I Think I'll Ride My Bike

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I think I'll ride my bike along a river.

South Australia, being the dryest state in a very dry continent, is slightly lacking in the river department. The state's longest and largest river, the Onkaparinga, comes in at a whopping 88km and for most of its journey is barely more than a creek.  That's not to say that South Australia doesn't have river credentials in the shape of the Murray, it just has to share the Murray with Victoria and NSW.  And Queensland, if you include the Darling and assorted other tributaries.

The Murray Darling River system starts at The Head in Killarney, a scant 200km from the sea but on the wrong side of the ridge to take the short route to the east coast. Instead the waters that fall at the Head make their way into the Condamine and start a long journey to eventually meet the ocean at Goolwa in South Australia. Along the way the river shows a remarkable reluctance to go to the sea, changing names, gathering tributaries, and losing itself in wetlands and deserts and channels, carving lazy loops across flat dry plains. Water gets sucked out of it for cotton farms and vineyards and orchards, and pipelines snake hither and thither across the hills, taking water to little towns that rely wholly on the Murray for their taps to work. The states squabble over the Murray river, all of them convinced that the others are taking more than their fair share. The wetlands and the fish, alas, are often drowned out (pardon the pun) by louder voices.

'Training' ride beside Lake Alexandrina,  at the bottom of the river system.

A sensible person would take advantage of gravity and ride the Murray from source to sea, but no-one ever accused me of being sensible and besides, I'm already at the bottom end of the river. I'll start at the Murray mouth and, legs willing, follow the river all the way up its tributaries to the Head. Uphill* be damned, at least I'll be riding away from the cold, drizzly southern winter.

Downhill: I can always dream.

*It's not that uphill. From the river mouth it takes 3400ish km to gain 500 vertical metres, after which the river gains 700m in the final 50km, soaring to the quite modest height of 1229ish m. I think I'll manage, even if I have to cross-train** a little bit.


**walk


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