Packing up a wet tent in the pre
dawn glimmer was not the most promising start to the day, but we managed and
after breakfast headed out to the road before 8am. Given that we’re not morning
people at the best of times, I was thoroughly impressed with us, but we did
have over 80km to cover that day. We did manage to get a bit lost (even after
checking the detour map at breakfast) trying to get out of Burra, but anyone
who has ever been there would understand our difficulties! Eventually we found
a marshal who pointed us out to the road and we were off.
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| We're ready to go! |
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| And so are our bikes |
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| Classic Australian album cover |
Well by off, I mean we were
cruising along somewhat less than 20km/hr on loaded up mountain bikes. Which
compared to the rest of the speeds we managed to do is actually fairly fast but
it’s still pretty slow for two roadies used to cruising at 25 to 30 km/hr.
Still starting on the road was a nice, comfortable place for us and along the
way we passed a ruin that featured prominently on the cover of midnight oil
album diesel and dust.
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| The treeless conservation park |
Just pass Mount Bryan
we turned east onto White Hill
Road, leaving the bitumen behind. It was a nice
cruisy dirt road with only a little mud (or so the rest of the riders told me)
that took us up to Mokota
Conservation Park
and morning tea. This was a treeless park and the warm cuppa helped deal with
the freezing wind that blew over the exposed hillside. It was here we bumped
into one of the true Mawson riders, and caught a glimpse of the mud that we had
missed. Apparently one of them spent half an hour at morning tea washing down
his bike so that he could continue.
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| The road ahead |
From morning tea we rolled down a
hill into the dry country west of the Sugar Loaf Ranges. A steady series of rolling hills
on beautiful gravel roads culminated in a final ascent with a view that left us
gasping (or that could have been the climbing). Stretched before us to the east
was undulating, dry mallee scrub as fast as the eye could see. A swooping
descent took us down into the heart of it, cruising along dirt roads with the
occasional dive down into dry creeks and back up the other side. Moving north, we
eventually came to the Newikie Creek and subsequent hill that took us up to
Dust Hole Creek crossing and lunch.
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| The high point of the day |
After lunch we headed up to Dares
Hill Summit. Again we were rewarded with amazing views, with rolling hills
visible to the horizon. For want of a better description, the landscape feels
larger than life out there, so much space.
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| The view to forever |
We had been warned in the ride
briefing the night before that the Mawson trail turned off a short way down the
descent and if we missed it, climbing back up to it would be unpleasant to say
the least. With that warning ringing in our ears, we descended cautiously,
easily spotting the left turn onto what turned out to be almost single track.
The descent was a little rocky and fun, my confidence with Contessa slowly growing.
Eventually we took a sharp left
turn up Civilization Gate Road,
and when I say up I mean it. 60km in the legs meant that this was a fair grind
but riding through mallee country always brings a smile to my face. This was
the only time we were rained on the whole day and the entire time it rained the
sun was shining brightly. Then the mallee country cleared leaving us exposed as
we rode through a series of paddocks. Afternoon tea was at Sir Hubert Wilkins
Cottage, another intrepid explorer we had learnt about the night before. Riding
up to the cottage we could see it tantalisingly close on our right but needed
to ride a big loop around it before we found the entrance. Afternoon tea and a
chance to get out of the wind was greatly appreciated, as was the long drop.
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| The much appreciated long drop |
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| Civilization Road |
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| We made it! |
In truth there is little else to
say about the remaining ride. We knew we had somewhat over 80km to ride in
total, but we weren’t sure how much our early morning detour had added. As it
turns out, it was a fair bit with the days total just shy of 89km. The last
20km or so was slightly uphill and into a headwind. Seriously a struggle but we
made it after almost 8.5 hours on the road (just over 6 hours riding). We
quickly managed to put up our tent and run through the shower before heading
down to the local hall for tea.
It’s at this point in time that I
need to point out I was extremely tired, hungry and a little bit sore so when
some ladies suggested I buy a raffle ticket I was a little short in my
response. After inhaling some awesome pumpkin soup I was feeling somewhat more
civilised and a little guilty for not supporting the community so I chased down
a lady who chased down another lady hiding in the corner preparing raffle
tickets. In good community spirit I purchased some before it was too late and
returned to finish my meal, which was amazing bbq (beef, chicken patties and
sausages) with a vast array of salads.
After we had all been
sufficiently fed and watered that we would stay quiet enough to listen, the
ride briefing began. Mostly all I heard was the word short, which made me
extremely happy. We also had a weather report, which much to everyone’s delight
included the word dry. It was then time to draw the raffle, which included lots
of chocolate as third prize, a bottle of wine as second and a big hamper as
first. I had previously made a bit of a smart remark that the hamper wasn’t the
most practical of prizes, given that we were on bikes and had limited space in
the luggage trucks. It was possibly the first time I had hoped not to be the
winner, when lo and behold my ticket gets pulled out for first prize. As it
turns out there were lots of awesome goodies, and we did actually need a new
washing basket! So I should probably end this post by saying a big thanks to
the Hallett community for an awesome dinner and raffle and also to our
wonderful luggage truck guys who transported my prize all the way to Melrose (and wouldn’t even
take the box of chocolates as thanks).
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