Day 52: Catninga Shed to Quorn

Daily distance: 30.8km
Total distance: 926.3km

The day dawned crisp and clear, bright and sunny..... Promising! It took awhile to get sorted as we had to get the "verandah" back into the same shape we found it before heading off. Once we set off it was straight, and I mean straight up hill for 1.5km. Yip, straight up Brown Mountain which had us both out of breath, cursing the Heysen people and me wanting to kick Mr Brown in the nuts if I ever caught up to him. However, even though it took us awhile.... OK a long while,  we eventually made it to the top and were rewarded with the most amazing veiws of the Spencer Gulf, Port Augusta and a lot of the coast heading south and west. The views were almost enough to take back my kicking Mr Brown, but, just not enough!

On the top of the scaffold at the top of Mt Brown we had our breaky before heading down the mountain on a much more civilized path. We passed a chap coming up the path who had the biggest "swag" attached to his backpack I have ever seen. He also had an  'Alan McSmith kettle' on his pack which made us both smile. Down the mountain we went into a spectacular valley which was as wild as I have had on the walk. Awesome to say the least and even better that the creek we had to follow for 5km, was not 'over flowing'.

We crossed under the Pichi Richi bridge, over the main drag and THEN up another f........ mountain. This one had no marked trail just a few arrows and once up top (which took a loooooong time) sign saying follow the ridge. Rough walking which, without a heavy pack would be fine but for us, was rough. That we did not sprain an ankle is amazing. Anyway it was really amazing from up there with incredible views all round and up the way we had come over Mt Brown.

Reality however, had to kick in at some stage, and we realized we would not make the 15km into Quorn if we stayed up on the ridge, before dark. Not wanting to  spend the night on the mountain and with time running out, we headed down to the Pichi Richi Park (a resort) to see if we could spend the night. When we got down to the park, via a very steep goat path and chain rail handle, we headed round the front to the reception to enquire...but nobody home. I was stuffed so just sat down with pack and all and Dee went on the prowl to find anybody to help us. 30 Minutes later we gave up and decided to head to town....... Mmmmmm we just could not believe, here is a 100 plus bedded resort with all the bling and blang, made up rooms, entertainment for kids and well maintained, and nobody, as in absolutely nobody around! Imagine that in SA... we would have 400 people living there or ........ there would be nothing left of the place!

Having had a look at our map book, we saw that the trail we had come off of, up the ridge, joined the railway line 6km away and went along all the way to Quorn. Obviously the right decision was to get onto the rail track ( as according to Dee, it hadn't run regularly for years now) and head to town. 'No worries mate', off we went and started "chugging" along nicely, picking up the pace to a furious 3.8km per hour. The lights went out, head lights came on and we still "huffed and puffed" our way down the track. All of a sudden out of the dark, we heard.... what I immediately thought was a herd of elephants coming our way, but was actually a small herd of camels charging off because of our lights. Dee and I, once the shock had worn off, looked at each other, obviously blinding ourselves with our lights and packed up laughing..... But still the feet hurt!

11 Agonizing kilometers later we arrived on the outskirts of town, and after asking directions from a young lad who was a bit dumbfounded at these two idiots emerging from the dark, we found our way to the Hotel Austral..... mmmmm, think I am sorry I did, now that I'm standing here trying to write this with people singing at the bar......... OK back on track..... walking into the pub Dee recognised the lady behind the bar, Nadine, as the same lady from Melrose pub, so a welcome face. We got room, had a feed, had a beer, had some wine, had a shower and went to sleep. It was a very tough 30km to get here but we are both extremely happy we did.

Today we have dried all our kit out, stocked up for the next 6 nights with no re-supply in between,  picked up new boots posted to me....with some very nice goodies packed in -thanks Possum, had a look around town (quick) and now sitting at the bar having some spaghetti bolognaise, chatting with the locals and getting some info on possible farm accomodation spots along the way.  Now sleep very soon.......