9 Jan 2024
The first 60kms of today were on the Sturt Highway. There were some nice sections actually and the South Australia portion had a sealed shoulder that was half a lane wide, and then an unsealed portion that was another half a lane. After being passed by a few vehicles I decided I was more comfortable going a bit slower but further away from traffic on the unsealed portion. Once I got into Victoria there was only that sealed portion, which made it hard to put distance between me and the road trains, but I managed to get through it!
On this highway I passed another bikepacker, which is the only time I saw another one on this trip. He was going in the opposite direction and we were separated by two lanes of country highway, so we just squeezed out a ‘g’day’ to each other as we passed but didn’t talk. He had noticeably more luggage and a trailer on his bike, so he must be going through some remote areas on his trip. At the caravan park I ended up staying at in Red Cliffs on the 10th of January, I found out he had ridden from Ouyen the day he stayed in Red Cliffs, but they didn’t know what his trip actually entailed. In Paringa someone had told me people doing Sydney to Perth often go through Paringa, so I suspect he may have been heading for the Nullarbor. I wonder if he thought I had just done the Nullarbor! Probably not since I didn’t have as much storage.
At a rest stop I also managed to break the cardinal rule of the Australian outback: look before you put your hand somewhere. I grabbed my bike by the saddle to move it, and I felt a sharp sting, looked down and saw a black bull ant running away. I’ll need to be more careful before I do that with an animal that is actually dangerous! I also got beeped at by about 10 different vehicles while I was on the Victorian part of the highway. It put me a bit on edge and I was very glad to reach the Meringur Red Cliffs road turnoff. After that, there was barely any traffic and everything was great.
On this road I passed Meringur Pioneer Village and spent some time walking through it, it was pretty cool. When I got into Werrimull, I had a wrap while waiting for dinner to start at the pub and rested a bit after my 100km day. I also put my cleats back on my shoes for the rest of the trip. If I fall due to unclipping issues one more time though, I will take them off for the rest of the trip! Tomorrow I'm going to Red Cliffs and no further so I have time to do some laundry and stock up on supplies since I won't see civilisation for the 4 days after that.
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