The Coorong

The heat had taken so much out of us the day before, we gave ourselves a break and hitched a ride from Millicent to Kingston.  Kingston is a town of 5,000 with a notable collection of we dubbed it Australian Victorian architecture:

Police Station

Courthouse

Sheep Ranchers' Wool Co-Op

Post Office

When we left the town we didn’t realize we wouldn’t see another building—-another house, another barn or even a shed—-for 85 km.  We were in the Coorong and would continue there for the next 191 km.

The road was straight, flat, and endless.  The small red dot on the right-hand side of the road is Carol...about 3 km back.

  

The first structure we came upon, the Heart of the Coorong Roadhouse, was the only building in the town of Salt Creek.  

It turned out to be our hotel.  

We were taken around back and shown our room (# 4).  

The bathroom was in a separate building 50 meters away, but it didn’t matter…because there was no power to provide hot water for a shower…or to cook a hot meal.

Distance	Elevation Gain	Cat 4	Cat 3	Cat 2
85 km	279 m	0	0	0

By the next morning power had been restored.  We ate a hot breakfast and set out for our next destination…Wellington.  Roger was struck by the endless sameness of the landscapes.  So he decided to take a photo every 20 km and see if he could tell them apart.

20 km into the day’s ride.

40 km in…

60 km in….  You’re starting to get the idea.

At 80 km, we hit a salt flat…where evaporation leaves a crust of salt deposited by high tide.

Finally at 106 km, we reached the Murray River…Australia’s largest.  

We took the ferry across and gladly checked into our hotel.

Distance	Elevation Gain	Cat 4	Cat 3	Cat 2
106.23 km	575 m	0	0	0