Day 277, Thursday, 31 December, 2009

Distance travelled – 47.3 km
Avg speed – 24.9 kph
Max speed – 51.0 kph

Wellington to Meningie

The weather forecast for today was for another very hot 40 plus day, so we left Wellington early with the intent to get to Meningie before it got too hot and wait for the cool change to arrive before moving on down the coast on Friday.

There is no bridge across the Murray in Wellington so all traffic must use the 24 hour ferry. We haven’t had a ferry river crossing for ages, when we started our journey we seemed to always be on a ferry.

The road south to Meningie is relatively flat and for once the wind was blowing in the right direction and we made good time arriving at Meningie just before 10am. 47km in less than 2 hours of riding! The wind was beating up the dust from the edges of the drying Lake Alexandrina and Lake Albert and the country was covered in a heavy dust haze. A total fire ban was in force and shortly after lunch a fire had started north of Meningie not far from where we had ridden this morning.

Just after 5.00pm the cool change began to arrive from the west and the temperature dropped some 20o over the next couple of hours. At least tonight sleeping will be easier in the cooler temperatures. Tomorrow we try for Kingston, 140km away.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

 

Wellington Ferry with the Wellington Courthouse in the background

Cattle huddled around a water tank between Wellington and Meningie with horizon obscured by dust.

Another SA regional picture sign

Denise climbing away from one of the salt lakes between Wellington and Meningie

 

 

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