Uphill Downhill Scenic Detours

 Well, I wrote a long and very entertaining entry and then I forgot to save it, so now you get the short and grumpy version instead.

I spent a day in Murray Bridge doing admin and hanging out beside the river and going to the shops to buy things I couldn't fit in my panniers.

There's a lot of sunken paddle steamers in Murray Bridge.

The first bridge over the Murray was built in 1879, and in 1926 another bridge was built just for trains, because the cars didn't like sharing. Everyone was happy then, especially the corellas who has twice as many bridges to roost in when they weren't out making noise and tearing trees to pieces.

I had to cross the bridge on my way out of town.

The walkway was a bit squeezy for a fully loaded bike.

Burdett Road took me along the top of the river escarpment. Up here was all dry and bare and hot, with occasional views down into the river valley.

I found a lookout with a great view that compensated somewhat for the lack of shade, seating, and somewhere to lean my bike. I set out my chair, ate my apple, and contemplated water and green things. Speedboats growled up and down the river and birds carried out complex bird business below me.

Theile road took me off the escarpment and down beside the wetlands, where shacks dug themselves into the cliffs and dairy farmers displayed a distressing tendency to collect old machinery and scatter it willy nilly around their paddocks.

Pompoota Hall provided shade for lunch. The hall itself was shuttered and out of use, but the crumbling stone outhouse had a flushing toilet which flushed, and the hand basin sink delivered water when requested. I was happy.

Pleased with my detour, I rode up the hill to Burdett Road, and back down the hill along Wiedenhofer road, where the dairy farmers were much tidier and had time to paint cartoons on old sheds.

Footrot Flats.

In theory this was another pretty detour but in practice no sooner had I got to the bottom of the hill when I had to push (sorry, crosstrain) my bike up another hill back to Burdett Road. I was not happy. I was hot and all my water was warm due to the day rudely turning up the temperature. Being a glutton for punishment however, I took the first opportunity to go down the escarpment back to the flood plain again. Yes, you're right, there's another uphill coming.

Cowirra Swamp Road was delightful, snuggled up against bright ochre cliffs, while in the paddocks shiny black and white dairy cows munched on shiny green grass. I'll bet their milk was shiny too.

On the last uphill I poured my warm water over my head to cool off. I knew Roger was waiting in the motel and had already turned the air conditioning on. Then on the ferry a delightful lady quite made my day by handing me a very cold still-with-ice-in-it bottle of water, enabling me to be in quite a good frame of mind by the time I rolled off the ferry and Mr T told me I had to push my bicycle up the hill to the motel which was, of course, on Cliff Road and can we guess how it got that name?

Mannum's very specific claim to fame.

It's forecast to rain tomorrow. I'll be inside my motel working. What a shame.