First day of the Mawson Trail had some of the biggest and steepest climbs of the whole trip, cycling out of Adelaide city into the hills and unpaved roads. I had planned to cycle 110km on the first day and rest in Tanuda for the night but reality was far from my initial predictions. Many of the uphills at Eucalypt Forest were too steep and forced me to walk the bike up many times, costing me heaps of time and energy. Once out of the hills, I was presented with Yangoora, a Pizza place overlooking the wine country of South Australia. This would fuel me for the next Time Trail stage past Lobethal, Birdwood and hopefully into Tanuda. What I forgot to consider was the late start on day 1 (flight from Sydney to Adelaide) and the 5pm sunset. Deciding to wild camped in Mount Crawford Forest Reserve for the night allowed me to ride as far as possible with dimming sunlight. 40 odd kilometres shy of day 1 objective, I knew the next couple of days were gonna be tough as I had some ground to make.
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