Bed at 5 minutes to 8

It must have been a tough day. Everyone had left the pub by 5 minutes to 8, most heading straight off to bed.

Horrocks Pass to Mt Brown Creek
Northern Guidebook, Maps 3.5-3.7

We had a couple of newbies, Hayden and Michelle from Roxby. I think they really enjoyed it, but it was a lot tougher than I think most of us thought it would be. Up and down hills, some really good views, mostly following a fire track and fence. Blisters and knee problems finished Hayden and Michelle off though, perhaps they'll come back for next month? It's relatively close to home (nothing much is close to Roxby Downs...).



We came across a visitor's book near the top of Cudmore Hill, and found the entry that End-to-End 1 had left whilst passing by in 2005.



I tried out my new GPS unit today, but when I downloaded the maps later back at the Backpackers in Quorn, there were two significant areas of about 3km each where the GPS had difficulty tracking, resulting in a crazy almost random seeming map.

We finished back at the cars late in the day, so were treated to some very warm sunset lighting. The end of today's hike was inaccessible by car, but the owners of the Broadview property had graciously allowed us to park on their property, but we still had to hike 3km off of the trail to our cars.



We were based in Quorn this weekend, many of us electing to stay at Andu Backpacker's Lodge, an old converted hospital. About 60 beds, and 3 showers... mmm... Basic but comfortable. We were all awoken (as was the rest of the town) at 5.10am by a 5 minute blast of the fire siren - very loud - with the associated sound of people, trucks and water pumps.

Tea at the Austral pub (one of Quorn's 5 pubs?) was ok, meals were smallish, especially after our big hike. We had to preorder our meals in the morning, and obviously that extended to dessert too, because we didn't pre-order that and they ran out of ice cream. Ice cream is so hard to keep... we enjoyed some wine care of Tony and Robyn, celebrating Robyn's impending completion of the Heysen Trail tomorrow.



View photos in full screen slideshow



More detailed stats now with my GPS unit.

Stats:

• Distance: 19.8km
  
• Moving average: 4.4km/h
  
• Moving duration: 4h 30m
  
• Stationary duration: 2h 20m