Sorry JLN, only red dogs up there.
Just got back from Blinman. Completing the Mawson Trail was enough for me this time but I still have a strong desire to head further North during the cooler months. 13 days including 1 rest day and 1 day waiting for the weather to improve. I’ll be posting a day by day journal and photos here shortly.
Nice photoshop, bro.
Nearly done organising photos. I really wish I had taken more.
'Tis one of the conundrums of cycle touring.
Stop and take zillions of amazing photos vs. stay in the saddle and make your stop over before dark.
Gorge Road
Onto the trail at Birdwood.
Mt Crawford Forest
Trial Hill
Steingarten Vineyard
Trailhead out of Nuriootpa
Roads to Kapunda
Getting up over Light Range
Rolling down out of the North Mount Lofty Ranges
Sheep tracks to Riverton
End of the Riverton-Auburn Rail Trail
Pub at Auburn
Caravan Park Auburn ($8 with all amenities, kitchen, laundry)
Along the Riesling Trail to Clare
The strada bianche out of Clare
Climbing up to the base of Camels Hump Range to meet a shut gate and an electric fence.
View from the top.
Rolling out the other side.
Roads to Burra.
Burra Hotel.
La Pecora Nera. Wood-oven pizza for dinner.
Leaving Burra the next morning past an old prison for naughty girls.
Start of Section 2. Burra-Quorn
Roads out of Burra.
Heysen Trail junction.
Mount Bryan, thankfully didn’t have to climb it.
Locust country, swallowed a few.
Mokota Conservation Park
Entering Sugar Loaf Range.
Great views from Mount Dare summit, Flinders Ranges in distance.
Roads to Hallett.
Pub at Hallett, I got my pint and GTFO.
Settling in for a cold night at the old train station converted cabin. Hallett is above 600m.
Looking back down Brown Hill Range.
Windfarm atop the range.
The harvest was on.
Tough surface along Bundaleer Channels into Spalding. Recommend detour.
Camping out the back of the pub ($10 with showers included). I spent much more than $10 at the front bar. Lovely people in Spalding.
Along Bundaleer Road.
Bundaleer Aqueduct.
Climbing up into Never Never Range.
A few gates to open and close.
Through Never Never Range.
Road being graded through Bundaleer Forest. Meant 2km of hiking for me.
Railway crossing out of Gladstone
Was a good excuse to stop for a drink and cigarette.
Pub at Laura
Two other cyclotourists at Laura. Left Sydney in 2008 and are doing Aus anti-clockwise. Both had custom Velosmith frames with Rohloff hubs.
Somewhere near Stone Hut.
Into Wirrabarra Forest.
Motivated by thirst (for beer), detour to Murraytown proved fruitless. Pub was closed… 4 years ago.
Caravan park at Melrose, at base of Mount Remarkable.
Luxurious cabin on my rest day at Melrose.
Taking a break from the wind at the Rotten Creek crossing. Mt Remarkable in background.
More headwinds into Wilmington.
Wilmington was kinda quiet.
Had a few toy museums though.
My 22nd Birthday breakfast at Wilmington. 4 ladies worked at this shop and I was the only customer in an hour and a half.
Climbing up around Mount Eagle.
Views from Mount Brown East.
Steep and stony climb through Richman Gap.
Rolling out of Richman Gap into Quorn.
2 of the 4 hotels.
Returning to Quorn, defeated by freezing headwinds and driving rain.
Going for an unloaded spin around Quorn. Resting out the front of Bikes and Bytes, bike hire and internet cafe.
Up over Ragless Range.
The steep end of Ragless.
There’s a few roos in there somewhere.
At Proby’s Grave.
Willochra Creek, judging by the high water mark, would’ve been up around chest height the day before. Good thing I turned back to Quorn.
Straight into more weather on the Willochra Plain.
Black Jack Hill I think.
Roads to Hawker.
Decided to get off the dirt and onto the seal to race the rain into Hawker.
Got to the pub just as it came down, lucky!
So good… drool
