Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

Left Broken Hill early (albeit not quite as quickly as I'd planned because someone had parked me in last night and it took a while to find them). Rain started landing on the windscreen about 50km out of town, and while I didn't think there was much to that lot (indeed as it turned out it failed to trouble the scorers at Broken Hill), the consequences of getting it wrong were severe, so I gave Mutawintji a miss and headed straight for Tibooburra. This did give me time to do some exploring in the eastern section of Sturt National Park; quite nice, but I suspect I missed out on better.

The run was done in the late afternoon, with my target The Granites nature trail about 3km out of town. This name may hint at something - Tibooburra is surrounded by the stuff (although the hills are so densely covered with it that I suspect many of them would be unmappable). The track gave some good chances to look at rocks and take pictures of some of the more photogenic rocks. Hamstring still not quite right, and I decided not to take it out to an hour as I'd originally planned.

I've previously remarked on the regularity with which the highest Greens vote in Australia is found in Nimbin or environs. It's now emerged that Glenore Grove had the highest One Nation vote in Australia (42%) - does that make it the most racist place in the country? (Nearby Gatton, if I recall correctly, had the highest No vote in Australia in the 1999 republic referendum).

Not the most comfortable of nights (combination of mattress not inflated enough and 5am relieving-oneself excursion), and awoke to see the curse of the winter camper - dew - but nice morning for a run. Headed for the visitor centre and one of the walking tracks beyond, a little longer than advertised but that was OK. Hamstring felt as if it was fatiguing a little in the second half but no pain as such; run a little uninspiring despite the setting.

Today's route was Mungo-Pooncarie-Menindee-Broken Hill. Lots of dirt roads on this except after Menindee and when picking up the last bit of the main road to Pooncarie (a plaque advised that this particular bit of local infrastructure was officially opened by Slim Dusty in 1993, which is a change from the usual state or federal MP); mostly in good shape today but some sections, especially across blacksoil flats, made it obvious why nothing moves in this country in the wet. The re-running Darling has just made it to Menindee (there are signs all over the place blaming its absence in the last couple of years on mismanagement by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, although I would have thought one of the catchment's worst multi-year droughts on record might have had something to do with it), although not yet to the main lake, and its reappearance is being eagerly anticipated in Pooncarie.

Ended the day in Broken Hill, which I last visited for Easter 1997 (incidentally, if I remember correctly where the day 1 and 2 areas were, the weed infestation that scuttled the last attempt to hold an event there in 2011 seems to have eased, at least in as far as can be determined from the road). This will be the biggest place I'll be in for a while, with a variety of eating options, though it took a while to find one. Plan A was taking in the Priscilla murals over dinner at the Palace Hotel, but it was closed for a private function; plan B was to join the comrades at the Barrier Social Democratic Club but half of Broken Hill had the same idea and the queue was almost out the door, so I ended up at a place next door (which, as it turned out, was an offshoot of the club so hopefully my money has still done a little to further the cause of social democracy in Broken Hill).

On a trip like this you can get a bit obsessive about the weather. The systems of the next couple of days are stronger than was forecast a few days ago and have necessitated a change of plans; I'd originally planned to camp tomorrow night at Mutawintji (much recommended by those who've gone before) and then move on to Tibooburra on Monday, but with rain forecast to arrive late afternoon or evening tomorrow, at most I'll do a flying visit on my way past to run one of the walking tracks (and perhaps not even that depending on how things are looking in the morning) before pushing up to Tibooburra tomorrow night. Tomorrow's rain is not expected to reach as far north as Tibooburra, and Monday night's is expected to reach to Tibooburra but not Innamincka (where I plan to be by then), but a 200km error in either forecast could throw a spanner in the works.

