Day 107: Murray Bridge to Parnka route map
[A very hot day in the high 30s on flat road with a poor shoulder and verge, little traffic]
After taking my phone in to the Post Office to send to Adelaide to get the screen fixed once again, I didn’t get away from Murray Bridge until after 11.00, and, boy, was it hot! High 30s, maybe 39 degrees. The first 20km to Jervois was good riding in spite of the heat – 24 km/h in T/10 (Turbo mode, 10th gear) with no wind – after that, it was still OK going, with no verge to speak of but practically no traffic either on the back road as far as Wellington.
On the way I dropped in to visit my widowed Aunt Pat, who is the only family member that still lives at the dairy farm where my mum’s family grew up. The farm itself is now long gone out of the family but she lives in a house opposite the main homestead, where I spent many a school holiday with my grandparents. I like Aunt Pat, and I’m glad I pulled in – no dirty little family secrets emerged, however 😑.
The Wellington punt (upgraded in name only, to a ‘ferry’ these days) has hardly changed since my childhood, except its now free, and I crossed the river there to head on down south to Meningie in my journey towards Victoria.
After I rejoined the main Princess Highway (B1) after the ferry, there was some north wind either behind or across me, and I made excellent progress to Meningie where I recharged in a BBQ shelter in the town park and weathered a short thunderstorm. The steak sandwich I got from the Takeaway across the road was OK – only $6.50 but the steak was as tough as old boots – and I replenished my cold water supply with 2 x 1.5l bottle at $1.80 each.
Meningie is a very pleasant little town on the shore of Lake Albert, which is part of the final overflow system of the River Murray as it tries to wend its way out to sea. It is definitely worth a stop-over for cyclists if the timing is right, but I myself quickly high-tailed it out there at 5.15 pm because a good trailing breeze had suddenly sprang up from the north and because a local sage told me this portended a major storm brewing from the north.
Well, that storm front from the North that was so menacing at Meningie turned out to be a bit of a dud. I copped neither the rain, nor the wind-assist afterwards, except for that quick thunderstorm that started while I was still charging up under that shelter before I hurriedly skedaddled.
It looked like I was going to get only about 100km range, which wouldn’t have been enough to get me to Policeman Point where I thought I might spend the night. So instead I scouted out another likely place, and at 6.30pm went 4km off-piste into Coorong National Park where I camped beside the Coorong at a place locally known as Parnka. I was greeted on arrival by a huge kangaroo and a sleepy lizard (proper name, shingleback skink Tiliqua rugosa). The lizard was too shy to have its picture taken.
