Wednesday March 12, 2014

We were up early to get on the road by 8:00 am and as usual it didn’t quite work out that way.  We both got chatting to other campers and got away by 8:40.  However, we have been invited to stay with a couple (Gay and Ron) when we go through their Town (Lara) near Geelong.

Today’s plan was to stop in Beachport for lunch and to pick up some provisions and then camp at Southend.  We did stop in Beachport for lunch which has a jetty that is over 770 metres long it was completed in 1882. Beachport has a very active rock lobster fishing industry.

We also chatted to two older couples about our ride, they had seen us cycling in Kingston.

When we were in Kingston the campground owner told us about the Woakwine cutting and that we should make the detour to see it.  Apparently a farmer wanted to drain a swamp area on his land and dug a cutting to allow it to drain.  Of course it also redirected fresh water to the ocean and damaged the Coorong resulting in the die-off of seaweed, which now deposits on all the pristine beaches.  When we were chatting to this fella about it, we thought it had happened recently, but it was ‘cut’ in 1957.

We came across the area today and were undecided whether to cycle up the hill to see the ‘cut’.  Both of us are glad we did, it is unbelievable.

The work was undertaken by two men Mr. McCourt and an employee.  It took them three years to complete using a caterpillar 7 tractor, a 7 ton drain ripper. Letourneau 8-11 yard scraper and explosives.  The cutting is 1 km in length and 28-34 metres at its deepest point it entailed the removal of 276,000 cubic metres of material.  Ralf cycled down the gravel road to view the land that had been drained.

When we got to the turn-off at Southend we checked on the map to see how far it was to Millicent and how far to the camp-site in Southend.  Millicent was another 20 kms away and the campsite was 8kms.  We were both feeling good, the weather was comfortable so we decided to carry-on to Millicent.

Today\’s route was nice, a mix of farming and coast line.  We also saw 2 more emu, they spotted us and took of in the opposite direction.

Millicent is a fair size Town with a Kimberley-Clark paper mill.  The Town seemed very quiet and when we stopped for a drink in the pub, the bar person said there had been two paper mills but one was closed down.  The paper mill and farming were the two biggest employers in the area.  Quiet a few of the stores were empty.

The camp-ground was a nice small site with a good camp kitchen.