Things to do in Orroroo

Day 9. 18/9/11: Orroroo to Blinman

Foggy morning. Got up and into the bike gear and set off east, towards a spectacular blanket of fog that had lifted from town but sat across the horizon, making the hills behind look like they were suspended above the clouds. The horizon turned out to be not that far away, and after only 3.5kms, the damp, frosty cold of the foggy air started to make our fingers and necks ache with cold. So we turned back and found our way onto Orroroo's local mountain bike trail!

The Big Gum Tree

It wound down through the golf course, past a little park with ducks and onto a narrow, rocky bit of single track. It took us to some Aboriginal rock art, then quickly became trickier, climbing along the side of a small gorge and including sections of sharp, uneven slate. Eventually, we'd had enough of wondering whether we'd clip out of our pedals fast enough to avoid a tumble down the rocky banks, so we turned back. This decision was easier, knowing we'd come back and run that section after breakfast. So we rode off and explored other parts of the trail, which essentially wound us back and forth around the golf course. This was a little disappointing, as when we finally went running, we found other parts of the track that went to far cooler places.

After breakfast, we headed out for a run, but to start with we went down to check out the "Big Gum Tree". Given the size of the trees we saw at Burra Gorge, we were ready to be unimpressed. But this was indeed a Big Gum Tree, and beautiful.

We ran/walked for 2hrs and 20 minutes, and enjoyed getting out on farm roads then back past the Aboriginal rock art to a rock pool then a lake, which was a lovely cool surprise after 3 hours riding and running in very dry, dusty country. Water is an amazing thing. And again: there were ducks! We turned around at a "rock poem", which was an incredible bit of 19th century graffiti tucked away in a narrow gully about 3kms from town.

Stumpy-tailed lizard
(and Tim's finger giving him a tickle)

When we got back, the woman who had been so nice when we arrived at the caravan park had turned into "Scary Mary" (as Lily called her) and told Lily off, because we should have left before 10am, and only got back from our run at 11.30. We had a lovely lunch at a little cafe in Orroroo. As we left, I was happy to see that, although they may not have won the footy, the Orroroo D-Grade Netball Team had their winners medals on and were already wearing their "2011 Premiers" commemorative t-shirts!

We drove from there through Hawker, along the Western edge of The Flinders Ranges. Highlight of the drive? An emu, waddling over the highway not a metre from our front bumper. Soooooooooo cool! (says Lily). It was also exciting to see the actual Mawson Trail, and eye-off some of the bits we'll be riding and running in the next week-or-so. The landscape is dry and dusty, but once we turned in towards Blinman, we got to see some of the spectacular scenery, of rugged red-stone gorges winding along tiny creeks but filled with cool shade and massive gum trees.

Australia breeds these
amazing sign-eating trees

Eventually, we came all the way through to Blinman and decided to stay a night in the Blinman Hotel. We'll be camping tomorrow as 200 trailbike riders have booked out every room in town (and maybe the campsites as well), but it seems that whenever we find a gate blocking our path (as we did today) it ends up meaning we do something else better, so whatever happens, I'm sure we'll have a good day.

The plan is to do the Blinman Pools Walk, which is one of South Australia's "Great Short Walks". It's 12kms, so I guess that fits into the "short" category next to the Mawson and Heysen Trails, which are both closer to 1000kms. We'll do the walking, so all we need now is the greatness. The day after that, the whole Awe and Wonderment adventure really really really kicks off. Strangely, that actually means that things get quite slow, centred and kind of simple: ride, eat, run, eat, stretch, write, eat, read, sleep. Add high-fives. And repeat. That's the basic idea anyway. Bring it on.

Rock poem

Ride

Time (hr:min:sec): 1:08:35

Speed (kph): 10.85

Distance (km): 12.4

Run

Time (hr:min:sec): 2:31:15

Speed (kph): 6.12

Distance (km): 15.44

A lovely rock pool we found during our run in Orroroo

Our studio in Blinman (with sneaky Tim
peaking around the front of the van)