Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 113 - Renmark to Buronga

Day:  113

Date:  Thursday, 22 October 2020

Start:  Renmark

Finish:  Buronga

Daily Kilometres:  145 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  11906

Weather:  Warm and sunny

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & lettuce sandwiches

  Lunch:  Beef, tomato & relish sandwiches

  Dinner:  Bangers & mash/Chicken pasta bake, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Being allowed back into New South Wales (NSW) without being required to quarantine, having transited through 100+ kilometres of COVID-stricken Victoria on our way from South Australia (SA).   The NSW government says on its website you can only travel from SA to NSW through Victoria by private vehicle along the Sturt Highway, which is what we did, but we doubted they expected to see any cyclists.  The NSW police were mildly amused and bemused by our arrival, and we were sent to another checkpoint to fill out a form and have our ID checked (by a policeman who turned out to be from our home town of Terrigal), but all was fine and in 15 minutes we were on our way.

Lowlight:  The flies, when we stopped by the road under a tree to have lunch, were of plague proportions.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were both awake at 3:45am, perhaps in anticipation of crossing back into NSW today, and decided to get up and on the road early.  I also hoped, fruitlessly as it turned out, to see the Orionid meteor shower which was supposed to be visible between 4am and 5am.  We got on the road at 4:30am and rode south-east out of Renmark after crossing the Murray River again.  Although the sky was clear, the meteor shower was supposed to be visible in the northern sky, that is back over our left shoulders, so it was a bit hard to keep a close watch.

It was cool, though not cold, and apart from a gradual climb away from the river, the riding was easy in the darkness, made even better by very little traffic.  We reached the Victorian border as the sky was lighting the east and we were then treated to another beautiful sunrise as we traversed the arid woodlands of the Murray Sunset National Park.  While the rising sun was low, we had some concerns about our visibility to vehicles, mostly trucks, approaching from behind, but fortunately the road edge was quite wide and rideable, so we stayed there and had no problems.

We stopped in a roadside rest area for breakfast after 50km, where it was still cool, though you could feel the temperature rising by the minute.  After breakfast, a mild headwind sprang up, slowing our progress a little, as we passed through vast fields of wheat and hay, interspersed with scrubby sandy woodland.

After another 30km, we stopped for a break in another roadside rest area.  We had the option of stopping at a store in the tiny hamlet of Cullulleraine, just a few kilometres ahead, but we had decided it was better not to enter any stores or other businesses in Victoria as we transited so we had a better story to tell to the NSW police at the border, if asked.

Our last break, for lunch, under a tree by the road with 30km to go, was spoiled by the flies and we didn't dally.  By now the country included some huge vineyards to accompany the vast grain fields, and there were orchards and more signs of civilisation as we approached Merbein South and then the city of Mildura.  It felt a little strange, pedalling through the Mildura urban area, to see everybody wearing facemasks, which are compulsory now in Victoria unless exercising or eating, or in private homes/vehicles.  For nearly four months, we have been passing through areas where there is no COVID and few facemasks.  We had purchased a facemask each in Adelaide, in case we had to stop while passing through Victoria, but as it turned out we reached the "mighty" Murray River, and the NSW border, without needing to stop in Mildura other than for an endless string of traffic lights.

We crossed the river and border without much difficulty (see above) around 1:30pm and rode a short distance further to our booked motel in the small town of Buronga.  It was an early and welcome finish to a day during which we travelled through three states, and we are now in the home straight.  I later rode 1.5km to a supermarket to buy dinner and supplies for tomorrow, given it will be another day with no resupply options, and we had a quiet afternoon.

Later, we microwaved dinner in the communal kitchen of our motel, which also serves as a hostel for fruit-pickers, and had an early night.