Would you like Mayo?

Awe and Wonderment by Rick Millar

Day 23. 2/10/11: Modystiak Dam to Wonoka Rd

Today was beautiful, but hard. Watching the sunrise out the van window, the sun coming up behind the huge gum tree we'd camped near, was just a magical way to start the morning. I took some photos of our little travelling companions, Awe and Wonderment, who were also suitably impressed, then we got down to having breakfast. We had to pack up and drive to get to where we needed to start the run. No worries. The wind was blowing hard this morning, and it was cold! Both of us thought we might be in for another tough day with the wind, on top of the day's other big challenge: a hill that on the trail profile looked like a ramp at a skatepark (only 180m high and in the middle of 20kms of riding and running), but the drive to the start was only 9km, and when we got there, the wind had died to almost nothing. A good omen. Neck gaiters and other extra warm gear were left behind and we set off.

Looking down from the top of Mt Little.
Doesn't look so steep from this angle...

Daylight savings kicked in last night, and yet the sun seemed to come up at just the same time. It was only just before we set off the we realised it was 9am, not 8. Our start point was the gate at the start of the Wonoka Station Road. On the gate is a big sign saying that anyone not going to Wonoka Station or to Wonoka Cottage - people with "any other business" - should ring the number of the station owners. Lily called and let them know roughly what we were doing, and they said "thanks for letting us know" and that was it. But we hadn't been running for more than 5 minutes when a little red car came down the road and the owners stopped to say hello. "You're the people who just rang?" These station owners, they keep an eye on things! They were lovely. We had a quick chat and got the usual opening: "Have you lost your bikes then?" And then, after we'd explained, the usual: "You must be fit." We both replied in unison: "We're getting there." And trotted off.

This time with Lily...actually it wasn't
all that steep coming up either

One of the interesting aspects of doing things the way we are is that not only do we retrace our steps, running one way and then riding back to where we started (or vice versa), but that retracing our steps means kind of going back through the moods of the first leg. We rode back through places where I was in good form, running well and smiling and laughing. But I started today in a grumpy mood. My foot was sore, and for some reason I felt decidedly un-awesome. In opposition to what Lily wrote about yesterday, I felt that childish, sour desire for someone else to be awesome, to help me, to fix things, to make my foot better. I sounded like a frustrated sook, but only for a minute, and we started running with me unsure whether I should run at all, and not knowing if I'd make it or have a painful, long walk. Lily was premenstrual, achey and tired, so we weren't a great team. Riding back at the end of the day, it was interesting to come back through those emotions. It's a strange but strong feeling, like when you smell something and before you recognise where it's coming from or consciously make the connection, you're flooded with a particular memory or feeling again. Well, it's an interesting part of the way our journey works, anyway: I get to see where I was a bit of a dick... and where things were going well.

'The Battle of Things With Lots of Legs'.
Not sure what the red bug is, but
I'm rather glad it beat that scary spider

My foot seemed to settle a bit with the running (again in FiveFingers) and Lily's aches and the bleugh feeling lifted as we got into it. The first part of the run followed a well-graded road, two cars wide with a yellow grit surface, through a wide valley. I think the way to describe this country is "wide". In the valleys, there are huge old gums with trunks the size of cars and branches the size of large trees, but where we ran and rode today, we were surrounded on either side by long flat plains, which led up ramps to the rocky bluffs of the Elder Range. The track left the yellow-grit road and headed up a rough 4WD track which was occasionally scattered with crushed rock, but was otherwise red, dusty, hard-baked mud. Up in a high valley, we were ringed by small mountains but really felt up and out in the open under a very wide, beautifully blue sky. The plains are covered in a variety of low bushes. Every one of them has thorns, or burrs, or prickles of some sort. If you sit in the wrong place, fifty burrs will attach themselves to your bum; even as you run, spikes can get in through your shoes. One even came up through the sole of my Vibrams (admittedly, this is probably easier than most shoes). But the effect of being up and in a giant bowl covered in fuzzy, spiky, green-grey foliage, running and listening to the sound of Lily's feet as she taps along, was pretty cool. Understatement. There was a time in this first bit when the track was smooth and we were really running beautifully. It was only for a minute, but physically it was the highlight of my day: it's really lovely when it clicks and even going uphill I know we're both cruising fast enough we have to lean in to corners. :) 

