Day 4 Culcairn to Wagga Wagga 83.162 Kms

What a beautiful day for riding today. The weather was perfect with temperatures around 27 C and very light wind although it was in their faces still. Everyone was happy today enjoying the weather and the scenery. The distance was just right. I made sandwiches for morning tea with vegemite for the O/S riders, peanut butter & jelly for the americans and plain peanut butter & jam sandwiches for everyone else.

The scenery and route chosen was perfect for gently rolling hills, a touch of ruins and lots of animals, a few of us saw our first live emu and Dan spotted a kangaroo hopping down the road in front of him. The roo was going too fast and he wasn't able to catch up with it to get a decent photo of it. Poor Dan has resorted to photographing road kill to get pictures of our native animals to take home with him.

We arrived in camp around 12.30 and a few of us went straight down the beach for a swim in the Murrumbidgee River. It was a little chilly but we soon got used to it and was using it as a lap pool because the current was pretty strong. Fliss even found a water proof camera lying on the bottom of the river (we were going to see if Peter could fix it but changed our minds). A few have taken the cabin option tonight- Annie, Ben & Lew and Anna & Alf decided to upgrade to a powered site. It's a pleasant little caravan park with soft green grass to set up tents on. One thing that is really bugging us as a group is the fact that all caravan parks are locking their toilet blocks and when you need to go someone else usually has the keys. This is probably a necessary practice but as a group it doesn't really work all that well. One park had a keypad but they made the mistake of having a 6 number code and with our geriatric brain capacity we all had to write it down or ask each other the number before we could get in. Chris was getting a little desperate at one stage when she was putting in the right code but the door wouldn't open- she wasn't waiting for the little song to finish.

Lew is having a little problem with his back but is persevering with his riding with a little walking/running in between. Jan & Annie are religiously doing their stretches each day at the end of the ride. I haven't heard of any other injuries as yet.

Most of us went out to the happy hour and then stayed on for the $10.00 T Bone steak special at the local pub. Georg is attempting to eat steak every night while he is in Australia, so far so good and he has enjoyed 3 out of 4 steaks. Peter, Robbo & Fliss went to have Chinese for the healthier alternative.

When we came back to camp there was a large population of possums looking for food and were so tame that they came right up to us. Woody hopefully got some good photos of them. Good sleep was had by all without the trucks roaring past but we still had some trains but further away this time.