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The CrossingToward Koongawa

Keep Cranking Out The Kilometres

Green farmland made South Australia look oddly English, but the Adelaide deadline kept me moving. By the rest area east of Koongawa, another 58.7 kilometres had gone.

Date7 July 2015
Journey dayDay 53
Port Augusta and Adelaide sign on the Eyre Highway near Kyancutta
Port Augusta and Adelaide were there on the sign, but there was still a lot of walking between us and that deadline.

Adelaide had a date attached now. We were organising parkrun there, the schedule still had a time limit and the only answer was to keep cranking out the kilometres.

The five sessions were 12.1 km, 16.0 km, 4.8 km, 14.0 km and 11.8 km. Together they made 58.7 kilometres, a number that would once have sounded absurd and now looked like the day’s work.

A sign put the instructions plainly: Port Augusta. Adelaide. Turn left. Keep going. Simple enough, apart from the thousands of steps between the sign and the city.

Around Kyancutta and Koongawa, South Australia became greener and more agricultural. Fields, tracks, trees, windmills and low rises kept reminding me of the Somerset Levels. A small hill in the distance could look like Glastonbury Tor, although I was still wearing hi-vis beside the Eyre Highway with a campervan following me. It was cold like England too.

We passed Olsen Road, so I framed the sign to show only “Ols”. Then Ols stood beside it for another photo. Sometimes that was all the excuse we needed.

Joel Howard spotted us, turned around and came back to see whether we’d broken down. He loved long-distance adventures, his partner was preparing for a Rottnest Island swim for One Drop and he was working in the area on land deals for an iron ore project and new port with Iron Road.

Joel was originally from Adelaide, lived in Brisbane and said he would try to catch up when we got there. He also asked me to email the details so he could see whether Iron Road might donate.

I stopped at a rest area east of Koongawa with 58.7 kilometres added and the accumulated total at 2,336.7. Adelaide was still waiting. These kilometres weren’t going to walk themselves.

Images From The Day

Pipeline track at first light on Day 53
A cold start beside the pipeline, with another long South Australian day waiting.
Gary in the yellow beanie at first light on Day 53
Bright yellow beanie, hi-vis, and the expression of someone already back at work before sunrise.
Tree, farm track, and open fields on Day 53
The landscape had changed again: greener, softer, and strangely familiar in places.
Farm track and cloudy sky through South Australian farmland
Tracks, fields, cold air, and distant rises that kept pulling my mind back toward Somerset.
Ols standing beside an Olsen Road sign framed to show Ols
Olsen Road, framed as Ols, with Ols standing beside it. #Olsception
Gary with Joel Howard beside an Iron Road vehicle during Day 53
Joel Howard stopped to check whether Ols and I had broken down, then became one of those brilliant roadside conversations HAA kept producing.
Windmill under heavy clouds near Koongawa
Late-day South Australian sky, windmill, and a reminder that winter had properly found us.
John Charles Darke memorial near Koongawa
The John Charles Darke memorial near Koongawa, one of the local-history markers we passed at the end of the day.

View the full day gallery