Outback Odyssey - Mini Mawson 2 - Day 2 - Hallett to Spalding

A nice short day for us today, with only around 45 km to cover. Forecast was for a nice day out on the bike with no rain. Though the locals did remind us that the area is known for it's wind farms..  

The Taj Mahal in the morning mist

Trail heading off into the distance

With a short day, we were able to have a later breakfast, and a slightly more relaxed morning. We awoke to find the entire oval shrouded in fog which gave a fairly eerie feel to the place. Thinking about the day previous, I adjusted my saddle up a bit, put some Voltaren gel on my knee and took a Voltaren tablet. The logic being that if i could get through this day, there was a nice half day rest waiting for us. Tent and gear packed up, and we were on our way into the fog, with dark clouds looming. Fortunately, as predicted we had no rain and we had a cracker of a day out on the trail. 

Wind Turbine outside of Hallett

First highlight of the day was around 25km outside of Hallett. An awesome climb, to a summit where we were within (say) 50m of a wind turbine. I know they're fairly controversial in some quarters, but I can't help but admire the simple elegance in their design. After stopping for a while at the summit we had a sensational downhill run. Even on this downhill my knee was starting to feel the pressure which was even more of a concern.

Miss V next to the Spalding Channel

A sharp turn and we were onto our second highlight of the day, the Spalding channels. At the time, these channels were considered state of the art engineering, and were used to collect rainfall runoff and direct it into the Bundaleer Reservoir. There is an access road which runs along side of these channels which forms part of the Mawson trail, which is what we were to ride along. Apparently this stretch is well known for inciting hatred in the puncture fairies with an abundance of caltrop present, but fortunately they took pity on us and left us alone! 

Arriving in Spalding, we were treated to a baked potato for lunch at the pub, before heading up to the local school oval to set up our tent. A little bit of bike maintenance for good measure before sitting in the tent resting with a few cups of tea. On arriving I found that the leg warmers that I had chosen for the day had literally started rubbing my skin away where the gripper tape was. Yet another annoyance that i could do without!




Once again, the local community treated us to a sensational dinner, consisting of pumpkin soup, roast pork, roast chicken, roast beef and apple crumble for dessert. 

Sunset in Spalding

Strava Data - Day 2