A late start for me today, waiting for the last of the electronics to charge, in particular, the mobile phone that I need for a radio interview tomorrow.

But, by 9.30am I am on the bike, heading for Nyah, a small town in northern Victoria straddling the now very familiar Murray Valley Highway.

I am still a day and a half behind my schedule and with a couple of media commitments booked, one way or the other, I need to make up some time.

Thankfully there are no great hills, certainly nothing like I have covered in the first week and by 10.30 I have arrived in Nyah.

That I made it at all is a real mystery thanks to the lady in the brown Ford Falcon that came out of a side road on my left, looked at me with my bike lights flashing and me in a bright yellow safety jacket, then proceeded to drive out in front of me.

How we didn’t collide I don’t know, there could only have been 15cm separating us, but even so, with me almost leaning in the driver’s window, she showed no sign of acknowledgment.

On the rare chance she glanced in the rearview mirror as she continued on, she would have seen me wishing her well enthusiastically with a series of pronounced gestures.

The afternoon was spent riding through steady showers which at one point “forced” me to seek shelter at Wood Wood right on the Murray which gave me the chance to dart out between raindrops to take a few photos.

For the rest of the day, rain traveled along an ordinary country highway with me, making the roads greasy and more than a little treacherous at times.

Thankfully the traffic gave me a wide birth and I arrived in Boundary Bend around 4.30pm, wet, but none the worse for the day’s ride.

There is not a lot at Boundary Bend but do take the dirt track down to the river directly opposite the caravan park. It may be rough on a car, but your touring bike will love it and the river and red gum forest is beautiful from this vantage point.

Tonight was spent in the caravan park ($60 for a cabin) with a burger and chips enjoyed in the roadhouse cafe.