FIVE DAYS IN THE OUTBACK

At the biennial Outback Odyssey, Cyclist Off-Road discovers the wonders of the Mawson Trail, a 920km gravel route into the heart of South Australia

Words BOB BARRETT

Track down an Australian $100 note printed between 1984 and 1996, and look at the face on the front. The stern figure, wrapped in a scarf and balaclava, is Sir Douglas Mawson. He may be little known in the UK, despite being born in Yorkshire, but in Australia, the country he grew up in, Mawson is as famous as Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Amundsen and Sir Ernest Shackleton. Like those men, Mawson was an explorer and geologist who mapped uncharted areas of Antarctica at the start of the 20th century and inspired great tales of heroism and survival. As such, it’s only appropriate that he has lent his name to the Mawson Trail, a 920km stretch of dirt and gravel that leads from Adelaide on Australia’s southern coast to Blinman in…

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Cyclist Off Road (Digital) - 1 Issue, Spring 2020

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