Day: 106
Date: Thursday, 15 October 2020
Start: Murray Bridge
Finish: Policeman Point
Daily Kilometres: 133 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)
Total Kilometres: 10995
Weather: Mild and overcast in the morning, overcast and windy with some rain in the afternoon
Accommodation: Motel
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Egg & bacon rolls
Lunch: Ham salad roll/Chicken salad roll
Dinner: Pizza, chocolate pudding & cream
Aches: Nursing a troublesome right hip flexor
Highlight: Riding alongside The Coorong, the famous and internationally recognised 130km long lagoon system/wetland formed as part of the Murray River estuary and separated from the Southern Ocean by the long stretch of sand dunes known as the Younghusband peninsula. In today's weather, it looked wild and unforgiving, with the shallow lagoon whipped into whitecaps, the dunes separating the ocean from The Coorong indistinct in the rain, and pelicans struggling to make headway and maintain formation as they flew overhead (it was the location for the movie, Storm Boy). It seemed remote and inhospitable, with just a few fishing shacks in sheltered hollows, a couple of sheep stations, and the small town of Meningie, but apparently it was the most densely populated area in Australia prior to European settlement.
Lowlight: I got stung by an unseen bee on one of my fingers while riding.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We had a relatively easy 130km planned for today, with a couple of towns en route and a light following wind forecast, so we didn't hit the road until about 6:45am. We started by riding through the regional town of Murray Bridge and crossing the Murray River on the long bridge which, because of its narrowness, did not make it easy to stop and take photos. We stopped on the eastern side and Julie ran back on the narrow pedestrian path, still wearing her helmet, to take the required photos.
From Murray Bridge we had a pleasant morning ride across rolling green pastures under cloudy skies paralleling the river to the small town of Tailem Bend where we bought some breakfast at a roadhouse around 8am. We turned off the main Adelaide to Melbourne road soon afterwards, towards The Coorong (see above) and the small holiday town of Meningie. Shallow lakes, sand flats, and marshy areas began appearing in the lower lying areas, while the higher ground remained green pastureland. Near Meningie, we reached the broad expanse of The Coorong with the sand dunes separating it from the ocean visible in the far distance. When we reached the town, we found a bakery where we bought sandwiches for lunch today and for breakfast tomorrow, along with a morning snack which we ate in a pretty foreshore park.
Soon after leaving Meningie, at around 1pm, the weather took a sharp turn for the worse, with a vicious cold south-easterly headwind springing up to make cycling very hard. Our speed dropped, but time wasn't an issue as we only had about 40km remaining for the day. We stopped for a quick lunch at an exposed little picnic area overlooking the windblown Coorong around 1:30pm and then struggled into the wind for the last 18km to Policeman Point, our destination for the day.
Policeman Point is no more than a windswept couple of houses and a tiny hotel-motel in the middle of nowhere, but it was a welcome sight to us and we checked in at 3pm and shortly after were enjoying warm showers in our room. The rest of the afternoon was spent trip-planning and relaxing, after which we bought dinner at the pub and had an early night. I think we are the only people staying here.
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