DAY 120 - BEACHPORT SA

BEACHPORT SA

DAY 120


A whale of a day around Beachport and in spite of all the rubbish weather.

Beachport’s permanent population is only 400 (not including the crayfish fleet) and after meeting around a quarter of them at the pub last evening, all that was left for today was something of a guided tour as well some attention to important logistics.

With hosts Shannon and Julie leading the way, there was not much to concern about.

A nice change to the norm has been 3 meals a day of a wholesome variety as well as the comfort of a warm bed.

My feet have been, well…..freezing of late, to be blunt.

Such have been the low night time mercury readings.

My +3 sleeping sack has been struggling just some and no amount of sock layering can improve a thing.

Once your feet are cold, that’s the way they tend to stay.

With only 2 weeks left and some of Australia’s southernmost areas immediately in front of me, I cannot expect any mercy from the winter depths of July and early August.

Today was no day to be riding anywhere anyway – this much I know and it was never going to be.

Instead, the fun of the day was something of a family 4-wheel-driving adventure around the sand hills between Beachport and Lake George.

Not exactly your everyday cycling expedition, but a spot of tobogganing and Frisbee frolic was more the order.

Myself, my hosts and their 2 young daughters took on the razorbacks with couple of sand sleds and a candle, with some Frisbee-ing in between for good measure.

I can’t possibly see the harm in breaking things up like this and there may even be new skills learned, such as the art of straight-line tobogganing.

Any fool can sideways lose before wiping out at speed towards the bottom, as I found.

My subsequent bravado was quickly nullified by a 6-year-old girl who plainly could do the thing.

It is rather too embarrassing to watch and learn in these conditions, so I instead settled on gentle on-the-job guidance from the child’s father.

Before long, I was charging down in a straight line with not a mouth of sand to be had.

And how good it felt when the kid totalled on the very next run…..

Final stop of the day was the Woakwine Cutting - a massive gorge that was dug out of the limestone by local farmers in 1957 as a means of draining their swamp into Lake George.

The humble machinery they used is still locked up on site as a display piece for the locals and visitors who pass on by.

As interesting as the cutting was, it was even more interesting to see how many bounces a rock will actually take to hit the bottom......

On return to base, a pre-dinner winter swim was on in the family pool and whilst this may chill to the bone at the very thought, it is nice to know of it as an indoor, heated affair.

31ºC in fact and some intense spa jet action was as good for massage value as any $50-an-hour therapist.

After 6000 kilometres, I reckon it’s well deserved and as I look forward towards a certain destination closer to Melbourne, it may not even be the last.

First things first though and as my Beachport stay concludes, it is onwards to the city of Mount Gambier tomorrow.