South-west of Gordon to Richmans Gap

Distance travelled 64km

The flies were waiting for me on the outside of the tent when I got up. The night was quiet, no cars. I was on the road by 7;10am. There were black clouds in the distance. Then there was lightning, then it started to rain, then it poured. I hid in a quarry for a while during some of the lightning, I felt a bit exposed. After an hour or so it stopped raining, the sun came out intermittently to dry everything. During the rain, the clay roads turned to instant mud, clagging up my wheels. The road was very quiet, very few cars. I was on a mission to get to the PO in Quorn for my food parcel. I stopped at Probys grave. I had another stop for morning tea in a creek bed, and by 1pm I was in Quorn. I collected my parcel and headed for the Caravan Park to see if I could get a campsite. No luck, fully booked, no room even for my little tent.

I would have to keep heading south. I would have to stealth camp somewhere. Redman’s Gap looked a likely prospect on the map. I got some lunch from the IGA, and lounged around on the front lawn of the train station. I didn’t want to get to Redman’s Gap too early, I wanted to arrive at dusk, so it was less likely people would see me.

I headed off at 4pm, down Redman Valley Road, then turned onto the little track up to Redman’s Gap. The track up was too sandy to ride, so I pushed I was pretty loaded up with food and water. I got to the top at 5:30pm. There were not a lot of tent sites, so I got going clearing the rocks from a small area. I had the tent up just as the sun went down.

Dawn at the roadside camp
The many many flies just before it rained
Thunderstorms
The clay sticking to the tyres
A brief interlude in the rain
Probys Grave
The soft track up to Richman’s Gap
A better stealth campsite

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