Day 9 – Beachport to Kingston S.E. 94 K / 58 Miles

The votes are in… the sausages win. At least according to ABC Australia News. Today was Election Day in Australia. According to reports, sausage festivals are a traditional part of the Election Day festivities, and used as fundraisers for a variety of causes. Like in the U.S., campaign news and similar sounding negative advertising have occupied Australian television and radio broadcasts. It’s about 5:10 PM and the poles close in 20 minutes.

We have our own reasons to celebrate today. We have yet to celebrate a tailwind however, but today the road was entirely flat save for a few easy hills as we crossed the Wattle Range. The Wattles are low coastal hills that we paralleled for most of the morning then crossed in the afternoon. We were 10 miles into the ride before any change of elevation was perceptible. What did vary were weather conditions. Bright sunshine could quickly turn to a cold spray of rain in just a few minutes. 5 minutes later the cell would pass and a warm sun would begin to dry us off. At one point I stopped to put on my rain-gear and by the time I had on, it had stopped raining. On and off the rain alternated with beautiful sunshine throughout the morning and into the afternoon. The winds were light in the morning and our route was protected from the by tall scrub. We had a mid-morning break after 30 K out of Beachport. We stopped for lunch in Robe then made our run to Kingston S.E.

We are in a cabin facing the beach this evening. Just down the street is the Cape Jaffa lighthouse. We made decent progress and are all feeling better for the effort.