Mawson Trail

Completed by Darren Steffen and Charlie Woolley. 

Key Dates: 

Tuesday 22nd October 2019: Melbourne to Adelaide by plane with bikes in standard cardboard bike boxes (23kg max). Taxi to friend’s house in Norwood. Rebuild bikes. Join the Torrens Linear Trail leading to the start of the Mawson Trail, then on to Birdwood.

Thursday 31st October 2019: arrived at offical end of Mawson Trail in Blinman (highest town in SA). Continued to Parachilna.

Friday 1st November 2019: Genesis bus from Parachilna to Adelaide, ride to Norwood, pack bikes in boxes, share a few celebratory drinks, then fly home to Melbourne.

Total distance cycled = 980km

Total elevation gained = 12,746m

Days riding = 10

Number of days rest = 0

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The official length is around 950kms, starting at Gorge Road Athelstone and finishing on the front steps of the Blinman pub. Our motto on departure was “Stay True to the Trail”. Along the way there were a few diversions (wineries!) and one or two backtracks to collect jettisoned water bottles, but we maintained our commitment to the trail and rejected any temptations to shortcut. Fortunately there were no incidents, nor did we experience the notorious peanut butter mud that has overcome others in the past.

The trail is splendid. The designers are to be credited with joining together a succession of stunningly beautiful and widely contrasting locations perfectly selected to engage, enthral and enchant. There are very few direct routes as the trail travels all over the place, sometimes leaving you wondering “where on earth are we going?”, only to reveal a stunning view, a super-fun descent, a charming pine forest, or a breathtaking vista of farm crops, vineyards, saltbush plains, or rusty-red endlessly stretching desert. It is never dull, never boring! The trail is well maintained, and the super consistent trail signs never fail to show the way. Hats (helmets) off to all involved in the design and upkeep. 

MTB recommended, although CX drops with decent tyre width have been used successfully. Charlie rode a 2018 Curve Titanium crossbar 1x MTB running tubeless. 

By contrast, Darren rode an ancient (mid-90’s) Giant alloy anchor-weight crossbar 3x MTB running Schwalbe Marathon Plus knobbies with tubes. 

The Curve was nimble and handled the technical stuff very well. The tubeless were a bit of an issue. Multiple punctures on Day 3 were manageable, but as the trip progressed the scab kept tearing away from the tyre, and there is only so much latex fluid a tyre can hold. An inner tube was installed when the fluid level dropped, and while this continued to be an issue with punctures, we were able to continue. 

The Giant was solid and worry free - it was just really heavy. Unfortunately a recent upgrade swapped the front ring set to one with slightly more teeth (23 to 28). This was a mistake - smaller/fewer teeth would have been better to handle some of the seriously steep pinches - and there are plenty of those. The Giant was walked up several climbs that the Curve rode easily, but maybe that also had something to do with the younger and lighter rider ;-) 

Navigation was a mixed affair. We had a Garmin, iPhones withe various apps, and old-school paper maps (purchased from https://www.bikesa.asn.au/ridingmaps). The Garmin was a backup to Strava which we used to record the ride. The app Maps.me with preload maps worked best for navigation. And then when all else failed the trail signs were always there.

Other useful tips: 

Chain Lube is essential every 100km or so - it’s hot and dry out there, and lube not only protects the chain from snapping, it makes each pedal stroke easier.

Spare tubes, self adhesive patches and old-school cement patches are good to have.

Cable ties come in handy for securing water bottles in standard cages. Adjustable cages worked well.

Velcro straps

Panadol - saddle sores suck.

Paw Paw cream - saddle sores suck.

Sunscreen - 50+ applied throughout the day.

Insect repellant

Snacks - keep the fuel up especially on days when there are no towns, shops or pubs along the way

Keep cup - go waste-free where you can. handy for mornings when the accom has no breakfast. 

We committed to doing the trip about six weeks prior. We spent lots of time online researching other blogs and previous experiences. We decided to average 100km per day, with shorter days to start with (why rush through the Barossa?), with some longer days later to compensate. We worked out distances between good accommodation options, checked that they were still available (note: some older blogs refer to accommodation that no longer exists, for example, Hallett has no accommodation options available), and came to a firm structure and duration for the whole trip. We knew the bus return from Parachilna occurs only on some days of the week. This helped us then work out overall dates. We then booked flights, accommodation, and the bus return. 

Charlie did an awesome job cobbling together a number of gps maps to come up with a single file for the whole trip - these are available on some of the sites listed below. I chose to purchase the complete set of maps from BikeSA. Glad I did - they were great to have as a cross-reference to the Garmin. Be aware that many sections of the trail are completely out of range for ALL mobile networks, so Stava on an iphone will not be sufficient. Some apps allow you to download maps to access out of range. Battery backup for mobile devices also essential. If electronics and paper maps fail, the excellent trail signs are consistent and well positioned, although they are easy to miss on a fast descent!

The plan - with estimated distances and chosen accom - emerged as follows:

Day 1 Melbourne - Adelaide - Birdwood (60km) Birdwood Motel

Day 2 Birdwood - Nuriootpa (65km) Barossa Gateway Motel

Day 3 Nuriootpa - Auburn (87km) Auburn Shiraz Motel

Day 4 Auburn - Burra (70km) Burra Hotel

Day 5 Burra - Spalding (132km) Spalding Hotel

Day 6 Spalding - Stone Hut (91km) Stone Hut Cottages

Day 7 Stone Hut - Wilmington (80km) Wilmington Hotel

Day 8 Wilmington - Cradock (126km) Cradock Hotel

Day 9 Cradock - Rawnsley Park (119km) Rawnsley Park Caravan Park

Day 10 Rawnsley Park - Blinman - Parachilna (126km) Parachilna Hotel

http://www.southaustraliantrails.com/trails/mawson-trail/

https://www.lavelocita.cc/la-velocita-rides/riding-the-mawson-trail

http://blokeonbike.com/bloke1/the-mawson-trail/

Day 1 - Adelaide to Birdwood (61km)

Flew with bikes from Melbourne to Adelaide. Taxi to friend’s house in Norwood to rebuild bikes, drink tea and head off. 

Joined the Torrens linear path - really lovely path - left the city on Gorge Rd - amazingly lovely gorge cut through the hills by the river. Then things got real!

OMG if there is a bike hell, those 10 kms up to the Cudlee Creek summit is it - I walked most of it, Charlie peddled most of it. Coming down to other side into Lobethal was amazing - a bit single path and a bit gravel, and a well deserved lunch in the bakery (chilli Kransky) was later than expected at 4pm.