Having split from the road south at the end of stage 346, the Eyre Highway heads east on stage 347, spanning the gap in the outback between the Gawler Rangers National Park to the north and the Hambridge Wilderness Area to the south. The elevation profile is simple: up/down/long slog up then very lump flat: now for the detail.
The rollout from the eastern side of Kyancutta climbs straight out of the pen, for three miles, on a road that’s also straight. It then descends again by an equal amount while the road remains straight. At the foot of the descent, at the town of Garryowen, the road hangs a right and begins the long meandering eleven mile, four hundred and fifty foot climb to the Watervale junction on the southern side of the highway: the climb gets steeper the longer you remain on it.
From Watervale, the road is wildly undulating right through to the finish: five miles in all. The highway passes by Brecon at eighteen miles, Koongawa at nineteen miles and Retawon at twenty miles where the road enters the final two mile long straight to the finish.
At over eight hundred feet of ascent and only half of that in descent, this will feel, and indeed ride, like an uphill stage. It finishes at seven hundred feet above sea level, the highest for a while, so you’re not out of the climbing woods yet, not by a long way.
Distance: 22 miles / 35 kilometres
Ascent: 814 feet / 248 metres
RGT Magic Road: z4a1uFW1MLqF
Max elevation: 708 ft
Min elevation: 359 ft
Total climbing: 815 ft
Total descent: -487 ft
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