The Eagle Has Landed - Bairnsdale

Hi folks, this will be my last post for this holiday (if you can call it that). I think it should be called 'Journey' as there was a lot of work involved by many people and in the overall stakes, not much down-time - so holiday no.
We arrived in Bairnsdale yesterday (sorry for late posting) amid friends and family members waiting patiently at the Post Office. The home-town was a very welcome one and had started 20 kms earlier on the road as we came through Lindenow to spot a sign that said "2 Pots, 20 km to go" in a bright red, white and black sign. Nick Stray had been busy in the morning strategically placing signs at 20, 15, 10 and 5 km along our route for the day as encouragement for this group.

Our first sight of 'someone loves us'.

Driving into town, I must admit, I had a mixture of feelings coursing through my veins with a roller-coaster of emotions:
- Firstly there was elation that we (the riders) had accomplished this tremendous feat.
- There was pride in a job well-done by everyone to bring all home with very little scrapes or scratches on them.
- There was sadness that now it was over and we would all go our separate ways never knowing when we might catch up to this 'family' we had loosely formed over the past 5 weeks.
- There was relief, I could now never-have-to-see-5:00am again for a VERY LONG TIME! I could sleep in my bed again and not sneak around in the middle of the night, feeling like a thief as we packed up the van and pulled out of the parks before dawn.
- There was even a calmness that came from actually enjoying the ride from Traralgon to Bairnsdale (or drive in my case as I drove Darren's car after picking it up in Maffra). The traffic was negligible after Maffra, the birds were the only noises we heard, not buzzing traffic. We stopped at places we were familiar, even calling on family: Darren's place where wife Pauline and Mum Bev made us feel very welcome and even supplied some lovely slices and cups of tea and coffee in a warm environment and then there was lunch at Stockdale with Col's brother, John and family.

Darren's home and he still chose to come on to the end.

After traveling the back roads the final grouping was made at Lindenow South before heading down Main Street, Bairnsdale and into town. There to congratulate the group was not only the family and friends but a big banner outside the Post Office"Congratulating Team 2 Pots". I'm sure the riders would have appreciated the thought from Nick Stray (agian) in presenting them with this.
All riders were to sign the banner and was presented to Tim, where it will hang at Tim's place, as a remembrance to this amazing journey. The other piece of memorabilia that Tim was presented with was the much treasured witches hat, affectionately named by Maureen, as Watson (Wilson's brother)! I'm sure these priceless treasurers will take pride of place in Tim's place and will be much talked about in years to come. I'm hopeful (naively, I know) that they may take over from the old 'Blues' paraphernalia on his wall!
I'll finish here and say thank-you to all the friends I have made on this journey. There were highlights, like all the border crossings, bush camps and funny moments that happened to all along the way and the very many and varied people we met. There were low-lights like riders falling off bikes, dismal weather,  disgruntled Truckees but overall the highs overshadowed the low. The scenery was magnificent (except at Wallen!!!!!), the food (Thanks Maureen) scrumptious with Paul even trying cous-cous and rice! For the 20 or so people that have been a part of this journey - some in for short times; some for the long haul, we have survived  - each other, our physical self, our mental self and our emotional self - at times all of these were close to the surface but we managed to come out the other side mostly unscathed and hopefully learnt a lot about ourselves in the process.
We also say goodbye to our friendly American, who still believed in 'Drop-Bears' until I came clean and told him they are mythical creatures (sorry team, I couldn't have him go back and tell his friends about this wild creature in Aussie land and be made a fool of by someone). Goodbye 'Cowboy' Robert and may your 'Shelia' keep you warm some nights in the USofA.
There are many stories I could tell you about like:
- Lande and her birdbath observatory.
- Frank and Cowboy nearly getting caught with their pants down outside a girls school while on the bicycle path in Melbourne.
- Robin (Doc) having to do homework on Alfred Howitt.
- Cowboy (again) stripping in the middle of the road to change his clothes
- Robin, Lande, Jesse, Col having to lend assistance to an old bloke in Morgan
- Sally's 'firsts' - UHF, driving caravan etc.
- Lande getting caught by farmer with pants down. (no one alerted her he was coming)!
- Maureen getting very lost up a street to know-where in the fog.
- The day "Tim's bum went Psycho"!
- David's lost wallet along with Maureen's glasses.
- Ray losing stuff or leaving it behind constantly
- Nick Sayle and the Workingman's Club in Mildura.
- Maureen's 'Sherpa shuffle'
And many, many more memorable moments. Maybe a reunion at a bush-camp next year is in order to reminisce about the 'Time We Crossed Australia" - farewell.

