It kept coming down.
Hawker Caravan Park.
Road out of Hawker with Yourambulla Range on left.
Somewhere along the Wonoka Station track.
Up the track beside Mernamerna Hill.
Towards Elder Range.
Lots of bastard ghost creek crossings. Much deeper than it looks!
Very sketchy times. Steep, stony descent near Mount Little.
I walked down with some degree of difficulty.
First fall of the trip and the first of three that day.
Bastard cattle tracks.
Bastard cows that forced me out into the scrub. I gave them a wide berth, a few had long bastard horns.
After three falls, was glad to be back on the sealed stuff, albeit for a few ks.
Along the heavily corrugated and heavily scenic Morlana Scenic Drive.
Taking a break near Black Gap. Notice one bottle missing. Was shaken out by bastard 4WD tracks near Wonoka Station earlier in the day. Had a bit of a WILSOOOOOOOOOOOOON moment when I realised.
Over the other side of Elder Range for the sunset.
Chase Range sunset.
Wilpena Pound Range.
Coming into Wilpena Pound
Campsite at Wilpena.
More bastard creek crossings out of Wilpena.
Some singletrack out of Wilpena. A few tight squeezes.
The worst creek crossing.
Another creek crossing.
Crossing Wiloco Creek.
Looking back down the Aroona Valley with ABC Range and Heysen Range on either side.
The boldest Emu’s I encountered.
The last bastard climb up to Blinman.
The last Mawson Trail post.
Finally at the Pub.
The last marker pointed straight to the front bar, beautiful.
Hope you enjoyed the pics! If anyone is curious about the trail, wants to borrow some maps, just PM me. Cheers!
Looks like a great, if not epic trip. I was over there last year - would have loved to ditch the camper van and rode. My sister in law is from Quorn, bit of a shit hole, but great MTB’ing over there acording to my brother.
Great MTB’ing in Melrose too. Quorn was a bit of a shithole but full of international tourists, lots of pubs, internet, a foodland and a decent caravan park ($12 for me I think).
i love how many times you said bastard towards the end there 
super jealous, really hope to do more touring eventually…
Awesome. The highest of commednations for sharing this with us.
I always forget what a big fucking country we live in. Top pics !!!
Btw, is that a Pletscher twin kick stand? In any case very impressive … you were quite loaded up and it’s not easy to find a good kickstand to hold all that.
Thanks Spirito.
Yup it’s a twin legger and it worked quite well. It uses a clamp to attach to the stays, my Atlantis doesn’t have a kickstand plate, it’s the only thing I can knock it for! A few times it was overwhelmed by winds or the load and it has the scratches to prove it. I found that if I pointed the forks into the prevailing wind or into an incline it did the job nine times out of ten.
The only video I took, as you can see I had some trouble with the gopro helmet mount. Spot the Mawson Trail marker at 2:25.
Rolling out of Richman Gap into Quorn.
[video=vimeo;39767579]http://vimeo.com/39767579[/video]
I am considering riding the Mawson trail south to north solo over a maximum 9 days next year (maps just ordered) and was initially looking to carry gear in a Viscasha, Large SweetRoll + Large pocket and Medium Tangle bag (might be able to also wear a small daypack with bladder by then; at the moment shoulder straps and my relatively freshly plated collarbone don’t agree).
After reading up various ride reports I am concerned I won’t be able to carry enough water at the Northern end of the trail. For those that have ridden the Mawson trail will this be an issue? If so I have just considered an Extrawheel with panniers, though am concerned this will be then overkill and I’ll cart more gear than needed! Otherwise with panniers on the Extrawheel I might be able to leave one or more of the other bags off? The trail doesn’t read as overly technical so the Extrawheel might be the go anyway?
Am I being overambitious or even missing the point of traveling the trail by trying to knock off 100+km per day for this ride given most take 12+ days?