Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Aug 1, 2016:
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Monday Aug 1, 2016 #
7 AM
Run 40:00 [3] 7.5 km (5:20 / km)
Today was going to be the most challenging day of the trip in terms of the terrain covered: Tibooburra-Cameron Corner-Innamincka, 420km with 99% of it off the bitumen, although I'd heard from others that it was reasonably manageable.
The first section to Cameron Corner was indeed reasonably manageable, although a few spots of rain early on were slightly concerning (nothing more came of them). Cameron Corner is where NSW, Queensland and South Australia meet (I should have thought of doing a tri-state run although would have had to have negotiated the dingo fence) - a real outpost, as indicated by the store's fuel price ($2.20 a litre), but also the most accessible of the "corners" (the others are either in serious 4WD country or in a river).
At the store they told me that the next section was much more corrugated than what I'd come through. This, 120km across to the Strzelecki Track, was the bit I expected to be the most challenging; while a few sections were badly corrugated they were only short, and it was also the nicest country of the day, lots of red sand dunes with greenness around and carpets of yellow flowers (there are definite benefits to visiting the desert after rain). The road's formed so there's no actual sand driving as such and it would be perfectly passable to a robust 2WD. (That said, the number of Kingswoods you'll see on the tracks of central Australia in the hands of the local indigenous population is an indicator that the Aboriginal concept of "passable to 2WD" differs radically from ours).
The final and easiest section was the Strzelecki - this is a well-built gravel road which can mostly be driven at 80 without too many dramas. It gets a fair bit of truck traffic because of the Moomba gasfields and there's a proposal to seal it - as I understand it, the SA government has made the plans but is chasing money from the feds and/or the gas industry. In the latter case I presume they would be looking for a meaningful contribution towards the cost, whereas on the Queensland side of the border, given that road's vintage, I'd speculate that a backhander to Russ Hinze would have been enough to do the deal.
(Note for younger readers: Russ Hinze was the infamously corrupt (and infamously obese) minister for roads, planning, racing and probably a few other things I've forgotten in the Bjelke-Peterson government. He died before being convicted of anything, but enough people subsequently went to jail for paying him bribes that it's reasonable to assume he would have been convicted of receiving them).
As for the run: an out-and-back on the airport road in Tibooburra before leaving town. Felt like I was flowing quite well, but still some hamstring tightness similar to yesterday.
The first section to Cameron Corner was indeed reasonably manageable, although a few spots of rain early on were slightly concerning (nothing more came of them). Cameron Corner is where NSW, Queensland and South Australia meet (I should have thought of doing a tri-state run although would have had to have negotiated the dingo fence) - a real outpost, as indicated by the store's fuel price ($2.20 a litre), but also the most accessible of the "corners" (the others are either in serious 4WD country or in a river).
At the store they told me that the next section was much more corrugated than what I'd come through. This, 120km across to the Strzelecki Track, was the bit I expected to be the most challenging; while a few sections were badly corrugated they were only short, and it was also the nicest country of the day, lots of red sand dunes with greenness around and carpets of yellow flowers (there are definite benefits to visiting the desert after rain). The road's formed so there's no actual sand driving as such and it would be perfectly passable to a robust 2WD. (That said, the number of Kingswoods you'll see on the tracks of central Australia in the hands of the local indigenous population is an indicator that the Aboriginal concept of "passable to 2WD" differs radically from ours).
The final and easiest section was the Strzelecki - this is a well-built gravel road which can mostly be driven at 80 without too many dramas. It gets a fair bit of truck traffic because of the Moomba gasfields and there's a proposal to seal it - as I understand it, the SA government has made the plans but is chasing money from the feds and/or the gas industry. In the latter case I presume they would be looking for a meaningful contribution towards the cost, whereas on the Queensland side of the border, given that road's vintage, I'd speculate that a backhander to Russ Hinze would have been enough to do the deal.
(Note for younger readers: Russ Hinze was the infamously corrupt (and infamously obese) minister for roads, planning, racing and probably a few other things I've forgotten in the Bjelke-Peterson government. He died before being convicted of anything, but enough people subsequently went to jail for paying him bribes that it's reasonable to assume he would have been convicted of receiving them).
As for the run: an out-and-back on the airport road in Tibooburra before leaving town. Felt like I was flowing quite well, but still some hamstring tightness similar to yesterday.
C • 2WD 7