COONALPYN TO KEITH

COONALPYN TO KEITH =  67km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 2444km

KEITH CARAVAN PARK = $20 unpowered ($25 powered)

 

I will be glad to get out of South Australia, I have decided that South Australia is a bit like Queensland - overpriced in camping and shit roads!

Today we rode along the Dukes Highway - this is the main truck route between Melbourne and Adelaide and while today is Saturday there weren't too many trucks on the road ... but what made this a very arduous day was the fact that being on a main highway there is this unwritten rule that we (as cyclists) should ride in the shoulder and I am happy to do that - by no means is that safer as if a car is going to swipe you it is going to swipe you whether you are in the lane or shoulder (there is no magic wall between the shoulder and road lane!).  But when the damn shoulder is as rough as guts for 67km I somehow think people (ie. drivers) can shove that unwritten rule right up their 'sharkra' !!!!!

I have never been shaken and rattled so much as I was today ... I even think Kouta felt a little uncomfortable in the trailer as he would have felt all the vibrations from the road.  It starts out okay but by 45km you begin to ache in the neck and shoulders due to the constant vibrations from the very rough surface in the shoulder.

You actually drop a couple of km's per hour as at one point when there was an overtaking lane section on our side of the road the shoulder becomes to narrow and so we end up in the lane and as soon as we went in there our km rate increased without any effort at all!

The traffic was heavy going to Adelaide up until around 11am and then it reversed and the traffic became heavier going in our direction but they were very courteous to us ... lots of toots and waves and even moving over for us when it wasn't really necessary.

Tomorrow we go to Bordertown which is 45km via the Dukes highway but we are going via back roads which will add another 15km to that ... I would prefer to do the extra than do another day on that highway!

We are camped tonight at Keith and again it is a community campground near the local swimming pool.  It is big and has lots of powered sites and brick cabins.  It has a bbq area that is undercover with tables and chairs, sink and a fridge.  It is very expensive I think for a small town $20 for unpowered so we are in a small shaded section that has a big 2 sided shed with nothing in it and so we are camped near it and have taken over the shed section!  It has a power point so we will recharge the computer later as the caretaker is looking after the local swimming pool across from us and Neil said she is bit of a grump! so we will wait until this evening to recharge!

I forgot to mention the wind was a bit light (but still a headwind and then a cross head wind) this morning so that made our day!