Ride Day 13 - Wilpena Pound to Blinman; Blinman to Parachilna - Blinman or Bust by Bike

November 4, 2023

Ride Day 13 - Wilpena Pound to Blinman; Blinman to Parachilna

The official northern end of the Mawson Trail is at Blinman. I decided a week or so before my ride that I would continue a little farther, from Blinman through the Parachilna Gorge to Parachilna. I've shown these routes on two separate maps.

The first 50km of the route between Wilpena Pound and Blinman is in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, sometimes on vehicular tracks, sometimes on single-track bike trails, and sometimes coinciding with parts of the Heysen Trail walking track. In all of these trails and tracks the scenery does not disappoint -- as seen in many of the following 14 photos

I saw many, many kangaroos on this ride, but as a rule they seemed to be more wary of oncoming bicycles -- even ones in the distance -- than their cousins in the Adelaide hills, so it was very difficult to photograph any kangaroos. Nearly all the kangaroos I saw were Grey Kangaroos of all ages (all babies out of the pouch by now), though on the last day I did also see a pair of Euros (Wallaroos) and one adolescent Red Kangaroo.

A view looking back at the road up to Razorback Ridge, from just below the official lookout.

Two views looking up the road towards the Bunyeroo Valley lookout, just a bit beyond Razorback Ridge.

The cyclist at the top of the Bunyeroo Valley Lookout had just commenced a southward journey along the Mawson Trail from Blinman. He'd flown from Perth to Adelaide, then took a bus up north to begin the ride back down to Adelaide. He was the only e-bike cyclist I encountered on the Trail -- fully equipped with a trailer, tent, sleeping bag, and what seemed like 10 water bottles of varying sizes.

The final, rather rough track out of the Flinders National Park and onto the nicely paved Flinders Ranges Way.

The naturally-occuring stones along the flat crest of this hill are a tourist feature called 'The Great Wall of China'

10 kilometres to Blinman -- I started getting excited at this point.

The North Blinman Hotel -- a stopping point for a soft drink before continuing on to Parachilna

Three views from along the Blinman-Parachilna Road through Parachilna Gorge. The first 20km or so was almost all downhill on a very rough, badly corrugated road (though nothing worse than the 28km near the end of the Hawker-Rawnsley ride).

The final 12km to Parachilna was on this very long, flat, sometimes still-corrugated road.

All done riding, ready for dinner with Jill and Tenny at the Prairie Hotel, Parachilna.

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