Trailing running, oh joy

Set out for a 20k long run this morning as I know that from the plans for tonight a Sunday long run was not on the cards. Ran down to the river and after a short up and back in one direction I ran around Chaffey Bend along a walking/bike track around the Murray. The trail was nice and the sun coming up over the Murray was stunning, after coming out at the end of 8th ave like I was told I would I ran up the street past 11th and decided that the road would eventually lead to 14th ave so I could run back along it back to the start. Big mistake! I started heading out of town towards Merbein! Cut into what looked like a trail of some sort and through the tree lo and behold there was a lake! not just any lake. A big Lake. Right in my path. Turned my Garmin onto Navigation to determine that the start was 4.5km directly on the other side of the lake so I set off around the lake following the trail with barb wire fence protecting the grapevines on the other. A most scenic route, I saw two kangaroos boxing each other over a wee little lass, probably bantom weight but still looked like they packed a punch. I also saw plenty of mud, some of which tried to make a fool of me by making me do a little slide and then gracefully regain my balance. But alas the trail ran out some distance around the lake about 20k into a 20k run and now 5.5k fom the start. This is where I stopped and started bush bashing across some salt bush, still hemmed in by the barbwired grapevines. Found some car tracks on the dried out part of the lake and so followed them until I got to a train line and obvious trail so I went for another little jog, with some walking till I eventually got to the end of Fifteenth St. A short, mostly walk later (2.5km) I was back at the start. All in all 26k in 3hr15min (my first 20k was in about 2hr15min) all good for the HM in May. Now for 2 rest days. Yay. I love trail running!