Kathie, Rhonda and I were on the Mawson Trail again. From our cute little cabin in Jamestown we set out over four days to complete the Trail between Hallett and Jamestown. This article is about the section from Spalding to Jamestown.
Day One – Jamestown to Washpool
We started out from Range Road near Jamestown Golf Course.
We climbed a short hill and then we were into the Bundaleer Forest.
It was April and we hadn’t realised we were a few days short of the end of the bushfire season when the forest is closed. This meant all the gates were locked and we had to lift our bikes over many gates – quite a workout! As you can see from our clothing, the weather was very chilly.
As we emerged from the Bundaleer Forest a herd of cattle appeared. We waited and watched as the cattle dog and the farmer on the tractor worked together to bring the cattle through.
We turned left at Curnow’s Hut to make our way into the Never Never Range. As we climbed, some deer watched our progress.
Looking out to the west, the remains of an old stone fence lined the opposite hills. We didn’t linger too long here though, as there was a very large bull sharing the paddock with us.
We reached the top of the range and had a lovely roll down Campbell Range Road to Washpool, with the last kilometre or so on the bitumen of the Jamestown Spalding Road.
Our statistics for Day One: 22 kilometres, 274 metres of climbing.
Day Two – Spalding to Washpool
The first twelve kilometres heading north from Spalding were along the Bundaleer Channels, built from 1898 to 1902 to direct water into the Bundaleer Reservoir.
We were climbing, but the channels were becoming deeper so that the water continued to flow towards the reservoir.
There were quite a few gates but at least we could open these ones!
We crossed the Gulnare Spalding Road and with the Bundaleer Reservoir hidden behind a hill on our right, we passed under this aquaduct.
Now we had some steady climbing to Boultons Hill,
then one last hill
and a gentle slope down to Washpool again.
Our statistics for Day Two: 25 kilometres, 201 metres of climbing.
To read about the section from Hallett to Spalding click here. Other particularly enjoyable sections of the trail have included Nuriootpa to Kapunda, High Eden Road to Jacobs Creek, Burra to Hallett and Brachina Gorge Road to Wilpena.