Breakfast last day

Cowwar - what a lovely sign.

Rolling out of Cowwar

Lunch at Stockdale with Col's brother and family

Last group rally at Lindenow South

What awaited the riders on coming home

Group - riders

Group - riders and support

Penultimate Day

I once worked with a fellow called Terry who always wanted to use the word 'penultimate' meaning 'before the last' and thought it was an appropriate use of the word today as we draw to our conclusion tomorrow on this epic adventure across Australia. 

Today as per yesterday was another sent to try our patience and resilience in these grinding last few hundred kms. 

The support crew left camp at 7:00am, following the freeway out to Berwick, where we were to meet the riders after coming via bike trails to this central point for the morning. We traveled well with nearly all the traffic going into Melbounre as we were going away from it, wondering why people put themselves through this horrendous traffic jam every morning and night!

We arrived in Berwick and the boys went to the corner to wait for the riders to come through, while the girls went to warm up in a nice coffee shop. This was all after an interesting time in the carpark following David's lead, going down the wrong way! Trying to manoeuvre Maureen and her big van out the wrong way ( as one very helpful person told me) was quite a feat!

Waiting, waiting and the rain started to fall heavily, wondering how the riders were doing, we then receive a phone call from Tim, informing us they had "hit a hail storm and we're now sheltering at a service station around Dandenong". 

Eventually after what seemed an eternity we see Tim and Darren riding up the hill toward us, but it seems not to join us but to get more clothing supplies to change into. They had left the group at the  Genisis Fitness Berwick (gym), to shower and have coffee to warm up. Once again hypothermia was making its presence felt and it appeared some people weren't making very rational decisions, therefore a time spent drying out and warming up was necessary for health and safety reasons, before continuing was contemplated.

Daren and Tim complained the hail had filled there helmets, where the slats are in the top and began to freeze their head, as in an ice-cream headache. Not good!

Eventually after sustenance and a warming sauna for some, most took to riding their bikes again, with a few opting out in the better part of 'lose the battle: win the war' saving their strength for tomorrow, hitching a ride to Traralgon. 

Tonight we have just come back from Tim's mates place (Geoff) where the group celebrated our last night together with presentations all round for the support crew and our USA boy. It was a great night of reminiscing over our trip and the sheer relief of having made it happen! As we head down the last few hundred kms tomorrow it is also a walk/ride down memory lane for some as we go past Col's old farm at Stockdale, Darren's home in Maffra, both Ray and Franks' 'stomping grounds' at Lindenow South before cruising into Bairnsdale hopefully around 2:00pm. 

Let the weather Gods shine one more day please!

Pea Soup!

Last night Tim made a speech and presentation to Simone for all the hard work and effort she had put into the logistics of this entire trip. Simone and Barry had done all the hard yards beforehand with reconnaissance of roads, stops and rest places and it is a credit to Simone that this trip has worked so well. I was on the understanding that this was the "Tim Trip" but found out last night is was a conglomeration of both Tim and Simone over the past few years planning and organizing (after a few ales, I might add) to get this trip off the map face and onto the bikes, so to speak.

Our start to the morning. Believe it or not there is a truck and car going down hill just in front of us!

