Deniliquin to Barham – 55 miles & 40m climbed

So a confusing start to the day. I bowled into the local bakery and approached the lady who made sandwiches to get a tuna salad. However, the lady redirected me to a bloke (in a hairnet) along the counter who was to take my order. He did, but wrongly! Not to worry because the sandwich lady heard me tell him what I wanted and was on with it. However, she had no tuna! Either the trawler had not docked on the Edward River or no one had been to the local supermarket. So I had cheese, however, she did ask in distress (directly to me rather than through the bloke (in the hairnet)) ‘no meat?’ Sadly not but in order to restore her equilibrium I ordered a sausage roll. I feel wearing a former hat I could make manpower savings in the bakery.

With this sorted I got on the road and knocked off the miles. It was a more interesting run than the previous days with a few things to see including an irrigation channel! I even found shade to scoff the sausage roll and make a meaningful start on the Haribos.

Barham was a picture and if it hadn’t been so hot then a place to hang about in. However if the little town was lovely the campsite was sensational.

As I do I struck up a conversation with some older Aussie blokes, who kindly enquired as to my ride. In reciprocation I enquired as why so many former Australian cricket captains cried in TV interviews? This led to a suggestion that the title of ‘whinging Poms’ fitted well when we complained about the scurrilous stumping of Bairstow by Carey in the recent Second Ashes Test. Rest assured dear reader I corrected them on their understanding of events! We parted friends and enjoyed our bants. They should pass me on the road tomorrow if a passenger car door opens dangerously as they pass then I may have misread the spirit of our meeting.

Oh, and I nearly forgot, the sandwich was 6.5/10.

PS. The Aussies weren’t all bad. When I returned from Barham after a pizza they put in a beer in my hand and we resolved conundrums such as the vast quantity of coal fired power stations in China heating the planet (with Australian coal), the limited adoption of solar panels on Australian residential properties, how the younger mortgage holders didn’t know how lucky they were not to have had 19% interest rate mortgages decades ago and whether carp would eat a slice of bread if lobbed into the Murray River flowing past at our feet. All too soon their wives called them for dinner and I dived into the tent to look at the inside of my eyelids.