Urana to Berrigan

Urana to Berrigan (via Jerilderie) = 98km
Cummulative total = 8159km

We left Urana as quickly as we could this morning and lucky the town has yet to flood so we can get out - although we did hear on the radio that Jerilderie will be sand bagged soon! we think the water is following us! So we are resigned to the fact that we will probably have to continue on to Berrigan today.
What we are finding through out this is it is very difficult to get correct information - the caretaker of the Urana caravan park, as lovely as she was, I think may have been a 'bit over the top' with regard to her information she was giving us! she said the urana - corowa road was closed yet we heard traffic going through all night, she said it is going to flood Sunday night or Monday morning yet the estimates were for Monday night or Tuesday. Even getting information out of the police was a little scratchy - when we left this morning we stopped a police car and asked if the south roads were open and he didn't know and was just going to check them all out ... even the SES men didn't know what was going on ... so we thought to play it safe and take the one and only safe road out of Urana and head for Jerilderie. The reason why we were so sceptical about going on this road is because it is 60km to Jerilderie into a full blown head wind and more than likely that town will be in flood mode and we will have to continue south via the only safe road of the Newell highway for another 35km and again into a headwind - the prospect of riding 100km into a headwind was a bit daunting and not to mention a bit of a downer!
Alas we road off and as predicted the road was flat open and exposed to very strong head winds so the going was very slow - for the first 30km we averaged 15km per hour and then dropped down to 12km per hour for the remaining 30km to Jerilderie.
Just before town you cross the Billabong creek which is the longest creek in the Southern hemisphere (apparently!) and this is the creek that is causing all the problems with the flooding.

So we get to Jerilderie and the town looks as though nothing is happening! we can see that the creek is very high but there is no sand bags anywhere. We go to the information center and he recommends that we continue on to Berrigan while we can - they don't know when the creek is going to peak and flood the town.
So we go to the local bakery and shout ourselves a hedgehog for me and a sausage roll for Neil. Apparently the lady in the bakery doesn't know what is going on and even she said it is hard to get information! I think it is because there is no previous flood records for these rivers and creeks so they can only guesstimate when the peaking and flooding will occur.
We begin to head south for 5km along the Newell highway (we had to go on it for 9km north of the town to get to it!) and by now I had developed SEVERE hayfever where I was struggling to cope with a volley of sneezing, blowing my nose, controlling the bike and continue to pedal through a strong head wind!!! Crikey could my day just get any worse?
But on a happier note Neil got a kick out of this sign below ...

... his 'kick' was that Melbourne is only 315km away ... we are close to home now! ... yeah right Neil 'what ever'! while I blow my nose!!!
5km along the Newell we came to our turn off to Berrigan and the wind became a slight head-cross wind so we picked up speed to 15km per hour!
We got to Berrigan at 5pm we had done 7 hours of cycling but had been on the road for 9 hours (2 hours for breaks) we were absolutely exhausted ... meanwhile my face has puffed up like a puffer fish and my eyes make me look like I am on drugs and they are blood shot and red, my nose looks like rudolph the reindeers red nose and I am feeling like crap that all I want to do is curl up and sleep!

Relieved to get to the campground, in the shower and into bed I was absolutely knackered and even Neil admitted that he was too ... but you know what perked him up ... the fact that he got heaps of bargains and markdowns at the local IGA! man him and those orange stickers!
Tomorrow is a leisurely short day to Cobram and I think we might even sleep in!