DONALD TO ST ARNAUD

DONALD TO ST ARNAUD = 47km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 2797km

ST ARNAUD CARAVAN PARK = $22 powered

 

I am relieved to be out of that caravan park in Donald - somehow I think it was too much to stay there for the 3 nights and if it wasn't for the heat we would have left on Saturday and come here to lovely St Arnaud.  I tell you that caravan park is up for sale and I wouldn't pay any amount of $ for it despite the huge land involved - there is a lot of cleaning up and clearing out of things that are worn out and dated in that park including the owners.  How do they expect to sell the park when they haven't maintained the park or even bothered to make it presentable to prospective buyers?

Anyway glad the hot weather is over for a few days.  We left Donald around 8am with a short day to St Arnaud on the back roads - it is a pity that we couldn't continue further today as it is a coolish day but we couldn't find any where to stay a little further on.

We took the Sunraysia highway for a few kms and turned left onto Devon Park Rd and stayed on that for 12km until we came to Swanwater Rd which is a dirt road.  As we got to this road we could see a grain truck coming along it and towards us so we pulled over at the intersection and waited for it to pass ... we couldn't exactly ride along this road with this truck barrelling along .... look at the dust we would have encountered as it passed us ...



Crikey we would have come out of it covered in dirt!  This was a tough dirt road to ride as it had alot of soft sections to it and the hard areas kept changing and you had to steer the bike towards the next section without going into soft patches ... of course Kouta helped out with the steering by keeping a look out and moving so that we actually end up in the soft patches!
We only had to go along this road for 4km and then turned left onto Swanwater North road and was on this until we met the Wycheproof-St Arnaud road and then right onto that to St Arnaud.  The ride was predominantly flat and the hill didn't occur until just before St Arnaud.  It is gradual and easy to ride as this road wasn't busy at all and the hill is about 4km long and once at the top you go a short down into town.  We didn't see alot of town and will ride through it tomorrow but it looks like the mainstreet is full of old buildings and it looks busy. 
We did howerver find a 'Jones' Street and this is the first for the trip (have yet to spot a 'Kouta' or 'O'Brien' street.

The caravan park is on the lookout hill and is a munter of a sooty grunter of a climb to get to it!  But it is nice and basic.  A few here - probably working but one or 2 are tourists like us.  It is cool right now around mid 20's and there was a drop of rain but the wind is so light - in fact for most of the ride you hardly noticed the wind ... although coming from the south east it is very light (compared to South Australia!).  Since it is cool this means Kouta can rest and sleep more (the heat gets to him!) and when I came back from my shower I find Neil on the computer and Kouta sleeping - obviously he was just too tired to get his other leg out of the basket ... LOL

So tomorrow is a longer day to Dunolly we have been there lots of times and the park is okay - a bit run down but the unpowered section is very shady with willows (hopefully they are still there) and is on a lovely small lake with ducks to torment Kouta!