Whyalla Welcomes Us With Sunshine!

We imagined that today's ride would be much the same as yesterday's but were delighted to be mistaken about that. As it turned out the terrain was quite varied with much more to look at as we travelled out of town and then through three different vegetation regimes.

Rolling through Cowell was a pleasure as we got more glimpses of the fine old buildings on main street. As we wheeled through the town, we dodged pools of water  which had accumulated during the short but heavy showers during the evening. We got away about 7:30 and there was relatively little wind and almost no traffic. Before long we found ourselves riding through a low-lying area with knee high mangroves on our seaward side and samphire inland. It was very interesting looking at the denseness of the mangroves in particular. The  road snaked through this area affording us views from various angles. A lone pelican glided silently overhead while we were right in the middle of this section of vegetation, which only added to the sense of quietude.

Soon we started gradually climbing and the sun came out. Di warmed up enough to take her rain jacket off ...

Di taking off her rain jacket

As we gained altitude we were able to appreciate more fully the landscape around us. We were getting views across to a low range of hills with a lovely mixture of shrubs in the foreground. The only downside at this stage was that the sky was almost covered with cloud, but the scene before us was so pretty I decided to pull over and try to capture the beauty on video ...

It was great just cruising along this morning enjoying the scenery. We had a bit more climbing than yesterday, which added some interest and meant that there was more variation in vegetation, changing from cropland to bush and then to desert. I think at just over 200 metres the highest hill we rode over today was also the highest point we reached during our time so far on the Eyre Peninsula, which I think will unlikely be surpassed tomorrow.

Here's a satellite image which shows pretty well the variation in ground cover throughout today's ride ...

Cowell to Whyalla

At morning tea I noticed this small succulent - which I think might be samphire - growing out of the gravel ...

Samphire (?)

It was about half the size of my hand. Captivated by the delicacy and droplets of water beading on its surface, I took another photo from above ...

Looks good enough to eat!

Despite the great riding, there were two downsides to the day. For the first time since we've been in South Australia we saw litter on the side of the road in abundance. In fact I reckon we saw more garbage in the middle 50 kilometres or so of today's ride than we've seen in the entire previous eight days riding in this state. The other downside was that we saw a lot more roadkill than we've seen on the Eyre Peninsula up until now. While we were crossing the Nullarbor we saw a dead kangaroo every five or ten kilometres or so. In the five days we've been on the Eyre Peninsula I think I only saw one dead kangaroo each day. But today I think we probably saw around ten dead kangaroos. It seems to me that this aspect of our day should also be a part of the picture I'm painting of our travel across the continent, so here's an example of an unfortunate interaction between machine and beast ...

Roadside casualty

Not long before lunch we passed by a huge slag heap from a mine not far from the road ...

Mine slag

A couple of riders thought it was the famous Iron Knob mine, but Collis - who knows this area well from much time spent traversing the continent - showed us on the map that it was a long way from where we were enjoying our lunch.

We had a nice downhill run for the first five kilometres or so after lunch but then a slog into a headwind for about the last twenty kilometres into town. Despite our relatively short stage of only 107 kilometres it was tiring work and we very glad to arrive, especially as the sun had come out again, the ground was dry and we were able to put our tent up in relative comfort. 

We're in a lovely spot right on the beach and Di took this photo from just in front of our tent ...

Whyalla waterfront

I think we're all a bit tired and will be glad when tomorrow's short stage is completed and we have a day of rest in Port Augusta. It looks like we might have a fine day with a light tailwind for most of the ride, so we should be there by noon or not long after. We will then be finished with our explorations of the lovely Eyre Peninsula and start heading southeast towards the wine-growing district north of Adelaide. Now that will be something to look forward to!