Casterton to Dergholm. Um. To Penola instead.

The map shows the original plan – but it changed and I can’t draw another using the phone.

It was a wet night in Casterton and that meant cloudy which in turn meant warm(ish). I had a comfortable night in the tent but in the morning things was a bit wet.

The early morning cleaner let me into the Laundry and from that once dry area I was able to sort things out and pack up.

Took a while though and left the Laundry a clean but wet area.

Cycling out of town, slowly I passed these.

They livened up 40 minutes best forgotten. 4.2 ks out of Casterton the road stopped going uphill! Much of it needed bottom gear.

But then we turned onto a C road, the traffic stopped and the road surface was just so smooth….

Once the climb was over the road ran downhill for a while and then bottomed out and became rather flat. Roadside trees were full of bird life. Parrots, parakeets, raven and magpies. The white cockatoos kept up a squarking which ran from tree to tree as I passed. I think they were telling each other “Hey, look at this weird thing heading your way”.

With the showers I am riding rugged up as per yesterday. Not hot at any stage – just comfortably warm. The rain brings out the smell of the eucalyptus. Mostly great but the occasional tree is the gum that smells like Piss Ants. Every now and again there is a lovely spicy smell. What it is I don’t know.

Just after the sign the road surface changed to a smooth tarmac and a splendid hard shoulder accommodated the trike. For 3 kilometers!! After that back to no hard shoulder bit the smooth tarmac stayed.

So, why the change of plan? Dergholm was of interest as it was part of the Chinese Miners walking track. As other towns have yielded no information about this (and the weather isn’t too good) I decided to go the short route to Penola and get a cabin there to dry everything out.