Posts

Wellington to Murray Bridge via Tailem Bend.

-
Image
I had breakfast overlooking the Wellington ferry. The river at Wellington ran 25 m deep and barely 1m above sea level. I planned to catch the ferry over the river and ride the busy road to Tailem Bend, because the busy road followed the high side of the river with great views. I changed my mind at the sight of morning rush hour: at least 20 utes, trucks, commuters and mums doing the school run, all lined up for the frazzled little ferry as it shunted them, up to eight at a time if they were all little, across the river. I followed Jervois road out of Wellington. Jervois sat across the river from Tailem Bend, suffering from forgotten little sibling syndrome. The road hugged the bottom of the river escarpment. To my left old stone farmhouses looked out over the floodplain to the levee bank and the cliffs on the far side of the river.  Irrigation channels laced the floodplain: fat cattle munched their way through shockingly green grass and flocks of black swans foraged in the shall...
Post a Comment
Read more

Milang to Wellington: Finally Fully Loaded

-
Image
 I took photos down at the Milang jetty, wind snapping in the flags left over from Australia day celebrations, and rolled out of town with the usual wobbles that happen the first time you ride a loaded bicycle. Lake Alexandrina lay on my right for the first half of the day, although it was often out of sight beyond reed beds, dairy farms, hay paddocks, and vineyards. When I could, I took to little gravel roads to avoid the traffic on the bitumen. The field was poor for the Gate/Mailbox Creativity Competition. Points for trying, but lacking in the creativity department. Decision point came at 11:00 at the turn off from Mosquito Creek Road to Tolderol Game Reserve. I'd planned to camp at the reserve to break the ride, given I wasn't bike fit at all and I didn't want to get too excited and overdo things on the first day. But it was so early in the day! The wind howled and I knew there was nothing at the Reserve, apart from a bird hide and a picnic table at one of the sites...
Post a Comment
Read more

Milang Via Claytons Bay

-
Image
 We've tried to stay at the Milang Lakeside Caravan Park several times and each time we've failed. The MLCP doesn't have a website, doesn't answer the telephone, and when I popped in once I was met by a verandah full of caged parrots and no one at home. Today I can confirm that there is indeed life at the MLCP. Her name is Betty and she has no teeth, but teeth or no she was very nice and gave me a sheltered camp spot for a princely $20 because, as she said when she saw my bicycle, "You're mad!" I'm getting ahead of myself. This morning I was busy loading up my bike in the Finnis General Store car park while the wind howled and tried to blow things away. The morning was slipping away, courtesy of us having to do a complicated shuffle of things back and forth from our storage shed. A tardis would have been helpful. A lightbulb lit up above Roger's head. "Why don't you ride unloaded? I'll drop your panniers to the shed in Milang. You'...
Post a Comment
Read more

09-10/03/26: While Working

-
Image
Sadly I couldn't ride my bicycle along a river without an unwelcome but necessary passenger: work tagged along. For two days each week I'll be forced into accommodation with luxuries like doors, windows, desks and chairs, not to mention mosquito screens. It's sure to be a hardship but I'll put on my big girl panties and struggle through. The entrance to Villa Java, Strathalbyn, was guarded by the biggest grape vine I'd ever seen. There's a first time for everything: working invthe bathroom. Mind you, what with all the getting distracted by paddle steamers I still had to pack and tweak my bike so the two-day hiatus wasn't a total waste of valuable pedalling time. Now I'm all ready to roll tomorrow. And yes, the green couch was also in the bathroom.
Post a Comment
Read more

08/03/26 Goolwa to Finniss

-
Image
I officially started (again) at the mouth of the Murray. I even found a sign to make it all legitimate.  Roger dropped me off and headed back to Goolwa to watch all the sail boats come in to Goolwa on the return leg of the Goolwa-Milang-Goolwa Regatta. Unlike the dash-for-cash, they were really racing. He was happy. Pedaling an unloaded bicycle and with a stiff tailwind, I zig-zagged across Hindmarsh Island, first beside the Mundoo Channel and then past salt pans and derelict windmills.  Egret at the Mundoo Channel boat ramp. I stopped at the Charles Sturt cairn in the middle of the Island. It was around here that Charles Sturt and Collett Barker finally glimpsed the waters of Encounter Bay, thus completing their exploration to find the mouth of the Murray. Things didn't end well for Collett in 1831 though: he swam the mouth of the river to the Coorong and was promptly speared by the locals who mistook him for a marauding seal hunter who had been raping local women. Sadly, Col...
Post a Comment
Read more

Out On The River With Oscar W

-
Image
  ​​Back in 1887 Franz Oscar Wallin, henceforth known as Charlie, arrived in Australia after spent from ages 14 to 19 in the Swedish Navy.  On his way home from the Navy he got distracted by the merchant navy, hopped on board a ship to Australia, and never went home.  He settled in on the Murray River where he built and ran a fleet of paddle steamers. Charles and his wife Daisy had three children, of whom Oscar was the only one to survive past infancy. Charles had high hopes of young Oscar continuing the family business and named his newest paddle steamer 'Oscar W' after the boy.  1914 rolled around and young Iscar went off to war and never came home but the little paddle steamer that bore his name survived the advent of railways and the internal combustion engine and became a pleasure craft.  Crewed by a passionate team of volunteers, the Oscar W takes tourists out for joy rides on the river between the barrages and Milang.  Seeing as I was ...
Post a Comment
Read more