Day 495 | Bulls Pass Track: back on the Mawson Trail

47 km | zzOz total: 16,042 km

I checked the bike computer : I’d clocked up only 20 km for the day so far and it was almost 2pm. Less than 8 km/hour and that was when the wheels were in motion, often they were not.

I’d forgotten that the impressively scenic Parachilna Gorge led to the highest locality in South Australia, the old mining relict now tourist end of the road at Blinman, but I guess that ain’t saying much.

I’d taken innumerable images of the massive River Red Gums at the start and views of dramatically striated verticality for a change. Some activity involving horses is currently taking place at the showgrounds, gymkhana doesn’t explain much, there’s a stream of 4WDs with every fourth towing a horse float. I’m grinding up a steep section, chatting to some local aboriginal dudes who can’t believe an idiot is riding a bike up this hill, they have to pull away as another vehicle approaches, I’m in my lowest gear, ie, hard to steer, about a third of the way across the road on the smoothest section, a woman leans out and shouts, Move over, we’ve got horses, the reality is there’s plenty of room for all, the big V6 or V8 easily dragging its load up where I’m, err, frankly struggling.

The rest breaks are becoming more frequent, photos still taken but the emphasis is on the breather, I’m overloaded with food aboard to last until Clare, the next big supermarket, I was suckered into the load by the half price everything back in Leigh Creek.

Time’s like these I’ve learned in life just to grind it out, like life itself this will soon pass, after the nutty ruggedness of Gregory National Park, the 70 km of soft stuff east of Tjukayirlia Roadhouse on the Great Central Road, the sand slog when bypassing Gunshot on the return trip on the Telegraph Track, leaving Geehi and moving purposefully over Dead Horse Gap, or the severe rain of the Ravenshoe to Atherton section, coincidentally getting inadvertently to the highest point on Queensland’s road system, it’s these challenges, hardships that point to the fact that we are alive and our bodies often more capable of surviving, prospering, than what our minds might think.