Another long stretch without shops or services lay ahead so I stocked up with plenty of water for today's journey through the flat, rural landscape of the Victoria Valley. It wasn't all flat, there were a few mountains to climb over, notably Mirrinatwa Gap, at 33kms, which provided some decent views:
After another 10kms there was an 18km section of dirt road, which fortunately wasn't too rough:
The highlight of this section was a race with several kangaroos which went on for about a kilometre until they jumped off the road. They were reaching speeds well over 30kph.
The first town on the route was Moyston, at 76kms, which was supposed to have a general store. However this was undergoing redevelopment and there were no services at all there. I was relieved to still have enough water left to reach today's destination Ararat, another 17kms away.
Shortly after Moyston, at Pinkey Point, there was a historic marker commemorating the first gold find in the district:
I reached Ararat by about 1600 and saw lots of classic and custom cars driving around the street of this busy town. There was a large Rock and Roll meeting going on all weekend, and the tourist information office told me that most of the hotels were full. Fortunately I managed to find reasonable accommodation in the wonderfully Art Deco Ararat Hotel:
The town hall is quite an impressive building:
Distance today 94kms, total since leaving Adelaide 759kms.
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