Day 12 - Miningie to Strathalbyn - 101 km, 242 m - Ride total 1067 km

Space. Wide open space. Paddocks larger than an average NZ farm. All with very little feed and this is a normal season where the farmers are not crying drought! The landscape changed yet again to these massive flat paddocks with very little in them (not even gum trees) and then where it was near the water catchment and flat there were huge areas of what at part of the year would be wetland however at this time of the year it is very much "Dryland" and then surrounding these low, shallow dry lack beds are what appears to be salt tolerant shrubs and plants.

We were up and away early today as Ian was taking Stephen to catch the bus back to Melbourne from "Tailem Bend" - a 12-hour bust trip for Stephen, so this meant we had to have our bags packed into the truck by 6:30 a.m. Having done that it was off to the bakery for breakfast and then into the ride. This meant we were fortunate to be riding out of Miningie just prior to Sunrise and we were treated to it rising over the Eastern horizon.

In the lat couple of days we have seen a few cyclists riding towards us and given them a wave - as it turns out they are participants in the "Indian to Pacific" bike race - it began at the Indian Ocean at Freemantle and will finish in Sydney a distance of 5,500 km of un-supported bikepacking - they began the day before we did and the leaders are set to finish in the next few days - so anyone who thinks I may be a little crazy with the rides I do I can tell you there are far more nutty riders' out there than me! You can check their ride out with this link:

Indian Pacific Wheel Race 2025 Tracking - DotWatcher.cc

We eventually left the Coorong National Park on our left and after the extensive grazing lands we entered one of the wine growing regions along with dairying and irrigated farmland - We passed a huge "Turf Farm" and while we have "ready lawn" back home in rolls that a person can handle these rolls were half the size of the large round hay bales and required tractors to handle them. I'm picking they must be supplying sports fields or large landscape projects as machinery will be required to lay these rolls of turf.

We rode into Starthalbyn before 1:00 p.m. and as my computer was showing 98.7 km distance for the day I continued on past the pub where we are staying at tonight to have a look around and let the magic 100 km come around. The town is a lovely "old world" town (think Reefton - although considerably larger) - lovely old verandahed shops with a sense of vibrancy in the commercial area.

Not too many photos so far today (maybe some more to come after I go for a walk around town).













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