With only the last few days of riding drawing to an end, we wake to what was to be the worry of my entire time this trip; a cold morning with a slight breeze coming from the south. I had predicted that this day was to be the coldest and was VERY concerned about hypothermia if not all riders looked out for each other and stayed together! Confusion and bad judgement calls were not wanted.
Alas all this came true as Maureen who was the forward scout, reported about 10 kms down the road there was a blanketing fog, with visibility down to about 20 mts in front of her! "Keep the riders back there" was the call. So we did, with riders heading into Subway for a cup of coffee. Much to my surprise about 15 minutes later bikes are coming out again! Why? We had heard nothing about how the fog had improved and Truckees had already been complaining about "why are there 'bloody' bike riders out on a day like this?" over the UHF. (I must admit, I was with them on this as not only did they appear to be endangering themselves, but I also felt the support cars were at risk, with the visibility down to a few metres: rotating amber lights, after-all, can only do so much).
Sally and David went on to try and find Maureen and stopped at a truck stop, where Maureen had been but has since gone from! The further we went the fog only became worse as David and Sally who had just past Jesse, stopped him and 'made' him give up riding as it was now apparent this fog was not going anywhere for a long time and truckees were talking amongst themselves about getting the "police out"!
The call went off "all riders to stop when safe and get off the road". Paul and I had been called on as the front group of riders (Col, 'Lande, Mandy and 'Cowboy') were still on the road when the back group had finally succumbed to the conditions. To catch this group, let alone to see them was a feat in itself - I could certainly see why everyone wanted them off the road.
We made the truck-stop with Dave and Sally, even though we almost passed it in the fog, with riders disembarking and making their way into the caravan. Temperature at this stage was 3.3C feeling like -0.8C! At least this group was in a warm, dry place with Sally making hot tea for all, unfortunately the other group was stranded back about 3 kms with only the support car of Tim's.
We sat there for an more than an hour, waiting for the weather to improve - it didn't and next minute we see the back group (well 4 of them) come up along side us. Simone and Barry had a friend who happened along to the rescue,

at least getting some of them out of harm's way, by taking them into Wallen 3 kms away. Then she came back and rescued John (who had already chosen not the ride due to his shoulder) taking him home. Lucky John!
The decision was now made - all riders were to put bikes in trailers and be ferried to Wallen for a warm-up and drinks. Thank goodness someone had some commonsense (a very underrated attribute these days).

After waiting another hour - now 10 a.m. the second play-of-the-day was decided -  to train it into Spencer Street. Too many hours were now lost in the day to try and make it up and the fog, although lifting by now was still extremely cold.
The support crew then went on their way arriving in Wantirna Caravan Park just before lunchtime. The riders after venturing into and around Melbourne have now arrived via the bike tracks at 3:30pm. Amen! for a seriously nasty day in Victoria.

Riding yesterday - wheat on the left, canola on the right. Riders in the middle

Yet another wide-load

Some quirky letterboxes. See 'Lande I did get it!

A Hard Day at the Office

The day started like any other: up at 6:00, breakfast, cleanup and on the road at 7:15am. Then the fog came in and made life as a support person a little 'interesting' as cars and bikes kept disappearing before our eyes only to emerge again a bit further down the road. Finally the fog lifted and although the car traffic was quite constant the trucks were, mostly, very well behaved allowing us plenty of room and making life 'in the fast lane' safe.
Unfortunately in every silver lining you have a black cloud. Today this was in the form of an irrate  Truckee, who Paul and I had heard earlier talking to another Truckee on the UHF radio about how "all bikes should be off the roads"!
When he finally did catch up with the group he said we should learn to get a car with flashing lights ( which we have), and that he'd had to brake severely to miss hitting us (which he hadn't). Paul told him perhaps he needed his eyes checked if he couldn't see our flashing lights and banners indicating "Riders ahead"!
Some time after this the first support car, driven by 'Lande and Ray was pulled over by a friendly policeman from Heathcote who had had a complaint about the riding/ driving behaviour of us by ... You guessed it, our favourite truck driver! The policemen was very nice (according to 'Lande) and said we should keep on doing exactly what we have been doing!
Both 'Lande and Simone pulled out early from the ride today as it was a constant ascent and with a head wind, making life on the bike a tough slog for everyone. Even Frank said today was the first day he had nearly "called it quits" but persevered until the end. He said tonight though " he is completely spent" and is not looking forward with any enthusiasm to tomorrow. (Hang in there Frank "only" - there's those horrible four letters again - 3 more day to go)!
With the the last 30 kms to go, Darren gets a puncture after crossing a bridge with a terrible edge to it.  As the riders were on double lines and about to climb another hill, the first support car had to keep going with Paul and I being able to stop safely a bit further back and lend a hand. The rest of the group kept going with Darren having to catch up at the next rest stop. After the repairs I have never seen a bike pushed with such determination, up hill and down dale - those big legs kept on pumping until finally we see the caravans and witches hat! Whew, that was some crazy riding.
The final leg was of course the most tiring as all riders were now on their reserve energy limits when all of a sudden in front of us I see "rider down". What a sickening sight it is to see as bikes are sprawled on the road, not knowing if the injuries are serious on even life threatening.
Paul stopped the car, (once again going up a hill and with double lines) put his green "see-me" vest on and directed traffic as bikes were untangled, along with the riders Mandy and John. Fortunately for everyone no serious injury was incurred although some gravel rash on knees, hips and John's shoulder might tell a different story in the morning. John also was a little shocked, but gathered himself gracefully and rode into our stop for the night - Kilmore. The sad part was that in the previous rest stop John had just lost his GO-PRO, as it had broken off from his front handle-bar. Imagine what this fall would have looked like if he'd still had it!!!!! Spectacular!
Please let all our bad luck be out of the way! Tomorrow we head into the 'big-smoke' where riders take to bikes tracks and supports go their own way. Till then...

