Saturday, November 24, 2007

DAY 50: Wallaroo - Moonta - Kadena - Wallaroo

Sat 24th Nov 07
69 km @ 16.3 km/hr

Lazy lie-in yet again; this won’t do, getting into bad habits! Not sure where I’ll be tonight but I’m heading off to Moonta about 16 km away. Quite a few grain lorries on the road as there’s a huge grain store at Wallaroo, where it’s shipped off to China, India, and the Middle East.
Whilst in the Moonta TIC (old railway station building below left) I met Geoff and Marie from Victor Harbour again, and Geoff generously reminded me to stay with them when I pass through in a couple of weeks time.
I hit Moonta by 1030 and soon after awaiting delivery of sausage roll, scone and capuccino at one of the local bakeries. Rode out to Moonta Bay some 3km away - there was a Caravan Park on the beach but the place didn’t look too exciting so moved on another 3km to Port Hughes, also a tiny place with cafe only, so headed back into Moonta again. I was looking for the museum but unable to find, signposting not so clever unfortunately, and I gave up in the end and thought I’d complete the ‘triangle’ of copper towns and visit Kadina, the largest of the three.
Kadina is a busy place and although there is an older and quite attractive centre, there has been much modern development, especially in retail outlets. I found the CP with a view to staying the night here but it wasn’t to be. the manageress seemed to take offence at me just wandering in to see what it was like, her questioning of my motives annoyed me somewhat, nevertheless I asked about a pitch under a shady tree, to which she confirmed that it was $24/night! There’s no way I’m paying that much - feels like a rip-off to me. That’s the highest I’ve heard of and I couldn’t see the justification for it.
As there was no CP to the east for quite a distance I had no option than to complete the circle and ride the 8km back to Wallaroo again. No sweat; it’s nice there.
On arrival had a good session on the free internet getting things up to date, as I slowly drank a litre carton of iced coffee, mmmmmmm.
Nothing much else to report, lovely warm sunny day again and fantastic sunset reprise at Wallaroo North Beach.