Once we got to the top of the bluff - i.e. the North-west edge of Mt Little - we walked, in my case quite gingerly, down the steep, rocky track to the base of the Elder Range. The path down was just rubble on rubble, and from then on the track was considerably more rocky. This was hard on both our feet, and meant we didn't run as much as we'd have liked, but we did okay.

At the base of the ramp off Mt Little, we turned onto the Hookina Creek Rd. Of course, this leads to another homestead and just as we reached that corner, a white Toyota 4WD pulled up. The waited while we approached. I called out "Hello" and got "Have you got lost your bikes?"

"No." We explain.

"Oh, you must be fit."

"We're getting there."

"Oh look at his shoes!"

We explain the Five Fingers. And get some lovely suggetsions for shortcuts and longcuts (into Mayo Gorge, where there's a waterhole, just after the campground...)

We both think: there's a campground?I didn't know there was a campground - it's not on the Mawson Trail Map and it's not in Camps Australia (the guide to every cheap or free campsite in Australia)! Hmmmm. Where we will stay tongight?

Lovely people, we run on...

We'd planned the day thinking the run was 19kms, plus a bit. Walk 1km, run 5km, repeat three times, we're done. That's the theory. The bikes were 20.6kms from our starting point, so we ended up running at the end out of frustration and boredom. Along theway, we saw another bull or two, but they weren't very interested in us, and shuffled away as we approached.

The waterhole at Mayo Gorge

We ate lots at the bikes, then headed the six kms back to where we'd seen the turnoff to the waterhole. Although it was rocky, which made getting through some of the dry creek beds a bit hairy as our bikes bounced and jagged around, the sandy-mud soil had hardened since yesterday so the riding was quicker. Lily was tired, but we were both happy to moving faster than our slow, sore-feet-on-rocky-tracks pace.

The waterhole was cold, but very refreshing on our sore feet and tired legs. We stayed for a while and admired the crazy geology: sandstone layers pushed up and flipped sideways to make arching columns leaning over ramps of rubble.

Back out on the trail, Lily was undecided about whether she had the energy to climb Mt Little. The chance was there to take a shortcut out, or simply stop and let me come and get her later. But she decided that it was worth doing the whole day, even though we came to run the Mawson, and the riding part is just an added extra.

After almost falling off, almost crying twice, and feeling very bleugh at times, she rode to the finish at the van tired, hungry, but pretty satisfied! She's awesome.

Open plan living at its best

With hunger soon fixed with a few glasses of cold Milo and some peanut butter sandwiches, we drove around to our new campsite. Chris and Kate and their guests, including Kate's Dad, Sid, were again lovely, warm and welcoming. We chatted about funny footwear and their two pets: one rust-coloured cattle dog and one joey (baby kangaroo) who share the dog's bed on the front porch. It seems the joey has first choice when it comes to where she sleeps!

So on we came, at last, to our campsite. It's amazing. We have a couch, a huge kitchen, three dining tables, two bathrooms with four showers and an incredible view: all to ourselves. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Dinner was delicious (quinoa and chilli) and with tomorrow being a short day, we're going to sleep in then enjoy our camp luxuries and have a big cooked breakfast!

Yes, Lily, you look awesome.
But isn't that a snot rag on your head??

But right now, it's time for a hot Milo, gaze at a sky full of a million stars and go to bed...

Cheers for now!

Ride

Time (hr:min:sec):

Speed (kph):

Distance (km): 20.6

Run

Time (hr:min:sec):

Speed (kph):

Distance (km): 20.6