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| Freezing! |
Today was meant to be a long one,
with the route covering 80km. With that in mind we had set an early alarm to
try and get a bit of a head start. Setting an alarm is one thing, but getting
out of a warm sleeping bag when the temperature had dropped to 3 degrees
Celsius over night is a whole different story. When we eventually stuck our
heads out we were again greeted with a misty view and we realised that we would
be packing our tent up wet once again. However, Spalding had put on a hot
breakfast for us (even if we did freeze walking to the hall) so all was well
with the world.
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| The view from the channels |
Eventually we headed off, back
onto the channels that were so enjoyable to ride the day before. We had been
passionately warned about the likelihood of punctures along this route, however
I have to say I had no trouble myself and didn’t hear of anyone else having any
difficulty. All in all, the channels were a pleasant place to ride, even if we
did have to keep opening and closing gates.
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| Awesome Engineering |
Eventually we came to the
Bundaleer Reservoir, and the associated aqueduct. Quite an impressive piece of
engineering, though it did leak a little. Considering it’s over a hundred years
old, a little leak isn’t too bad. From here we slogged up some dirt tracks that
seemed to suck the energy out of you, either that or my legs were a little
tired and ended out on the main road. We had been advised at our route briefing
that we could either follow the road for about 5 km, or follow the pipeline
which ran parallel to the road and was the true Mawson trail. However, the true
mawson trail apparently runs over some good cropping land and as neither of us
felt like slogging through churned up soil, we took the road option.
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| The view from the top |
We turned off the road and into
morning tea, with me looking forward to my morning cuppa. Morning tea had been
cunningly located at the base of the major “short” hill climb of the day. “Short”
was the description provided to us the night before, possibly accompanied with
the word “intense” but I definitely remembered “short”. So after fortifying
ourselves with cake and tea we decided to tackle the hill. As it turns out
there were lots of photography opportunities on the way up the hill, which at
3km long, does not qualify for short! But it was fun spinning my way up there
and negotiating the rocky sections and the view from the top was worth the
climb.
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| Into the forest |
Unlike previous climbs, this one
wasn’t followed by a fast descent, rather we meandered our way up and down
along the ridgeline then headed into Budaleer
Forest for a final climb
through a paddock. Once we were there I think we found the most fun down hill
of the whole ride, straight down a grassy paddock! And then we went down
another one! By the time I got to the bottom I was grinning ear to ear (though
there was one moment I was worried that I might crash into a fence, but then I
realised the gate was open). After that we meandered through the forest,
keeping an eye out for signs as we had heard it was easy to get lost.
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| Down the hill! |
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| The road less travelled |
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| CLP on the road |
The trail eventually came out
onto a dirt road, however a locked gate required a bit of co-operation as about
five of us intrepid Mawsonites worked together to get each others (not so
light) bikes over the gate. Then onto lunch, which was meant to be at about the
50km mark, however road conditions meant it was a little further away and so
with our stomachs rumbling we kept pedalling.
Lunch was about 4km further on
and after a brief stop to refuel on sandwiches and cake, we pedalled off to
cover the last 25km into Laura. The map had indicated that overall, this was a
downwards stretch, however there were still a couple of hills that were hard
work towards the end. After a few breathers along the way and a brief pit stop
to see how the guy running the afternoon water stop was going, we made it into
Laura.
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| Manatoo Schoolhouse |
Laura’s a town I have fond
memories of as a kid going to the folk fair that they hold every year, so it
was nice to come to a place that was a little bit familiar. They also make the
Golden North ice cream here so I was really looking forward to dessert. With
that in mind we quickly got our tent up (we may have inadvertently camped next
to an ants nest, but it was cold enough that they didn’t seem to mind) and
headed over to the hall for tea. Tonight was pumpkin soup (trust me, when
you’re cold this is the best thing ever), various chicken dishes (curry, satay,
casserole and apricot chicken) with salad and the much anticipated Golden North
Giant Twin. I managed to score a honey one which was just delicious!
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| Last hill of the day |
The route briefing indicated that
the route would be true Mawson trail all day tomorrow and what’s more, only
57km with a final downhill run into Melrose.
The weather ladies told us the sun would be shining and the Giro update told us
Cuddles was coming second. All was good in the world as we headed to bed at the
end of our third day, accompanied briefly by the less than clothed Mawsonite
who did the fastest sprint of the whole trip down the main street of Laura.
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| Made it another day! |
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| A section of Bundaleer Forest that was burnt a few years ago |
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