Soft Sand Is Hard To Ride On.

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"I'll ride my bike up the beach to the Murray mouth," said someone rather too confident for her own good.  "I did that two years ago and it was fun: the beach was flat and hard and the tide was out."

I rode along the river on the way to the beach, past private jetties with comfortable fishing seats.

Past the bridge to Hindmarsh Island, and along the new wharf.

Smartypants me should have a) read the tide times properly and b) not assumed that the beach would be the same as it was when I rode along it two years ago.  The beach was half the width of two years ago, rough, and prone to unexpected soft patches.  And to add insult to injury, the tide was coming in from a higher baseline than what I had anticipated.  I plugged away into a headwind with the morning sun in my eyes, resolutely looking for bright sides.

There were birds.

And a jogger.  Doesn't matter where you are, there's always a jogger.

Being the woman of persistent plan-adherence that I am (not), when I ran out of bright sides I stopped and turned around.  The beach side of the Murray mouth would have to wait until the beach decided to play nice.  I rode back down the beach (tailwind!) until I could cut through the sandhills to the barrages on the river side of the dunes.

Good-bye beach.

Life was much more tolerable on the river side, due mainly to the bitumen road.  I visited the boat ramp and the Coorong National Park.



Down at the barrages a desultory trickle ran from the fresh water of the Murray to the salt water estuary of the Murray mouth and the Coorong.  Roger came to meet me and we walked out on the barrages to watch the seals and pelicans argue about who deserved the most fish. Neither side was particularly commited to the argument, there being more than enough fish for everyone. 

Someone has eaten quite a lot of fish.

I rode back along the river and joined Roger for a coffee at the wharf.  The historic paddle steamer Oscar W sat quietly in the sun beside us, and sailboats slid past on the water. "There's a dash-for-cash sailboat race this arvo at 5," said our very friendly barista.  "And tomorrow night the Oscar W is doing a sunset cruise, BYO picnic."  My goodness, at this rate I won't get a chance to fit cycle touring in between all the partying. 

We went to watch the dash-for-cash.  It was quite confusing.  Sailboats came out and sailed in circles in the river.  Sails snapped up and down, sporting sledges were hurled back and forth, and after a while everyone sailed back to the yacht club and those of us watching on the shore were none the wiser.  

We finished our picnic and went home.

Home for a couple of nights: Aggies in Goolwa



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