Thursday 16th October 2025 – Blinman to Yanyanna Hut, 40km
The overall plan was to cycle the Mawson Trail over a 3 week period, 900km of off-road trails through the Flinders Mountsin Range. All seemed very doable from the research, and there had been a lot! We had a plan, but never expected to keep to it exactly, assuming it would change as we went on. We’d also taken a load of precautions with regards safety, with lots of water and food and the ability to contact emergency services if needed.
At 8:30 we were packed and ready to roll. Adrian and Christy were there to see us off, complete with Adrian taking footage on his drone as we left. The smiling happy lifecyclers were on the road again. The first section was on the road, a nice easy lead-in of about 10km, slightly downhill, warm sunshine but not hot and the odd kangaroo and emu alongside us as we went.
The trail then started properly as we went through a Flinders Ikara national park gate. It wasn’t too bad to start, with some sand and rocks, which gave us the chance to get a feel for our fully-loaded bikes – more tricky, to be honest. Soon we came to a few creeks, steep descents to the dry creek bed and then a steep climb up the other side. Definitely testing, especially for Martina who had never done this sort of thing before. Of course we have cycled fully-loaded bikes on roads before, but this was very different. The temperature started to rise through the morning and we were off and on our bikes, walking them out of the numerous creeks.
We did see another cyclist, who said hello and carried on past in the opposite direction, but that was it as we became more and more remote. The scenery was amazing, especially the looming Flinders Range in front of us.
The temperature kept rising and we sweated a lot, but also drank loads of water. Of course our water was now warm by now and not particularly refreshing, but we were still drink a fair amount.
At this point we were feeling fine. At one of the creeks Martina took a tumble and bruised a few parts, but was able to get back on and continue riding.
We passed the Trezona remote campsite where there were a few hardy Aussie campers with caravans and camper vans. By now it was baking hot and every once in a while we would stop in the shade of a tree, always making sure there were no stingy, bitey nasties around! Our stops became more regular and I realised that I wasn’t feeling too good, mainly a lack of energy. I was also starting to struggle up the smallest hills and the temperature kept rising.
Every time we made it to the top of a small hill I now needed a few minutes to rest before I could even contemplate cycling further. The temperature was still rising and we were now starting to worry a little – this wasn’t in the plan!
We made it to the Middlesight Water Hut, about 8km from our planned end point of the day. Still very remote, but we did briefly contemplate staying for the night, but there was no one else around or likely to pass as so we decided to push on to the next hut – the Yanyanna hut – as that was next to a road and if we needed help there was more likelihood of getting it
The last 8km was purgatory for me, and I’m guessing it was exactly fun for Martina! I had conked out and had very little energy. We had to keep stopping, sometimes only a few hundred metres from where we had last stopped. Luckily there was a flat stretch and we made reasonable progress to the end – reaching our planned destination, utterly knackered!
There wasn’t much to the hut – a tin shed with a table and a few camping chairs, but we were safe. We had shelter from the sun, plenty of water and food and so we decided to rest for a while.
Inside the hut was was like a sauna, but Martina made the most of it by stretching out on the floor in just her underwear! I braved the flies outside where it was a little, but not much, cooler.
So, we were in a bit of a pickle! I was feeling rough and drained so the conversation turned to what to do next. The possibility of getting back on a bike the next day looked unlikely for me and Martina was pretty tired too. The weather was forecast for more, unseasonably, very hot weather over the next few days. We’d also had no signal on our phones for a long time and we still had none here.
Our situation had the potential to spiral out of control if we weren’t careful, although we were safe at this particular moment. While sitting outside I’d noticed a few cars pass along the nearby gravel road, so we decided to flag the next one. Just as we were discussing this, a car appeared around the corner, but we were too far away and by the time I’d got up and ran toward the road, it had gone and I’d used up loads of energy that I didn’t really have spare! So, we decided we needed to take the camp chairs from the hut to sit near the road – but Martina had to put some trousers on first!
As we were just about to carry our chairs ti the roadside position, Martina said “there’s a lady coming our way” and there was! Turned out that Sophie had seen me waving and come to investigate. Sophie, Alex (dad), Taz and Grace (son and daughter) had pulled up and volunteered themselves to be our saviours! Their large 4×4 was more than big enough to put all our stuff in and they even had a bike rack on the back – it was almost like they were meant to find us!
Initially they drove us to Rawnsley Station where they were staying (it was 5pm and Alex’s car showed 34C) so we could find some accommodation (and more civilisation), but en route Alex offered to take us to Hawker, a small town, but also the biggest place around. Alex and I chatted and Martina feverishly hunted for some accommodation there as we really didn’t fancy having to camp if we could help it. Bingo, the Outback Motel had an room!Alex dropped us off and said his goodbyes – what an amazing family!
In the motel the owner also couldn’t do enough to help us – helped us in with our stuff and let us put our bikes inside, offered to get medical help and even offered to make us some dinner!
Needless to say we had a quiet evening – basically a shower, food and bed! We have, at times, tried to validate our decisions to find help, especially when so much time and effort have gone into the planning of the trip, we know that our situation could have gotten much worse very quickly. It would have been easy to push on, but we didn’t want to become a headline for all the wrong reasons and sometimes having the experience, means we know our limitations
Our plan didn’t make it past day 1!
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