Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

From Warburton. Was originally thinking of something longer this morning (as well that I didn't as it turned out), but back wasn't great and quickly settled on "minimum viable session". Normally with these runs I like to do some exploration, but this being Aboriginal land, I wasn't sure where I could and couldn't go (the fact that the turnoff to the community is unsignposted gives you an indication that casual visitors aren't appreciated), so just went down the road to the creek and back, only swallowing one dust cloud in the process.

This was a prelude to a longer day on the road than planned. Original plan for the day was to camp at Docker River, just on the NT side of the border, tonight (before then doing the Olgas tomorrow on the way to Uluru), but we got numerous negative reports about the condition, and possibly the safety, of the campground, as well as positive reports about the state of the road beyond (previous online searching had led me to believe that the NT side was pretty ordinary, but in fact it was probably in better condition than the WA side: lesson - don't pay much attention to old social media posts about road conditions in the outback). This made us think that reaching Yulara tonight was feasible, and we did so, with the bonus of seeing the Olgas near sunset from the west (setting up camp at Yulara in the dark was a minor negative).

This was the day which provided the reward for the effort of the last three: the site visit at Giles, of course, but also some terrific scenery, particularly in the hour either side of the WA/NT border, in amongst ranges whose existence I had been unaware of until doing some background reading for this trip a few weeks ago. Have also made it to the other end of 1100km of (mostly) dirt road without incident; apart from one section on the way out of Kings Canyon, that's the dirt mostly done with for this trip.