Hello John. Farewell Inverloch Lads at Euchca.

Once again I had the support aspect of driving the Mazda (Gavin's car) as all riders took to the road after our day of rest. Simone and Barry did 125kms but this time Simmo's knee was to give her grief, so pulled out (let alone her chest is still sounding rattly). The ride into Euchca was reasonably uneventful, but Paul did find a battery on the side of the road which is still active as he has attached a light to it and the light is still on.
As the heading suggested we have another new member who has joined us for a few days. John is from Melbourne and is almost part of the official 2 Pot family (actually his partner is the 2 Pot person, but I'm sure he will fit in very nicely with the gang we have here).

Our hail on the floor of the annex!

The 3 Inverloch boys are heading home after riding with us from Renmark SA. Just when we get used to having them around, they fly the coup! Thanks for coming fellas - hope you enjoyed your time with us and safe travel today.
The weather held off until we made it into camp but has now just unloaded with a hail storm and the temperature has plummeted, making it extremely cold. A quick tea tonight and back in with the diesel heater will be the plan tonight.
Robert once again is wanting to write, so will hand over to him after I show you our pictures from today.

John - the almost 2 Pot-er

Rod the Saints fan.

Tim - the junior of Tim's

Gavin - the Ironman

Lunch break on the road

Love the socks Rod!

Rest Day at Swan Hill

Today was our rest day and people did different things throughout the day. We decided to start the day with a riverbank walk, learning the history of the place and its people. Hard to believe that the Murray River had up to 222 paddle steamers up and down the river in the1800s - that is until the railway came and the river wasn't used as a transport stream anymore.

The Murray River at Swan Hill.

The other claim to fame is that Charlie Gray came from here. I hear you say who was Charlie Gray? Well good friends he was a member of the Burke and Wills expedition with the sad reputation as to the first to perish on this ill-fated expedition.
After this we helped Maureen and Ray, once again, restock and sort the goods for our final leg of the tour. (Only 3 more breakfasts Maureen, please 'hang' in there! No I don't want the Cook's job - EVER!)
We then had a lovely lunch in downtown Swan Hill before heading out to an interesting museum in Woorinen owned and operated by a fascinating fellow by the name of Sid Brown.
Now Sid is quite a character with a history in Speedway cars, road Cycling racing - "never any good at the velodrome stuff". His hobby these days is collecting and restoring old trinkets and all sorts of memorabilia: from his Lodge days, old bikes to setting up his 1950's style kitchen!  He even has some tools built in the 1800's. He makes his own model cars, hand-building everything on them, even down to the chroming on the bumper-bars.

Step back in time to the 1950's. Sad, but I can remember the lino on the floor!