Not quite as I'd planned it today (you don't expect things to go completely to plan on this sort of trip). I'd booked a 2pm tour at Lake Mungo - you can only go up close to the Walls of China on a tour - but got a call yesterday to say I was the only booking for 2pm and would I mind switching to 9am? I don't mind early starts, but it did mean leaving Balranald at 6.45, not really a time I wanted to be on the roads - it's the first hint of dawn, but as it turned out the only animals I saw in the dawn section were sheep.

Lake Mungo wasn't quite what I expected - the photos I'd seen had led me to believe that the clay cliffs were tens of metres high, but in fact they're more outcrops, albeit amazingly intricately eroded ones, a few metres high at most - but very interesting nonetheless. I was aware in general terms of Mungo's significance as an archeological site but not of how much material the site continues to reveal - the dune has become mobile over the last 1000 years and more material gets uncovered every time there's a big storm. There are shells and bones which have just come to the surface which look like they're recent but are in fact thousands of years old. Doing this with an Aboriginal guide was absolutely worth it - otherwise I'd have just admired the landscape features and missed all the other stuff. (It occurred to me that caring for one's traditional country as a national park ranger must be just about the ideal job for an Aboriginal person - it's a pity there aren't a lot more such jobs available).

The run was never going to be a big part of the day - it was just about checking whether my hamstring was back in shape. As often after a layoff of a few days, my body wasn't functioning super-well for the first few minutes but settled nicely after that. Hamstring was fine.

Kangaroos were not in short supply at the campground, and seemed oblivious to the presence of humans - a bit unusual, though I've seen similar in the roos near the main walking/running tracks on Black Mountain.

C • Road trip 1

I'll be going on some reasonably rough roads over the next fortnight, but this morning involved a higher risk of a flat tyre than the rockiest outback track: riding the Yarra Boulevard. I did, however, manage to avoid any of the calling cards of the Boulie Tacker (who seems to have been lying reasonably low since the police released an image of a person of interest a few weeks back), and had as reasonable a ride as you can reasonably expect in the middle of peak hour. Hamstring fatigued a little towards the end but no pain as such.

Hit the road shortly after this, getting as far north as Balranald, taking in some previously unexplored territory in northern Victoria between Bendigo and Kerang (including seeing how much of a pyramid Pyramid Hill is). Very green and rather wet in much of northern Victoria - some of the 'dry weather only' roads looked very muddy - but somewhat drier north of the border, which given what my plans are for the next couple of days is a good thing.

I was last in Balranald in 1990 (it's on an obvious route choice from Canberra to South Australia, but isn't really on the way from Melbourne to anywhere except Lake Mungo). It doesn't give me the impression there's been a lot of progress in these parts in the last 26 years, and strangely it doesn't seem to have a pub in any meaningful sense (although it does have an RSL club so I didn't have to resort to roadhouse food).

The funeral wasn't until the afternoon so I took the opportunity to spend the morning doing other things, and fitted a pool session in in the middle. Main purpose of this was to see if my hamstring could cope with this, a question which was answered in the affirmative - I now feel as if I could run on it if I needed to, but will give it another couple of days. (I'm also well aware that alternative training opportunities are going to be somewhat limited where I'm headed, unless I try to do a deep-water running session in Cooper Creek).

I was wondering whether it was going to be possible to do this session because part of the area I'd normally use was blocked off for overhead works, but there was still enough space right at the deep end. At least I have an answer now (3) to the question of how many Banyule Council contractors it takes to change a light bulb (admittedly, a rather difficult-to-access light bulb).

Picked up a little bit but thought it best to give it another day before doing anything more strenuous than walking. Still a little sore doing that.

My original plans had been to head north last weekend, but instead I've been at work yesterday and today (ahead of the funeral tomorrow and a Thursday departure). Since I hadn't expected to be at work today I hadn't made any commitments; it's amazing how much you can get done when you don't have any meetings and people aren't expecting you to be around.

Somewhat improved today - at least able to walk reasonably freely (if still with a bit of soreness). Thinking that I might be in a position to do something in the water and/or on the bike tomorrow, although we'll see how that goes when it happens.