Saddleworth to Watervale in the Clare Valley

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Pleased to wake up in the graveyard, and pleased we were the only ones to wake up, in the graveyard. What we weren't awake to, is that today is Sunday and yes the local brethren were arriving for early Mass. They seemed totally unimpressed that we had spent the night with their dearly departed ancestors. We sort of nodded and tried to exchange common pleasantries, like good ole aussie "G'day, just leaving now, have a nice day". They were totally dark on us, almost as dark as the storm clouds gathering on the horizon signalling another tough day in the saddle. No time for breakfast, the embarrassment meter has just gone off the scale, packing up tents like men possessed. I was later to discover that in my rush pack, I had left one of my tent poles behind, this horrible day just gets worse, maybe its instant karma paying us a visit for our indiscretion in camping among the dead.

And now its raining with a bitterly cold wind nudging force ten, making riding bloody tough. We decided to put our ripped rain coats on for some protection from the rain, and to give us greater visibility to the motorists. The road was getting quite busy and we were soon to learn why, we had crossed the "Great Barrier Highway", that leads north west to Broken Hill. At Auburn, we spotted the historic Rising Sun hotel, where the aussie poet C.J Dennis was born and had spent his early days. So we set up a round of drinks in his honor, anything to get out of this miserable weather. As we left Auburn, we were leaving the wheat country and heading into the Clare Valley wine region, so vineyards everywhere, maybe some more work for us. 7 ks' north of Auburn, I spotted a sign "Keep Watervale Beautiful", then I remembered a phone conversation I had with Kirks' mum Jenny a few days ago, telling me that Kirk and Bruno were picking grapes in Watervale. As I waited for Colin at the sign, I spotted two guys walking towards me, and low and behold It was Kirk and Bruno, it was great to see them again, long time no see since the Port Fairy folk Festival. They were walking out to throw in their jobs at the vineyard for some rose picking work Colin and I followed them out to the vineyard, spoke to the "Bossman" and "Hey Presto" we were hired on the spot.

After signing on to start work tomorrow, we rode to the sports ground to set up camp for the night. We spotted a softball game going on, and were invited to play a few rounds with the locals, first time for every thing so why not? With only 25ks in the saddle today, we were up for a bit of fun, smacking the ball and going for a bit of a run around the diamond. It ended up being thirsty work, so after the game, we found ourselves in Watervale Cellars sampling the local juice, very impressed, so impressed I purchased a few reds and escorted them back to camp. after dinner, we set up a game of euchre, whilst we sampled the "reds", before turning in for the night.

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Photos

Watervale Hotel
top pub for live entertainment and good times