Spalding to the Chlorination Station, Bundaleer.

It rained overnight, so awakening to a STILL Burra morning was rather a surprise.
The mob duly assembled at the Spading toilets, for the short drive to the bus meeting point.
Remarkably, it remained fine and Russell was able to offer the morning prayer, without us all reaching for our rain-jackets.

The morning sermon with Father Russell



It was then onto a short road walk, over the Morgan to Whyalla pipeline and onto the Bundaleer Channels, which we followed most of the day.
This remarkable engineering project, to divert water into the Bundaleer reservoir was started in 1898 and took 8 years to complete. The channels drop about 1 metre every kilometre so it was downhill all the way, apart from some very brief uphills.
We had morning tea at the site of the great sink-hole that almost bought Christine, a German walker, unstuck, when she fell though the track at the start of the Oban aqueduct, 5 metres into the creek below!!

Site of the great sink-hole

The crops were certainly enjoying the recent rainfall, as were the recent plantings by the Friends Greening group.

Greening in action

Over 1000 trees planted!! What a great effort, and according to our resident "planter" Dominic, most were doing very well.
For some veteran walkers this was the first time we had walked the new Spalding reroute that took the Trail into Spalding, and consequently lunch was taken early at the famous Spalding toilets (well park really).
This was also the opportunity to get some fresh coffee from the local café before heading off once more to rejoin the channels near Freshwater Weir.
More gentle downhill, with some being attacked by a rather irate magpie, and finding a fawn quietly resting in the grass.

Who said fawn was a dated colour?



Finally, back on the road for the last couple of kilometres to the cars, a 25 km marathon with feet sorer than usual.

 

EE George Quarry to Spalding Road

The oration

Burra presented us with the usual bleak morning, and after a hiccup with marshalling times, the convoy departed Paxton Cottages for Booboowie and the EE George quarry (Who was EE George?)
The morning breeze was a portent of things to come and after the presentation of the Hotshot's Award to David, in loco parentis, for Jane whom he had convinced a crop "X" in a field designated the halfway point on the Trail, we were off, up hill as usual.

The up hill start
 

From heading west we dis a 90 degree turn and started heading south, which we did all day, along the longest stone wall in SA, consisting we are reliably told, of 7 million stones.
At this point, it started to become clear that the theme of the weekend should have been "wind" as the Brown Hill Range is notorious for its constant breezes (hence the wind farms) and today was no exception.
It really was head down, bum up as we struggled all day, with the fierce wind from the west, blowing our sticks off course and threating to blow us over. Thankfully, Chloe didn't join us as we would have had to tie to a rope to stop her flying off!!
Whistling Trig Tank lived up to its reputation with the wind creating a less than melodious shriek as it swept past the various tank openings.
Colin took the opportunity to do some running repairs and attached the tank sign, the first of ten to be installed.

The rocky ground just added to the difficulty of the walk, and the shelter at morning tea on the verge of Mundunie Hill Road was a welcome relief.
It was then back into the gale struggling to Mungcowie Hill where a farmer had kindly arranged a corral of hay bails, just right for a cosy lunch.

 

Finally we popped out onto Olives Road to be treated to a variety of Golden North Ice-cream, courtesy of Michelle and a flat car battery, powering the car fridge.

The final four kilometres road walking back to the cars, on the Spalding Road, was achieved in light, soaking rain, so it was back in the cars and back to Burra to prepare for the evening's celebrations.

The Hill Billies plus pig congregated at the Royal Exchange for a little hoedown and a feed of vitals, with quite a few characters from the Beverly Hillbillies turning up, most notably "Grannie".