Carried on chilln’ at the Lyndhurst Hotel.

Chats with Talc Alf, the talc rock sculptor and lower Strezlecki track mailman (Alf is very knowledgeable about aboriginal and early white history of the Lyndhurst areas and world history), meeting a station owner from not far from my brother’s place at Longreach, was all good.

The bare, eroded mound between the pub and the roadhouse turned out to be an old dam wall with stockyards built on top of it. Film makers used parts of the yards as a stand-in for the Rabbit Proof Fence in the film of the same name which was actually a story about aboriginal child removals in Western Australia.

With the forecast rain the publican suggested I re-camp on the hotel verandah to avoid being flooded in the caravan park. Thankfully I agreed and pitched the tent (weighing down the corners with loaded panniers rather than drive pegs on the concrete verandah) under cover. It did rain so ‘thanks, publican’.

The rest of the time was spent eating at either the Lyndhurst Hotel (excellent steaks) or eating lollies at the Lyndhurst Roadhouse while checking to see if my new wheel had arrived.

The wheel did come in by Startrek express post from BicycleExpress in Adelaide on Tuesday 31 May (not your best effort Australia Post, 4 days for an express pack to get from Adelaide to Port Augusta!).

Changing over the rear cluster was simple now that Robyn had supplied the cluster remover and chain whip way back in Hyden/Wave Rock. Changing the disc brake rotor was more challenging as it is fitted by Torx bolts (why not simple hex bolts like everything else on the bike?). Fortunately a tourist who is an ex-fitter had a set of Torx head drivers so the rotor was soon changed.

By this stage it was mid-afternoon so departure was delayed until Wednesday, with the advantage for the pub that I had yet another big steak dinner and more beers to fuel up.