His collection started as a hobby as a young lad of 14y.o. collecting bottle tops of which he proudly displays in his museum today. His pride-of-joy is a hand-winding gramophone from the 1700's of which he displayed the talents of the machine just before we left to come back home. The 'cylinder' on which it plays is one of 100 he has collected.
The worth of this place would be priceless as he has put his heart and soul into the place hoping his daughter and grand-daughter will continue his legacy over the next generations. There is no cost to this place, just a gold coin donation of which he then donates to the local fire-brigade. He has been offered a great deal of money for some of his stuff but says "some of this has been donated to me, so I'm certainly not going to sell it and make money from that!" A lovely attitude in a very materialistic society. A genuine gentleman. Thank-you Sid! I'm not generally a museum type person, but this was worth the time and donation.

Sid and his collection of bottle-tops

I must mention also that as we were unsure of how to get to this place, Paul asked that I put the address into the Navman and the little lady in the machine would take us there. (He didn't trust my directions: but that is another story!) Well we did finally get there even if we had to go 4WDing down a water-logged farmer's lane, getting splattered with mud and looking like we just came down from the mountains. Ah, the joys of the Navman!
Tomorrow we leave along the Murray to Echuca so until we meet again.
PS - Don't forget to check-out Cowboy's Page for his latest installment - very funny!

Sid's Speedway days

The Hartman bike Sid restored. Only one in Australia.

Paul and Sid going over the finer points of the mechanics of bikes.

The famous 1700 gramophone.

Farewell Robin: Hello Swan Hill.

Last night we said farewell to our favourite doctor friend a.k.a. Robin as he assured us he needed to get home as some medical students required his tutoring, his dogs were missing him and maybe Ruth (wife) was missing him just a little bit also. ( Really I think he was missing Ruth). But as a parting gesture he gave his analysis of the the 'riding circus' with some funny and poignant moments enlightened on. His last farewell speech was directed at 'cowboy' Robert jamming as much Aussie lingo into his speech as is humanly possible. Poor old Robert sat there mesmerised, or maybe he was hypnotised as Robin 'swapped' voice for something resembling either 'Kenny' or Paul Hogan and gabled on for at least 20 minutes (we had to keep switching the light on at the BBQ area at least twice during the speech), using every Aussie slang word he could find. Even admitting he googled some of them! We all thought when he wasn't with us, he must have been reading but think secretly he was rehearsing this speech. It was truly hilarious and I still don't know if Robert understands any of it, especially about 'shouting' drinks at the pub! (Ask Frank about his 'shout').
This morning 'Doc' actually made it up for breakfast (first for the whole trip), which makes you think - was he trying to make sure we were really going, or was he going to miss us and needed to see our cheery faces one more time? Either way - safe travelling Doc, see you when we get home. Thanks for the time you spent with us, you will be missed. 'Lande will never forgive you though for the 'bird-bath' a.k.a. The Observatory!
Now this morning the day took another turn as we headed east again following the Murray upstream. I had the honour of driving today - a lovely Mazda, with warm seats and cosy heater on my side as well as the privilege of Simone accompanying me as she decided to skip today's ride due to increasing unwellness and her chest cold. (Doc would be most pleased with this decision).
All the remaining riders continued, even David did a few legs racking up over the 1000 kms in his personal tally today! Congratulations David this is a huge effort for a man of his age.
The wind most of time was to the riders advantage but occasionally a side wind made it uncomfortable and very cold, only reaching 15 C at 3:00pm this afternoon. The rest day is tomorrow and will be very welcome as the bodies and minds recuperate for our last week. All the group are tired and weary, including support persons, so home is looking better everyday. Just hope the weather holds out.

Danger! Danger, Will Robinson! or Tim Hack.

The sun gods forgot to come out and play today, or else someone forgot to say their prayers last night as as predicted the rain came tumbling down about 4:00am. As we headed out at 7:30am this morning things were somewhat damp underfoot and life on the roads added another dimension to an already tricky life.

Heading out with full wet weather gear on.

