Blinman - Wilpena 65km

Decided to push on today. Still raining this morning with no break in sight. Last night it bucketed down. A Mountainbike tour company passed through and stopped at the pub last night and we had a chat about bikes, trails, mud etc. They were testing some trails for running tours in the area. They saw lots of mud and were covering only 50km or so per day...and they were unladen.

I pushed off regardless into rain and a nasty headwind, and given the feedback from the tour company plus seeing signs closing all the dirt roads I decided to head down the newly sealed road to Wilpena instead of following the official trail.

As it turned out, the ride to Wilpena was magic. Fortunately the creeks had dropped a bit since last night so the road was passable. I'd driven this road a few times before and missed so much. Brilliant landscape, changing vegetation, exposed geology and bugger all traffic. There were plenty of ups and downs to test my new touring legs, but the climbs were a small price to pay for the resulting views from the top.

By Wilpena I'd had enough and wimped out and checked into the resort because of more rain on the way. Went for a walk up Wilpena Creek in the afternoon and read the story of attempts to farm grain in Wilpena pound before it was declared a national park.

Apparently they had to build a road through the creek to get the grain out of the pound, but unfortunately there was a turn in the gorge that was too tight for the bullock teams. So two teams would meet in the middle, and the grain transferred from one to the other for the trip to Hawker. A few good years of rain would have made this country look like a good prospect. The following years of drought would have been heartbreaking. A good rain flooded the creek and washed away the road, bringing an end to their farming efforts.