Sunday, October 23, 2016 – 14.79 km

Last night was the worst I’ve ever spent on a trail, and not because of the cow droppings. I slept for three hours, then lay awake for three and a half hours in the cold, then put on my rain jacket and managed to sleep for another three hours in one hour intervals. My sleeping bag is just too cold for these temperatures. Act like Australia and warm up, Australia. But not too much. Act like Saskatchewan in August, okay?

More fence-following up and down hills today, and some were real monsters. I wouldn’t like to do this section when the ground is wet and slippery.

I noticed that the soles of my boots are much reduced. I’ve done all of my Australian backpacking with them, and all the recent road walking can’t have been good for them. I may have to replace them before the end of the trail… I have a pair of trail runners in Adelaide, but they have a zero drop heel and it wouldn’t be wise to abruptly switch to that, even if I wanted to wear trail runners for backpacking. Maybe I could insert heel pads. Hmm.

Burra is a big town with historical buildings that you can visit with a ‘passport’ key from the visitor centre. Upon arrival I realized that today is Sunday rather than Monday as I had thought, and the grocery store was already closed. I got a room at the Burra Hotel ($40), which has a pizza alley next door. It’s like a walk-through for pizza, where you order at a window and return to fetch the pizza in twenty minutes. I support!