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The CrossingSouth Australian Wheat Belt

Fifty Days In

Fifty days after leaving Canning River parkrun, I walked 57.2 kilometres through South Australian wheat country. My feet complained after the Ceduna break, so Ben and Ols kept me company for most of it.

Date4 July 2015
Journey dayDay 50
Pink sunrise cloud over South Australian wheat-belt country on Day 50
Day 50 began with a sky that made another long day feel a little less unreasonable.

Day 50 felt like a proper milestone.

We had started week eight, crossed a state border, finished the Norseman-to-Ceduna stretch and put more than 2,100 kilometres between Canning River parkrun and this patch of South Australia. Port Augusta was still about 355 kilometres away.

It was also Gold Coast Marathon weekend. Very early that morning I wished everyone running at the Gold Coast festival good luck, which says something about where my head still was. I was walking across South Australia, but the running world still felt close enough to cheer from the side of the Eyre Highway.

The country around us was changing again. The South Australian wheat belt grew more and more reminiscent of the time we had spent in the WA wheat belt, and at times I really did wonder if we had taken a wrong turn and walked all the way back.

It was funny, but the humour was sitting on top of a very real schedule pressure.

We were pushing out big days because we were running out of time. The need to keep moving had started on the Nullarbor, but it had not ended when we reached Ceduna. Adelaide was waiting, parkrun was waiting, and the whole walk still had a fixed time limit. So we kept doing the only thing that ever really solved the problem: get up, put the shoes on, and take another large bite out of the distance.

Day 50 became 57.2 kilometres across six sessions.

Ben and Ols provided company for all but the first 15 kilometres and the final five, which was no small thing. I had spent plenty of hours alone by then, and I was comfortable enough with my own company, but having the lads out there beside me changed the shape of the day. Conversation, silence, jokes, shared effort, all of it helped.

My feet were a little more sore than usual. I think they were just complaining that the Ceduna rest day was over. Fair enough, really. They had been given one full day off and had clearly decided that should become the new arrangement.

They were wrong.

Once I got moving, I got back into the swing of things and the kilometres were done.

Dinner was savoury mince and rice in the van. After a 57-kilometre day, that counted as luxury and had a very strong Cooking With Ols feeling about it.

Images From The Day

Dawn clouds and the Eyre Highway at the start of Day 50
The day still began in that familiar dark-into-light rhythm on the Eyre Highway.
Sunrise over flat green fields in South Australia
The wheat-belt feel became harder to miss once the sun was up.
Gary in the yellow beanie and hi-vis jacket inside the campervan on Day 50
The yellow beanie and hi-vis uniform were earning their keep in the cold mornings.
Miltaburra Area School sign beside the Eyre Highway on Day 50
A school sign and a side road were small but welcome signs of local life nearby.
District council boundary sign for Streaky Bay and Ceduna beside a sandy track on Day 50
A local-government boundary sign gave the wheat-belt scenery a more specific South Australian address.
Sandy farm track rolling over low hills beside the Eyre Highway
Some views could have convinced me we had somehow wandered back into the WA wheat belt.
Shaded sandy track through roadside trees near the Day 50 route
A little shade was always welcome by the middle of another big day.
Large roadside gum tree under a clear blue South Australian sky
After the Nullarbor, even a proper roadside tree felt like a change of scenery.

View the full day gallery