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burra to old mount bryan east school

Posted on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 7:51 PM by dyon

waking up we both felt tired after the previous day's efforts. i walked into town with kai to find some milk for breakfast to find that the only supermarket didn't open until 10am (we had forgotten it was a sunday). i got milk at the servo but we needed to buy supplies for the next couple of days that we could only get at the supermarket so we had a quiet morning waiting for it to open.

as usual we were pretty much the only people in the caravan park under 60, and the only ones without a caravan (and 4WD/SUV). we seem to provide great entertainment for them and they come to talk to us about what we're doing. this often works out OK as kai gets some grandmotherly love but the conversations with us usually end up with their medical histories which can get a little tedious. interestingly enough we did meet a couple in burra who encouraged us to keep adventuring with kai throughout his school life (most say it's good we're doing it now because we won't be able to when he goes to school). it turns out that they went sailing with their children when they were 3 or 4 and continued until the time they entered year 9 at school. it was great to hear as it is quite close to my own childhood.

after chatting at the caravan park and buying our food at the supermarket we didn't get on the road until 11.00. with another 50+km ride ahead of us we were quite frustrated.

yesterday the surroundings had been almost completely deforested with hardly a tree to see between clare and burra. today the first 25km were similar and it was with some relief that we finally saw entered some low woodland.

at around the same time we came across the second group of riders we've seen on the mawson trail since leaving adelaide. it was a trio of lightly laden mountain bikers who were supported by some friends. they were training for what sounds like an epic stage race in africa. hopefully we can follow their progress when they do it.

our goal for the day was to reach a hut on the heysen trail (a walking trail that mostly parallels the mawson trail). as the day wore on we cursed the late start and we didn't make it to the location marked on the map until just before 5pm. after searching around a number of farm buildings and an old house looking for the hut, we found it 500m up the road. the mawson trail map was wrong. once we entered the (not very) secret combination into the lock we found ourselves in an old stone school house. it has a number of small rooms with fireplaces, some bunk beds (some with mattresses) and a kitchen with a sink and a rainwater tank.

we started cooking dinner and i took the trailer a kilometre back to a creek where there was plenty of trees and filled it up with firewood. after a hearty meal we are now sitting around a roaring fire reading books and writing blogs.

Edited on: Saturday, May 22, 2010 12:44 PM

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