Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Out to the Telegraph Station along the river path, then came back to town on a wider route using some of the walking/MTB trails on the eastern side (a bit rougher than most things I've done of late). A bit of meandering at the end to get the distance/time up where I wanted, in the process getting some words of encouragement from the staff/supporters of the local MP (CLP, Alice is a conservative town) who'd set up a stall alongside the main road in from the east side - retail politics counts for a lot in the NT given how tiny the seats are (only a few thousand voters). Hard going at the start, then settled down with some good patches and some not-so-good patches, but decent at the end. Coolest running conditions for a while.

The rest of the day was on the road, mostly straight down the highway with one short side trip to the Henbury meteorite craters (the road to these was surprisingly wet; maybe they were under a heavy shower yesterday?). Not as barren as I'd remembered it, at least until about 80km north of my final destination for the day, Coober Pedy. Also added another to the list of interesting-looking areas I've seen which will never be mapped, some granite hills on the west side of the road just north of the border. There was a lot of traffic heading north (presumably much of it associated with this weekend's Finke Desert Race), which is a bit of a culture shock after spending quite a bit of time in places lately where the definition of heavy traffic is seeing two vehicles in the same hour.

Ate lots of fruit today; my parents forgot to take their supplies with them when I dropped them off last night, and I knew I couldn't take it into South Australia (or to be pedantic, past Marla). I managed to get through a fair proportion of it and gave the rest away at the border to someone heading north.