Hello Headwind my Old Friend

May 6, 2021

Neitschke Road to Glenmorgan (via Meandarra)

My, the heater was nice this morning. With reluctance we packed up and returned to the car, which smelt like a wet dog due to all the wet things still in it.

Roger got the Western Road excitement today, with the added pleasure of a cold headwind.

He is under strict instructions to take at least one photo each ride. Somehow he manages to incorporate a road sign in most of his photos. Something to do with being a road engineer I suspect.

I left the car at Neitschke Road for him and set off for Glenmorgan via Meandarra, a day of distinctly three parts.

Part 1: finish the Western Road.

More of the same but a lot colder with heavy cloud cover and a head wind.

Dry land cropping: there doesn't appear to be a crop here, despite the recent rains.

A flock of cockatiels escorted me along the road for a km or two. I've rarely seen cockatiels in the wild, so that was pretty special.

Finally I reached the end of the Western Road. Part 2 of the day: turn left and grind into the headwind...

...until you get to Meandarra. They've put up a new sign since I was last here - the things towns get up to when your back is turned!

Once I turned west toward Glenmorgan (Part 3) the headwind became a crosswind with just a hint of a tailwind, and everything was sweet. The lollies I bought in Meandarra helped with that, too.

And the winner of Mail Box of the Day was this... Santa sleigh?... thing? I don't know but points for creativity anyway.

Not a mailbox but I gave them a highly commended for effort.

I was at Glenmorgan before I knew it, and the cavalry was already waiting for me.

Glenmorgan's only reason for existence, ever, was the railway. The railway's been closed for a long time now. The old man who ran his own quite extensive car museum has died so the car museum is closed. The pub is for sale. The grey nomads are zooming past the free camping in Glenmorgan to stay in Meandarra beside the creek and visit the ANZAC museum, which is open. It's all a bit sad, really.

There's always a silver lining to a cloud, or in this case an ignored free camping site. We used the free showers in Glenmorgan, rather than having to share with the grey nomads in Meandarra. Then we zoomed back to camp in Meandarra beside the creek, thereby snubbing poor old Glenmorgan again.

In addition to its other attributes Meandarra has a fine crop of mosquitoes, so it was off into the car with us as soon as the sun had set.

Today's ride: 50 km (31 miles)
Total: 536 km (333 miles)

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