Outback Odyssey 2015 - Day 3

Mini Mawson 3 - Hawker to Rawnsley Park Station - 95km

Good Morning World!

Today was the second longest day in succession, and one that might break the legs. Any ride following yesterday would need to be pretty special to match the scenery we saw. Amazingly, it more than delivered. The day started in the most amazing way. Looking towards the ranges to the west, the early morning sunlight bathed everything in a dramatic red hue. Completely blown away.

What a sensational start to the morning!

Heading out of Hawker we had a super smooth run, clipping along at some pretty comfortable speeds. The trails here were nice and forgiving, allowing us to check out the scenery around us. We had a lot of creek crossings, which were fun as we would approach them at a respectable speed and could just blast over them and up the other side.

Somewhat unexpectedly we came across a lavish marble memorial to Douglas Bruce, dating to 1873. Given the size of the tomb, and the effort that would have been required to transport it to such a remote location, I have been surprised that I've been able to find precious little about who Douglas Bruce was!

Tomb of Douglas Bruce

Serious Cycling Begins

We also started getting a few fairly steep climbs and descents. One descent in particular we were warned that it might be best to walk. They could have sign posted it a bit better because I had already ridden half way down by the time I stopped to take some photos. Admittedly the second part of the descent seemed a lot more treacherous than the first part I rode down. Possibly knowing what lay ahead I'd give the descent a bit of a crack, though potentially putting your trip at risk just to say you can ride down a single rocky descent doesn't make a lot of sense.

Tricky rocky descent

Throughout the day the surrounding ranges grew larger in our vision, contrasting against the dark clouds acting as a dramatic backdrop. I think everyone we bumped into along the way felt awestruck by the surroundings. Light would peek through the clouds at various times, highlighting different parts of the ranges, obviously requiring a photo stop!

Impressive scenery like this was around us all day.

Miss V - enjoying the surroundings

Lynskey and Maretta resting..

After lunch was an entirely different matter. About 27km of corrugated roads into a cold head wind. Not fun. I don't think anyone enjoyed this. It was pretty difficult to appreciate the scenery with your eyeballs bouncing around in their sockets. A pity really. It was with some relief we turned off this road onto a nice sealed road. The road was a little on the hilly side of things, but at least it was smooth.

We rolled into Rawnsley Park fairly exhausted and feeling a little beaten up, only to find that there were limited spaces available that would accommodate our tent. Eventually I noticed that one of the campsite's permanent tents towards the top of the hill was missing, and that our tent would find neatly in the gap created by it's absence. We were pretty high up on the hill, but we were still well sheltered from any wind gusts.

Lynskey and Maretta arrive at Rawnsley Park

Always look back from where you've been!

As Rawnsley Park is set up as a tourist resort, I was looking forward to a pretty special meal. Unfortunately I can't say that I was that impressed with what was served up. Dinner consisted of a potato and leek soup that lacked any real flavour, a lasagne for the main course that appeared to only have one paltry layer, and an apple crumble that, to the chef's credit was pretty awesome. Fairly disappointed all things considered. Maybe I'm just spoiled by Miss V's awesome cooking when I'm at home, but I would have expected a chef to be able to serve up a lot better than we received.

Tomorrow is a much shorter day for us, though there is a relatively large amount of climbing. Hopefully we're able to get in early enough to have a bit of a rest and maybe a bit of a look around Wilpena Pound.

Strava data