May 15, 2023
Day 5: Renmark to Meringur
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An easy start to the day, it's good to have a camp kitchen with a large undercover area to pack up and air the sleeping bags. It was a couple of kilometres back to Renmark, I'd seen a trailer manufacturer on the way into Renmark and this looked like a suitable candidate for a bolt to fix the stand. The guy there was very helpful but didn't have the right length bolt. He was able to put me on the someone else who was just as helpful. Stand fixed, new bolt, Locktite, $5. Ready to go. Just a bit of shopping at the supermarket and we're off. First stop Paringa about 5km away for morning tea. It was a slow start, about 11.30am before we finally hit the highway.
The Sturt Highway out of Renmark was a part of the trip the I had been dreading right from the planning stage but couldn't find a way around it. It's the main road from Adelaide to Sydney and has heavy truck traffic. Fortunately, the highway was nowhere near as bad as I was anticipating, it's busy but not as busy as expected. There is also a good shoulder for the whole distance we were on it. Riding is not relaxing with the constant noise of high speed traffic, particularly triple trailer trucks, tearing past your elbow at 110km/hr. The fact that it much less busy than I feared made it a pleasant days ride. There is a steady climb out of Paringa then it's straight across to Victoria.
It was in this stretch of road just out of Paringa that Annette found her flag, one of those things you see on the back of gophers. I didn't have a chance to fix it on straight away but she was keen to have it.
The next point of note on the highway is the Yamba Roadhouse just before the border, this also incorporates the fruit fly checking station. You only get checked on the way onto South Australia not out. For people leaving I think there is just a polite request not to take fruit interstate. As it seemed like water was going to be an issue we filled the bottles up at the bathroom. The highlight I suppose is actually crossing the border, I'm not sure why this always feels like a big moment, I suppose it's the sense that you're actually getting somewhere.
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We were really looking forward to turning off the highway but when your anticipating something like that it seems to take forever. Finally we made it to the turn off with 13km to Meringur. If we had enough water we would have camped at the side of the road but supplies were very low. The next option was to call in at a farmouse and seek alms, the problem with this is that out here the farmhouses are miles from the road, we couldn't even find a sheep trough. Pushing on to Meringur was the only option. I'm glad we did. I'd been there once before a couple a years ago and stumbled on it quite by accident. It's a small village with just a few people but they have built a Pioneer Village. This is just a collection of old buildings brought in from surrounding towns in the Mallee that have ceased to exist. Community Hall's, a gaol and Police station, schoolhouse etc. The amazing thing is that everything is still in them (bar the people of course). There are maps, school books, all sorts of stuff.
Most of the water was unfit for drinking, which had us worried for a while, but we finally found a drinking water tap and set up camp under the verandah of one of the buildings.
Today's ride: 78 km (48 miles)
Total: 332 km (206 miles)
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