Training Log Archive: jennycas

Hadn't intended to run but we ended up in Jamestown last night and a quick trot around the town seemed like a good idea. Seemed like less of a good idea when the wind and rain greeted us as we set off, and it certainly wasn't the day for stopping very long to read the signboards at the Hubert Wilkins Aerodrome, but sometimes you have to run in this sort of weather to appreciate the days which are not like this. Anyway, I enjoyed it; must run in the rain more often! Enjoyed the sculpture trail in Bundaleer forest (particularly the hands-on musical sculpture) and lunch at Skillogalee also.

We drove up as far as Arkaroola yesterday and stickybeaked a little - some great scenery and 4WDing potential but I can see why mum previously felt that there weren't many unpaid activities or hikes short enough for her to do. Anyway, decided to camp at Weetootla campground back in the national park, although got there too late in the day to go into the gorge much. This morning B & I ran out to the main road and into Balcanoona where George met us at the ranger headquarters after having been able to load up the ute without anyone getting in his way :) and where I had a shower for $3. Then we went via Chambers Gorge (where it was considerably cooler than when George & I were last there in the March 2008 heatwave) and lunched in Blinman, and drove through Parachilna Gorge past Angorichina village which is perched in an even more spectacular spot than Arkaroola.

Sometimes I have good ideas...Aroona dam is in the hills about 8km west of Copley (I assume it's Leigh Creek's water supply) and I wanted to see it so talked Blair into running out there. A perfect cool cloudy morning for this and the first few km were fairly flat on a reasonable dirt road, then we crossed a number of low ranges of hills running north-south and finally followed a wide creek bed through a gap down into the dam, ending up on the opposite side from the wall and picnic area which we couldn't see, and right next to some vertical layered hill sides which we admired - impressive. I was a bit slow coming back up some of the hills but finished off okay on the run back into town, although my knees won't love me tomorrow.

In a better mood this morning (not hard - last night I was just so over the whole process of Trangia cooking and putting up & pulling down tents) so Blair & I ran down the road from Coward Springs and into the national park to mound springs Blanche Cup and The Bubbler, where George picked us up. It was a very flat barren run but to an interesting destination, and when we got back to camp I tried out the 'spa pool' where the bore head has corroded and so warm bore water flows out into a man-made pond, and then into a wetland, at Coward Springs.

Lunch at Marree, spent quite a while looking around Farina where the preservation society has done a really good job of signposting the layout of a town which in the 1880s was optimistic enough to be named after the potential wheat crop, ended up at Copley/Leigh Creek tonight.

Really not feeling it this morning - had slept pretty badly because of being uneasy about the dingoes which set up a distant howling just on bedtime, and then I heard a rattling among the pots & pans on the camp table in the night, got up and scared away a feral cat, then in the morning found my wooden spoon was missing! Also knees were pretty stiff from all the hard ground lately. But (Trangia) pancakes were good afterwards, as was lunch at the William Creek pub. We checked out the old mound springs and historic telegraph station site at Strangways, and got to Coward Springs campsite just on dusk by which time I was tired and hungry and grumpy.

Headed out the same way as yesterday, then, because Blair said he had found some hills after we parted company, I went to find them because I am doing an awful lot of flat stuff this fortnight. I was successful, because Coober Pedy starts off on a plateau and then descends into valleys to the north/east, into the sides of which hundreds of people have built their houses. Beautiful crisp morning to be out by myself :)

After leaving the town where water costs $5/kL to 'produce' we crossed the Painted Desert and lots of mud puddles, had a quick look around Oodnadatta (anyone would think there was a weather station there) and headed south about 60km to camp for the night by Algebuckina waterhole, a permanent billabong which even has pelicans on it!

After my prolonged breakfast (steak sandwich last night really wasn't enough) we headed down a road past the wind turbine and the Serbian church, then back again. Nice clear morning, and as it turned out, we picked one of the more scenic routes out of town. An hour was enough for me (still getting over a minor cold) though. Later went for a bit of a walk around town with George, and I was underwhelmed. I mean, it was good (for all of us I think) to have a day of doing nothing much, but I hadn't expected that Coober Pedy would have quite so much of nothing for us to be doing!