Vanderpants Oz Tour

Well the day off in Quorn was well planned – it rained most of the night and half the day. The morning was very windy and a tad sunny which means hopefully a dry (ish) track. I spent the day in Quorn walking around every street and reading the signs, doing most of the heritage trail, laundry, some well needed bike maintenance and sample the local goods. I didn’t know this but Brian Powell (and the CSIRO) domesticated the ‘Quandong’. It’s was bushtucker for a long time but supposedly, Quorn (where Brian was born) helped make it become a tree of significance and hence Quorn has a lot of Quandong references (keep your mind out of the gutter). Therefore, i HAD to sample it didn’t I as I’ve never had quandong before. The ‘Desert Peach’ apparently has higher nutrition than the blueberry with high vitamin C as well. I can say I really enjoyed it (slightly sour, sweet and salty – kinda of like rubharb to me). The Indigenous apparantly highly value it also for it’s medicinal purposes. I learned this walking through the Quorn Botanic Gardens where a lot of Australian Native trees are planted.

I stayed at the Transcontinental Hotel which for a bargain price of a pineapple per night, it was quite nice – the food was good too. Not bad for a 150 year old ish pub.

I wanted to do the Pichi Richi railway too but that only ran on weekends and is so far booked I had no chance…maybe if I summons up the energy to ride all the way back (which is a possibility) I’ll book a session. So after all my chores and wandering, a good sleep in the bag, I was off – no rain, wind in my favour and a few days of actual outback which I was pumped for

So – hawker Headed I was – until I woke up and checked out the tracks – was still boggy – I wasnted to enjoy these parts and don’t want to be battling mud all the way so decided to stay another night and definitely was a good idea. When I said I was staying another night mate and his missus came up and we had a good wander, a great feed near his campsite and watched the light show on the quorn silos. Things happen for a reason and it was a great night – thanks for coming up guys – really made my night

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So after that awesome side trip – it was time for bed and early rise for a big day. 530 am rolled over and so did I – up and attam (sp?) – the cleaning lady had a quick chat to me and gave me 5 chocolate bars for the road which was super nice – it was a hot day – i knew they had no chance of surviving so it’s probably a late night tent snack all solid and melty hahah. Today was amazing views all damn day. The roads were firm, hot and ok to ride on today. I was happy about that – means I can just soak it all in. I saw a grave of a 24 year old who drowned in a flood trying to save his cattle. Apparantly his family from England in the 1800’s shipped a 1.5 tonne gravestone to the site – imagine the cost and the troubles involved in that.

The next site not too long up the road was the town that never was…check out the vid

It was a kind of eb and flow kinda day – I got chocolates, I got a flatty (Stupid tubed tyres hehe), found a really good rear bicycle light. I lost my cheapass tripod – so ya win some ya lose some LOL. I got my feet weet going through Willochra Creek (where proby died)

it was only 28 today but boy it was hot on the trails – I did not see anyone or anything for almost 100km’s – I did stock up on water and food knowing that there’s not much up here so we are good in that arena. The elevation was kind to me today and that meant just pedal and enjoy. After 100 clicks I saw a pub in a town called Cradock – literally the ONLY thing in the whole town – the chef was about to go home and they were going to lock up but he insisted I can order and hanmg and rest which I found so nice – just made me breathe a sigh of relief I can have a cold one and a nice meal – get out of the heat. So the chef whipped up an awesome baramundi for me to get me through the net leg hehehe

Apart from it being a tad too hot (and flies to the billionth degree) today was spectactular. You know I would say that the trip so far started off being ‘Awesome’ and its now trending to ‘Magnificent’ the further north I go. It’s like a seinfeld episode….there’s so much of NOTHING here but when you look at all the things there actually is – it’s amazing. SA really kicks ass here

So another 25 clicks from cradock pub and I made it to Hawker. I’m done – setup my tent, cooked my meal, wrote this blog and it’s pretty mich hit the hay – today was exhausting but so so MAGNIFICENT – here’s some more pics of the day

thanks for tuning in again and reading my blog

VANDERPANTS OUT!!