Besides going *away* from our destination, one story of this day was flat tires.

Given the head winds of yesterday, we drove all the way (126k) to our next stop, checked in, and then started our ride back. The first part of the ride back (from Kingston SE to McGrath Flats along the Coorong Preserve National Park) was boring, and dodgy – along a fairly busy road with no shoulder for the first 7 miles or so. And just as we hit the shouldered part, Patricia had a flat tire. The valve had pulled away from the tire when it was pumped up this morning. Jim’s Aussie pump doesn’t work well with our threaded tube valves, and pulling the pump off seems to destroy the valve connection to the tube. AND, unfortunately, we cannot get compressed air for another day or so – no bike shops in these little town.

So, after 1.5 hours (waiting for our support vehicle – for good reason, I should say), we were off again – *much* hotter than before now at about 1 pm, and not as much tailwind as we had hoped (but better than a headwind). It was a hard day – we planned to do 120k (80 miles), but ended up too tired just as we got back to the prettier part along the Coorong – a beautiful national shoreline park (darn), so we stopped for coffee at Policeman’s Point, and called it a day after 100k (62 miles). I actually had a flat at about 45 miles, so barely got in 50 – but not bad for the 3rd day in a row! And our average speed today was 15.3 – not bad at all.

We drove back to Kingston for a lovely dinner, and then out onto a very dark back road for a bit of star gazing – it was wonderful to finally see the Milky Way in all its glory for the first time in many years. (We had a FULL moon *every* night in the Outback, which Jim claims is the best, darkest place in the *world* to see the stars; DANG! He also claims that there is too much light pollution all over the northern hemisphere to really see the Milky Way anymore.)

PS – this place had a washing machine, and the best bathroom of all – newly renovated and roomy with a big shower and a big jacuzzi. (Few places we stayed, including homes, had dryers – they use ‘solar’ dryers – clotheslines.)