Vanderpants Oz Tour

Hi All. Well today was a ‘wait the muddy trail out’ kinda day which was still ok because we got to sample Burra’s heritage a little and had an awesome lil side trip which makes this mawson all the better really.

Gherns and I hopped on our bikes (after a lazy and welcomed sleep in) and packed up our stuff and headed towards COFFEEeeeee and had an awesome breakky at this little dainty quaint (sp?) cafe then headed to the info centre.

At the info centre – we purchased the key to city (as I was singing that song for half the day that I had the key to the city hahaha) but really it was to visit all the heritage areas such as the old police barracks and lock up area, the old mines (copper mines) and there’s much more but we only really rode to a few of them but it was still awesome. Did you know Burra mined 5% of the worlds copper at one stage – it was a huge operation here and I can see why this town is such a little gem on the way. I absolutely love this little place and one day will come back for the full tour.

it was great seeing how they mined it and get a glimpse of the times back then (which is really not that long if you think about it)

the first motorised fire truck in Australia (model T ford) was pretty cool and I like the police station too

My garmin packed up (BLOODY DAMN IT) but cammo came to the rescue as he was picking up Gherns anyway as her short but awesome trip has ended and her taste for touring and the mawson life (I would call more of a entree before the entree hehe) had come to an end. I researched garmins quickly and purchased the you beut latest which has triple the battery life, larger screen and so much more – can’t wait to load my map in there and get going again. Thank you CAMMO you legend

It was the first time I ate a this cornish pastie thing (update – remembered the name: tiddy oggy – thanks Gherns) but it was half pastie then half desert (apple pie) it was sensational hahaha. desert and dinner in one how good is that

the update for the rest of the trip is 50/50 i’d say – The weather is half cloudy and half rainy – although the next few days has some rain it looks like 1mm ish…..but i know a little bit of rain makes it instant sludge. Kind of like when your dough doesn’t have enough flour – that’s how sticky it is hahaha – After Gherns and Cammo departed after coffee, lunch a good old yarn I found my accomm, settled in – garmin on charge and do the blog plus work out my plan of attack – Luckily I met up with some cyclists that were going the other way on mawson and I could get some advice but they said they skipped out on 150 k’s of the track but their suggewtion was give it a crack it will be 50/50 as it was windy and not raining for two days so I MAY be able to ride it. So my plan is give it a crack and when the rain hits, see where I am and make a call to wait it out a bit and try again – then see where i’m at. If I didn’t give it a crack I would hate myself…….

so stay tuned for tomorrows report – will I get bogged and stuck somewhere, will I make it to a campsite or somewhere to pitch a tent – will I make it to my planned stop (which is an old school) – who knows – standby for tomorrow’s report –



VANDERPANTS OUT!!!!