A&K Travels: April 2012

Day 8: Burra to Burra (9 kms)
A very cold, windy and rainy day! Here's me thinking that we're on the Goyder line! We got up, had a quick breakfast and started riding anyway. During the first 4 kms we stopped twice to shelter from sudden rain showers. After 4.5 kms the track turned into clay and we got stuck. It was absolutely amazing, the clay was so sticky that we had a layer of 20-40mm around the tyres and underneath our shoes!! It would only fall off the tyres when it got too thick to fit through the break pads or underneath the fork! So we considered alternative options and decided to go back to Burra to wait for better weather, which was a good decision because it kept raining! The rest of the day was spent with another coffee, lunch at the Pub and many cups of tea at the Motel.

Ducks checking out our bikes at the Motel. We should have known it was going to be a wet day!

Waiting for the first rain shower to pass.

Sheltering for the second time in an old farm house.

Shower caps fit perfectly over helmets and are very light to carry! Yet again, you can't worry about looks when you're on an adventure!

Dead end until the track gets dry!

Day 9 Burra to Mount Bryan East (80 kms)

A gorgeous day of riding with cool temperatures, overcast sky and the wind behind us all day!! The landscape is beautiful with first treeless rolling hills, then mallee and saltbush country. We arrived at the Mount Bryan East School, which is now a hut with bunk beds for Heysen walkers and Mawson cyclists. Since it was still early, we decided to take some kms off the next day and do the Dare Hill loop. What a gorgeous view and so much more fun to ride without the heavy panniers!

The South Australian version of a National Park.

Big sky and loooong roads.

The old school building at Mount Bryan East. Very cute place to stay.

Cooking Moroccan Chicken and Rice for dinner. Yummy.

Cosy as long as you bring your own gear. Note: we didn't use the old mattresses.

Amazing how 4 panniers can explode into so much gear!

Day 10 Mount Bryan East to Spalding (76 kms)

The whole day it was horrible weather with cool temperatures, strong head-wind and frequent rain showers! The first stop was at Sir Hubert Wilkins Hut. He’s one of Australia’s unknown heroes (“The Last Explorer” is a great read if interested) and his birthplace was renovated into a museum by the Australian Geographic Society. At Hallett we ate a wet, cold and quick lunch at the railway station, which is now also a Heysen hut. We only realised it was ANZAC Day when we wondered why the town was in lock-down. We pushed on to Spalding with the last few kms along the Bundaleer channels, which are a 1898 project of 26 kms of concrete lined channels to fill the town reservoir. Yet again we had a whole house to ourselves at the Country Bakehouse and a fantastic hamburger at the Pub.

Sir Hubert Wilkins' birthplace restored.

Raining off and on all day!!

The old station in Hallett.

Trying to get warm, dry and fuelled.

Wind power - old and new.

Day 11 Spalding to Curnow’s Hut (39 kms)

A disastrous day! We originally planned to do at least 80 kms and stop in Jamestown or Laura. While following the Bundaleer channels again we managed to have a total of 8 punctures and spent over 2 hours repairing them! We did hear about what the locals so aptly named the “three corner jacks” but we didn’t know what plant to look out for. (It's Emex australis!) We also had special tyre protection inserts, which seemed to help a little bit. Well, for anybody who’s planning to ride the Mawson: DO NOT ride along the Bundaleer channels!! Even after fixing all the punctures we could find, we still had slow leaks and kept putting more air into the tyres for the rest of the day. After so much time lost we decided to attempt to stay at another Heysen hut, which we reached just before sunset. Unfortunately, we didn’t know the combination for the lock but I managed to open one of the windows and climb in. So we spent a warm and cosy night but were running very short on food. Beer nuts and cup-a-soup for dinner and squirms for breakfast.

Riding along the Bundaleer channels.

First set of punctures...

The special inner tube protection we used. It worked, except that the spikes get you from the side.

A total of 5 patches on this inner tube. Time to be replaced??

A "three corner jack". They don't look like much but they are very tough!

That's what the plant looks like. They are everywhere and each carries hundreds of these burrs.

Beautiful landscapes along the way..

Curnow's hut.

Day 12 Curnow’s Hut to Laura (49 kms)

After replacing our last inner-tube we finally seemed to have solved our bike problems. The weather is still perfect for riding with the occasional cloud and some cool wind. The Mawson trail map sent us on another what I call “useless loop”. These unnecessary extensions to the track usually end up on difficult, barely rideable terrain and seem to have no purpose other than to add a few kms and a few hills to the trip. Sometimes I wonder if these organisers ever rode the full length of the trail without support vehicles. Funny enough on the 9 maps there are plenty of photographs of riders and nobody has panniers! We arrived in Laura just after lunch time and were impressed with how big and cute the town is. We had lunch and found a bed at the Laura Stayz/Café.

Happy bicycle, all ready to go.

Some very nice buildings in Laura,..

some nice food and...

their very own famous person.

Laura's "Rocky River" that turned out be be not rocky and not a river.

Day 13 Laura to Melrose (67 kms)

This was the hardest day so far!! The trail starts with a very easy 10 kms along a rail trail to Stone Hut, where the "Old Bakery" is famous for pies and pasties. Then it heads into the Wirrabara Forest, which is a mix of plantation/native forest and agriculture. The scenery is gorgeous and the track is often in the shade. However, it's an endless up and down on mountain bike trails, forestry tracks and farm dirt roads. There was always another hill, some of them quite steep, and we were driven to exhaustion! When we finally arrived at Melrose we discovered that the whole town was booked out for a wedding. We had to use our tent for the first time, which at least warranted us carrying it all that way. The caravan park provided hot showers and a washing machine. Dinner at the pub was tasty and enormous!

Rail trail from Laura to Stone Hut.

Enjoying some proper country food (second breakfast). Unfortunately the coffee machine was broken.

Have you hugged a tree lately? The "king tree" is supposedly over 400 years old, 36.5 m tall and 11.35 m circumference at the base.

Wirrabara Forest.

Kirsten had another flat tire. This time due to a piece of hardwood!

Just climbed the last hill before Melrose!

First night of camping.

Day 14 Melrose to Wilmington (33 kms)

We were planning to ride to Quorn today and then have a rest day there. Unfortunately, Kirsten's bike is still having problems with the bearings and the Melrose bicycle shop is open on Sundays! So we decided to have the morning off, get the bikes checked and stock up on gear (3 inner tubes, 1 tyre, 10 patches and a new pump). Melrose is a gorgeous little town with 2 pubs, a great coffee shop and a fantastic bicycle shop. All we could ask for! The afternoon was spent riding the easy 33 kms of flat gravel road to Wilmington where we hired a cabin at the caravan park.

Melrose is famous for mountain biking in the Mount Remarkable National Park.

We decided to scrap our bikes and get some better ones...

Just kidding - lots of tender loving care.

Great breakfast and very cute interior with all the tools still there!

Melrose town centre.

We discovered a local speciality (made in Laura - we watched a 4 minute video at the tourist info!). Kirsten had to have more than one.....

How is all this going to fit into 4 panniers??

Gorgeous old River Red Gums outside of Melrose!

Mount Remarkable.

Day 15 Wilmington to Quorn (45 kms)
An absolutely gorgeous day! The temperatures are still cool enough for riding and the landscape is stunning!! We have now entered the more arid stage of our ride with the first spinifex clusters appearing. The trail led us along the southern part of the Flinders Ranges and then over the Richman Gap into Quorn.

We lo_o_o_ove corrugation!