Firstly we had to navigate stop-lights (aren't they pretty on a dark day)! Then turned the corner to go over the bridge into NSW and here right on the railway line the group has stopped. "Get off at the line: slippery" came the call to others approaching. It's apparent by this stage that something has happened and the 'something' turned into Tim Hack taking a fall on the lines taking some skin off and definitely shaking him up. After a few minutes of encouragement and checking no real breaks in limbs he was back on the bike and heading over the bridge. Just then though Jesse goes off the road with his first puncture. Drama happening everywhere in the most treacherous conditions possible. Not only had the rain continued, but the temperature had dropped 2C from leaving the park and we were only about 5 kms into the ride for the day. What was the next thing to go wrong, as these things always seem to come in 3s?
With the NSW side of the Sturt Highway not up to the standard of the Victorian side (never thought I'd say that!!!) shoulders on roads disappeared and what there was, was degraded and very ordinary. Traffic were still an issue with trucks sending up spray, not only smothering the riders in water, but making them invisible to us as support persons - they just disappeared into the mist!
Shortly down the road, we spy Barry and Simone pulled up. Our third issue had now taken place as another puncture, this time for Baz, had occurred. (Actually I was rather pleased to see this, not from Barry and Simone's side of things but for the superstition of the '3' occurring: now we could continue without incident! (My theory anyway)!
Barry and Simone had lost a lot of time fixing their puncture, as Barry had to pull all the bags out of the trailer to find a spare tire. Rain falling, numb fingers, Ray getting saturated trying to help things were not a happy place, but they did soldier on for a while longer before calling it a day. Robin happened to be waiting just up the road and when these two riders were offered a  lift, they gratefully accepted even though it was with mixed emotions.
The next bit of excitement was when Tim H. kept getting his microphone on the UHF stuck-on thus making all communication with this bunch impossible. Paul even had to resort to blasting the horn to get off as a huge truck was thundering down behind them. Apologies made to the Truckee and we caught up with Tim telling him about the situation. After this it still occurred, at least the other riders were now aware and would let him know.
The final 'kicker' for the day is all of the support and riders missed the turn off into Robinvale as all went into Euston first, before realizing we were supposed to go toward Balranald before turning and crossing the Murray River one more time.
I decided life in NSW is not a good one, espcially for bike riders. Let's see what Victoria has to throw at us from here on in.
As a follow on from yesterday I would like to inform you I have now met all the new members and know a little bit more about them. Firstly there is another Tim in our midst and also Gavin. Both are riders from Inverlock with Gavin being an Ironman advocate. I guess this is just training to him! Great to see you along lads. I believe they are only here till Monday as they have lives back in the real world too. Enough for today - 3000kms down now on the last 1000!

Aren't red light pretty in the rain?

Crossing the Murray River into NSW

Where did those bikes go?

The closest thing we could find for Robert not to feel so homesick for his Houston!

Wind, 'bloody' wind!

Today was a hard day at the office as the strong northerly came in early this morning and is still with us as I write. Wind top speed I recorded via 'Willy Weather' was 37 kms with gusts up to 55kms! Riders - not so fast today.

Morning assembly at the park - 7:00am Renmark

The bridge out of Renmark. Riders had to go through the middle!

Now sometimes as you will no doubt appreciate we have sung the praises of the wind but alas not today as it tossed riders and support people sideways, sometimes into traffic which was once again an interesting time trying to navigate. Most people were polite, but as we entered Mildura some 'persons' became a little frustrated with all our "car/truck up" calls and told us to use another channel! Why, I ask you when many times all you hear are 'F&^%&ing' swear words between people in those big monsters bearing down on us? We were called 'Cockroaches' today - that's a new one! Oh, the joys of people traveling in Lycra on a main highway!
Our new people came in late last night and joined the troupe this morning. I haven't yet met all of them, but did get the opportunity to say 'hello' to Rod. Maybe tonight I will get to catch up with the others. As they came into Renmark late last night via car, 'Lande decided riding was not her forte today and instead took the more comfortable option of driving the 'new boys' car and in her best Principal voice said "Good morning boys and girls" as she cruised past riders struggling to hang onto their bikes in the side wind.
Maureen and Sally had issues of their own with trying to find safe places out of the main wind to allow our rest stops and lunch for riders. Many times Maureen and Sally were seen chasing lids or plastic bags as the wind whipped things out of their hands and onto the road while trying to setup. Dust storms, although small for this place were spotted at various paddocks throughout the day. Thank goodness for cropping. Rain is predicted tonight here - 90% chance of 10 -15 ml, so I guess the farmers are holding their breath as their crops wilted under the sun and wind today.
Well as you may have worked out we are in Mildura for the night. Birthplace of one very famous individual one - Nicholas Stray! Yes the proud parents of Nick brought him into the world right here in the Sunraysia area. You might remember Nick started this journey with us back in Perth but due to work commitments (and to keep his parents in the lifestyle they have become accustomed, by paying his taxes) had to leave us in Kalgoorlie. Man, that seems like a long time back!
Another state down tomorrow as we leave here and cross the Murray River once again going into NSW on our way to Robinvale, so until then - farewell.

