Friday, November 04, 2016

I took a rest day in Tanunda today. I didn’t need one, but the next leg will be six days and the trail will be getting hillier too. The Heysen never gains too much elevation, but when it goes up and down, it usually goes straight up and down.

My understanding of this town and the reception I’ve received progressed further today when I realized that I fit an image. The post office employee asked whether I was picking up a package sent to the hostel, and a guy stopped me in the grocery store to note that I looked ready for farm work, and the woman I talked to yesterday at the hostel also thought that I had come to find farm work. Well, I really am a backpacker, but these are my hiker clothes (I should have said that they were my sexy date clothes).

After running errands, I went to the library and read The Girl Who Played With Fire for six hours straight to finish it before the library closed. In Hawker I read the first book of the trilogy, so it seems fitting to complete it on the trail. When I returned to the caravan park, I saw a car in the tent area. That puzzled me since the tent area is surrounded by a streambed with only pedestrian bridges, so while I know that Australians are willing to drive their cars pretty much anywhere, I was curious about the route employed in this case. I would have asked but I didn’t want to sound annoyed that they were driving around the tent area (I was somewhat annoyed). Then another car appeared while I wasn’t watching, then another car, all driving around over the poor grass and disturbing in the dark. It remains a mystery.