4-5th May - First Real Day of the Trip - Mildura to Wilpena Pound

I met up with Alan at the site of a large solar power project Lachlan Bateman has been involved with over the last 12 months.  We were staying at a motel in the centre of town and Alan had arrived earlier that afternoon.  We had dinner at the Mildura Brewery the same place we had eaten at during the Ulysses AGM.  The MotoGP race from Jerez in Spain was on Ch 1 that evening so we settled down to watch after dinner.  Marc Marquez won by a large margin with daylight second.  He is on a different level to the other riders and now has won the first 4 races of the season along with Pole position at each race.

The next day was going to be a long one as we planned to ride to Wilpena Pound about 600 kms.  The weather was cloudy and cool but no rain.  We took off early, planning breakfast in Renmark 137 kms away.  The road passed through wheat country and the sun would occasionally peek through the clouds. We entered South Australia under a Dunlop tyre arch more usually found at race circuits.

We crossed the Murray on a very old steel arch bridge.  I wanted  a photo and saw a caravan park on the banks of the river that would give a good view, but the owner took exception to me trespassing on his property and asked me to leave!  He then changed his mind and let me take the photo.

We had breakfast at the Renmark hotel right on the Murray, filled up and headed to Burra, an old mining town, along the right bank of the Murray.  There we met a couple of other Ulyssians who were heading to Alice Springs.  They had BMW 1300 tourers with large trailers and certainly wont be taking the same route as us.

We headed on north through Jamestown and on to the RM Williams Way and into the Flinders Ranges.  The hills were unusually green because of recent rain and looked more like Ireland than Australia.  We were booked to stay at Rawnsley Park Station which was in the shadows of the ramparts of Wilpena Pound.  We passed this local version of Moorag (with a calf) outside the Craddock Hotel.  The jagged profile of the Flinders Ranges are visible behind me.

We plan to do some walking and some riding though the spectacular Flinders Ranges including the magnificent Wilpena Pound.