The border

Riders leaving Renmark

Ah, grapevines - we must be near Mildura.

A love child of a yeti and 'Drop bear'! a.k.a Tim

Renmark

Our last night in SA and here we are in lovely downtown Renmark. Another superb day at the office, weather wise, as a balmy 25C with slight easterly breeze. (I wish I had those 3/4 pants though).
The riders all made it into town about lunch time 12:30pm where a counter-meal was had by most or the bakery as the other option - both were very nice.
Riding today was not as pleasurable as the previous day as the rough road surface and slight head wind made it a bit tougher than usual. Then there was the traffic! We were lulled into a false sense of security when traveling on the north side of the Murray River from Morgan where there was little traffic to cause much concern. Then we heard the call on the radio "Car up" from Nick.
"No Nick, it is just a green sign with white writing on it" comes the response from both Tim (riding) and Darren (in the Pilot-guide car). Silence until 10 minutes later "Car up" says Frank!
"No Frank, same as Nick - it is a sign!" says Darren.
Next minute there was a car coming towards the riders and no-one made comment, all too afraid it was another 'moving' sign. (What they really were seeing were the cars coming in from a parallel road that we were shortly to join being the Sturt Highway - main road from Sydney to Adelaide and boy, was it busy)!
The 'shoulder' the riders had to ride on if not wanting to be mowed down by B-Doubles ("not allowed to have road trains on this road" as Paul was told in no uncertain terms by one Truckee), was treacherous with broken glass and rubble making life in the left awfully dangerous.

Thank you Nick Stray for our extra sign - arrived via Aust Post and pickup today.

Both Paul and Darren stayed as Pilot Guides in their respective vehicles trying to give some order to  our 'circus' as Doc (Robin) likes to call it warning both riders and other vehicles with UHF radios of the riders ahead. Some were polite; some were not about our little band of cyclists. Such is life!
Paul and I picked up a banner from the Post Office today, that Nick Stray had made-up and sent to us. We are trying to keep a handle on the various groups as they split and a bit more sign coverage as "Caution Cyclists" when we head onto the Sturt Hwy again tomorrow and into Mildura.
Well it's time for some photo uploads from previous days so hope you enjoy.
Psst! I have heard on the grapevine we will have an extra 3 riders joining us for the rest of the journey. Jesse, Col and 'Lande's mates from Inverlock so no doubt this will add another dimension to our epic journey. 
PS - 'Cowboy almost got KOed by a kangaroo today as it jumped right in front of him. As Robert likes to say "He nearly was kangarooed!"

Some of the wind farms we found on our trip yesterday

The blade of one of the wind turbines - 110 mt long

The ferry crossing the Murray River at Morgan

Found these 'dead ducks' in the park on my stroll around! a.k.a. Robin & David

My next holiday - pure relaxation. No 5:00am on the clocks!!!!!

Paul, Robin, 'Lande walking through the Arid Desert Park - Port Augusta

David and Sally's caravan with an identity crisis. Mack or Western Star??

Morning tea in Burra with some of the group. This is where the ride yesterday went pear-shaped!

Enjoying a meal at the pub -Renmark - 2 Pots in full glory!