Magpies are evil

Day 18. 27/9/11: Arkaroo Rock to Rawnsley Park

"Awwwwww! Wook at his wittle face!!!!" Lily Mason. "He's sooo cute!"

The presentation last night was ok, a bit disappointed with the presenter (also the owner of the park we're staying at) who kept tantalising us with science and then saying 'oh, but only scientists would be interested in that'. Pah. It was a full house and I wasn't really in the mood to speak out and say, 'but I'm interested!!'.  But I did learn that there was a meteor that struck somewhere nearby that created a crater 10kms wide. That's pretty cool. And in South Australia, the noxious weed that Victorians call Patterson's Curse, is called Salvation Jane! Sheep eat it. No one seems to have a problem with it. All good! 

A short day today, around 13km. Which, as it turns out, was a good thing! Yesterday's awesome running caught up with our legs, which felt a bit tight and tired. The run out to Arkaroo Rock was great, though. Tim sneakily pushed us to go faster (I have a tendency to settle in to a slow trot when I'm tired, which neither of us really enjoy much) and it was a lovely pace of about 10k an hour for the fire track bit. The road bit was a little slower, but it was a long uphill section and that's ok. We reached the car park where we'd left the bikes yesterday and carried on another couple of kms to have a look at Arkaroo Rock itself.

The walk was nice - winding us up one side of Wilpena Pound. The rock was very impressive, eroded to form a biggish cave with a crazy overhang. Because people can't keep their hands to themselves, the rock is fenced off. But it's still possible to get a good look at the Aboriginal art.

Probably the coolest thing I saw was a wee skink on the way back who kindly stopped to have a photo shoot. Cute!

We got back to the bikes and set off back to Rawnsley Park. We had a few hiccups on the trip back: Tim's cleats in his shoes had shifted so those needed to be fixed, his bike rack broke (which means he now has to run with a bigger backpack to carry our stuff), I got swooped by crazy magpies (once on a particularly tricky ascent and then again a few seconds later and then AGAIN on my way to the bathroom this evening!).

It was a hot day, and we were both a bit weary, so we decided to take it easy during the afternoon. I scored the hammock and Tim put me up a shadecloth so I could stay burn-free. A baby bath to cool down later on and then we moved to a powered site. Tomorrow we've planned a longer run - around 23-25km, so its early to bed for me!

Ride

Time (hr:min:sec): 1:26:22

Speed (kph): 9.03

Distance (km): 12.99

Run

Time (hr:min:sec): 1:49:30

Speed (kph): 7.5

Distance (km): 13.68