Posted by A really short walk today into Quorn from Dutchman’s hut on easy fire trail type tracks. The 12km took me two hours.
The forecast was for rain. It started to come down last night, intermittently pattering down on the tin roof. It had gone by the time I’d packed up and hit the trail but soon came again.
Donning shell layers for the first time I soon realised the rain was going to come and go all morning. The air was still warm and too hot under shell layers which quickly came off. It was not far to town where a warm shower awaited so I was prepared to get saturated if the rain continued any harder.
I was in Quorn by 9:30am and quickly made my way to the Quondong Cafe for a cooked breakfast and coffee.
Kylie from Elizabeth House was in contact with me yesterday and basically said come anytime, no time too early to check in. So after a feast I headed towards my accommodation for the next two nights and was greeted with open arms. Talk about being made to feel at home.
Kylie had a robe, towel and bucket ready for me to strip off my clothes and get them soaking before they went into the washing machine. She had a spray bottle with soapy water ready as I told her about a slow leak in my sleep mat that I needed to repair and pointed me towards the bathroom where soap and shampoo waited. Wow!! This place is so much more than a Backpackers.
The building is Quorns first hospital having been purchased two years ago by Kylie and her partner and renovated into accomodation. Talk about style. The place is immaculately done up in good taste. Bunk rooms down one side for the budget traveller, queen and king rooms down one other side. I’ve grabbed myself a queen room for a couple of nights. And so many little nooks and crannies for lounging, reading, binging on Netflix and catching up on blogs.
New shoes collected from the post – yippee. Happy feet here we come.
Later in the afternoon a fellow hiker arrived, Doug, a 60 something ultralighter, twice a veteran of the Heysen, once SoBo, once NoBo, this time round section hiking from Parachilna to Burra.
Now I thought I was light weight, enter the experience of Doug and his 4kg base weight. Wow! Still much to learn in this game. While he waited for his clothes to get washed and dried we spent a good hour nerding out on gear and ways to cut weight. Doug is also doing massive days in the range that of 40 to 50 kilometres. Fan boying or what. I guess you can when not carrying much at all. I’m looking forward to some bigger days with my new shoes.
It is going to be tough leaving after a zero day tomorrow.
Mick Beckers 
Good luck with the new shoes. I hope they make a big difference.