Day 548 | Lyrup Flats, Murray River NP: plenty of ants again
55 km | zzOz total: 17,591 km
As it turned out I did get that tailwind, all day even, but, if you’ll excuse me going on about the weather again, that was the least of my issues. Last night it bucketed down for an hour or so, the tent not quite waterproof since its departure as a new unit from Perth 18 months ago, but outside it’s certainly warm enough.
It dawned calm and cloudless, that magnificent view up and down the river just outstanding in the early morning light.
By 11 it was about 40ºC, I slunk off to the Barmera Library, air conditioning full blast barely coping, to upload a couple of blogs, do the rest tomorrow along with a whole lot of other digital stuff in Renmark tomorrow for my last day of free internet access courtesy of the South Australian government.
It was right on 40º when I rolled down the slope to the edge of Lake Bonney for my lunch, plenty of Corellas joined me, doing their little walk down to the water’s edge but they aren’t enthusiastic swimmers.
By 2 30 I’d got near Berri and stopped at a roadside fruit stall, colourful bags of oranges and almonds with paper thin shells hanging from the structure. I chat to a middle aged woman who takes pity on me and gives me some fruit for nothing, somehow I can’t fit the standard bag of oranges aboard, 14 kg, we discuss rock melons, hard work because they ripen too quickly, but sell well, we agree that the honeydew melon is our favourite but apparently we are in a slim minority. It’s been really busy, the period before Christmas is generally quite remunerative.
I could spend all day talking about about fruit and its cultivation but that dark cloud with low rumblings isn’t so far off and neither is Berri. Just as I make it to shelter it hoses down, the temperature dropping to a more reasonable level.
It’s cleared up by the time I’ve loaded up with water and a few things in the local Woolies supermarket, they are thick on the ground now after that barren patch from Mereeba to Clare, just the one in Mt Isa, so after crossing the river on a high bridge it’s the back roads to the Lyrup ferry, more conversation with the ferry bloke then it’s trying to find an ant free campsite in the National Park adjacent to the river.
This all might seem mundane, at least I’ve finally squeezed out a description of a day as is done on the more standard issue your journal, not much of a day you might think but I’ve survived the heat, and rain, and had engaging, funny, conversations with a librarian, my fruit seller and the ferryman, biked a few ks through the Riverland vineyards and around Lake Bonney.
Nothing so spectacular, maybe the extreme weather conditions, just a fantastic, surprising day.
When you are out bike touring total boredom is seldom on the agenda.