worth the trip to this region, however, Mount Ephraim road is one of the most therapeutic roads in the hills of Adelaide. Beautiful native sheoke/eucalyptus completely cover the road from either side, intertwining to provide shade along rolling hills for miles on end. Bald hill road and Nicol road provide the steepest gradients of the region. If you descent Bald hill, and climb Nicol road it is a pure challenge (or vice versa I guess). Nicol road ascends through the native forest towards Hay Road, and it can put even the world’s best runners close to a walk. The fairytale like surroundings of Nicol road is worth enduring the 25% + gradients.
The kuitpo colony region has been a home to SA distance long running since at least the 1980’s (probably prior). The landscape provides a perfect platform for developing great aerobic strength, with sections of rolling hills or long flat plateaus to pick up the pace. The surface beneath the feet here is arguably the best out of all routes on this top 10 list. An added bonus is that the weather is always a few degrees cooler than the CBD, which makes it ideal to escape some of the hotter summer days SA can endure. From experience, the Meadows/Prospect hill location is the preferred location for our running crew. Hopefully future SA distance runners will continue to choose this location for their Sundays long runs, it has plenty to offer.
This location is also home of the Avenues parkrun, TRSA trail running series and other multiple other ultra running events pass through this region!
Runner Up: Mawson Road (Lenswood) - coming soon
This is one of my favourite routes/places to run. The Strava routes you shared were really helpful. Thanks for sharing. I wish I could do it every weekend!