May 10th, 2011
Riverton to Clare
Distance: 55km
Total distance: 2670km
A mouse spent the entire night resting between the floor of my tent and the lawn. What the heck? I only discovered this in the morning when I try to locate the source of the scratching sound. Saw something moving underneath the my tent floor and I cupped it with my hand, it felt warm. My suspicion was confirmed when I lifted my tent and saw that little bugger ran off.
Today I started my ride on a rail trail which was awesome! The Rattler rail trail starts in a private farm, feels really weird having the sheep staring at me from a few metres away with no fence in between. The first 2km was easy to ride as the trail surface was relatively smooth for a dirt road. But right after that, it was impossible for my trike due to the lack of a higher ground clearance to overcome the uneven surface. I ended up taking the parallel road to Auburn, but the road intersects the rail trail at one point so I decided to give it another go, this time the trail was all loose gravels and totally uneven so I give up riding the Rattler rail trail for good.
When I reached Auburn, I took the Riesling trail, a much better rail trail than the Rattler trail. It started with a long and steady climb, and ends with a short gentle descend, which probably means I have a positive net elevation, looking forward to the future downhill ride! This must be the best known rail trail in the state. There were at least two dozen cyclist riding the trail when I was there.
The trail took me straight into Clare. Shopped for a bit at Woolies and went to the public library to sign up for the Internet access. I thought I would come back later as it was only 3pm and the library closes at 6pm. But the caravan park was 4km from the town centre so by the time I get there, pitched my tent and took a shower, it was already late. Good thing I didn’t return to the town as the rain came in soon after. The caravan park was just next to the info centre so I popped in to ask about the weather tomorrow. Looks like it’s going to be raining all day tomorrow and possibly the day after. Might have a rest day tomorrow although I’m really inclined to just continue riding.
