Below is a photo of one of the locals that we found in the museum grounds!
We also saw him there again this morning and he only has one ear, so we assumed that he is a regular and is genuinely one of the locals!
this was in the back yard of the local pub - I think it is an outdoor oven but I don't think it is being used anymore.
Morven is a really nice quiet town and when you walk around the neighbourhood you see absolutely no one! But there was a local that we kept seeing in the evening - he would ride his motorbike very slowly towards Treogle National Park direction in the morning and then we would see him again coming back in the evening. When he saw us he waved and said hello but it was the speed he rode that motorbike - I would say he rode it around 30kph no more and no less!
Morven to Augathella = 96km
Cummulative total = 2846km
Well onto todays cycle ride - it is our longest yet - 96km! and yep we had a tailwind - I was happy as a pig rolling around in mud!
But first we woke this morning and it was cold - the nights are dipping down to 2-3 degrees which is not exactly what we had during NSW but cold enough during breakfast. It is not cold under the sleeping bags in fact it is really warm and it is really hard actually getting out of bed!
And as per usual when we pack things up Kouta just seeks out the sun and sits and waits for us!
Now isn't that an adorable photo of him! Let me tell you a little story about him today - riding along and we came across some cattle by the fence near the road and Kouta caught wind of them and got very excited in the trailer and threw himself around abit and began barking at them and he did it again further up with another lot - he began to bark at them - now for those of you that know Kouta he has a somewhat 'feminine' bark (that is what I call it) so I think when he barked at the cattle he was practising his mustering of cattle just like a working dog! the only problem is that when a working dog barks at the cattle it is translated into human language as "come on! get in there!" whereas Koutas little feminine bark when translated into human language is "come on darlings please move!" LOL
Anyway onto todays ride - it was a lovely ride (not due to the wind) but the scenery was really nice and varied - we sometimes had open plains and sometimes we had trees and shrubs.
This was taken at the start of the ride just after the turnoff for Augathella. We are beginning to think that maybe we should have taken a tree and shrub reference book with us (we have a bird one) as we are not quite sure what the names are of some of the trees. We saw Ooline trees today because they are local to here, we also think that there is alot of Mulga trees but the name of the various gum trees that we see we are not sure of the names.
While riding along Neil spotted 2 wedge tail eagles sitting on a dead tree. We took photos but we were too far away from them but they were 2 very big birds and I have never seen 2 together usually I only see 1 by themselves.
Unfortunately I tried to get a close up of them but the photo didn't quite come out clear!
We had lunch by the side of the road just before half way and up to that point the road had been quite undulating but at least we didn't have to pedal on the down hill parts like we had to the past few days with the head wind!
Here we go Sharon Neil took a photo of me while we were at lunch - I have lost some weight - don't ask me how much because I don't have scales!
From the half way point to Augathella you seem to be going down a bit more than going up. It was great going from there and at times we were cruising along at 20kph quite comfortably thanks to the flat roads and the tail wind.
At about the 80km mark I felt quite good and knew that I was going to make it to Augathella and I tell you from a cyclists point of view what waits for you at the 90km mark is pure evil!! it is a nice small sharp little undulation! nasty at the end of the day!
Augathella is a nice little town, bigger than Morven, and the campground is behind a road house and the best powered sites are taken up already and since we are in a tent and wanted power (it doesn't cost that much more than an unpowered) there was only one place we could go that had something resembling grass and near a power point! Like alot of places along here there is more gravel than grass so to find a tent site anywhere is like looking for a needle in a haystack!
We think we might stay here tomorrow - not sure. The park is big and there is a few people here and the showers are just so hot that it was, after todays ride, fabulous to just stand under the really hot water and soak the weary body!
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