Day 68 | creek near Angorachino Station: no beer for you sonny
47 km | Heading west total: 2,376 km
Is this the slowest traverse of the Mawson Trail ever?
I may have set a record here. 31 days since I left Adelaide and my bike computer says I’ve done just over 1000km. (There’s 100km extra for all the wine tasting, getting lost a couple of times and biking around the towns.)
Biggest day: almost six hours in the saddle getting to Laura.
Shortest on the official track: 2370m to roll down the hill into Clare.
Most scenic: hard to say, maybe yesterday with the Bunyeroo valley, or views either side of East Mt Bryan schoolhouse around Dust Hole Creek Road and at Dare’s Hill.
Luckiest break: meeting tandem cyclist Garrett with the fistful of spare chain links in Burra. Haven’t needed them yet but did get a new chain at Melrose.
Funniest situation: today ‘discussing’ with the publican who runs all Blinman’s accommodation that advertising backpacker’s bunkhouse means you pay for only the bunk and not the whole room. To me that seemed rather obvious: not out here. $50 for a dusty backpacker’s bunk seemed slightly excessive even if I had a choice of 5 bunks. The discussion continued for a while. I remained low tones, even polite. It terminated abruptly with him stating he didn’t like my ‘types’ and him walking out of his North Blinman Hotel leaving no one to serve.
I didn’t get that beer at the end of my month on the trail after all.
And it’s a mighty long way to the next pub.