The shooting star burned a path across a quarter of the sky before dying abruptly. Less than a week ago we were still in Melbourne where you can see the Southern Cross as one of only a few groups of stars not drowned out by the light pollution called a city. But here, camped in the Mallee scrub, we can barely identify the Southern Cross amongst the myriad of other stars burning just as brightly. We have to find the pointer stars to be sure of its location. Minutes earlier we both saw the same shooting star and exclaimed simultaneously into the otherwise silent darkness. No need to make a wish.
Last Wednesday, our day jobs on hold for six months, we caught a train out to Swan Hill to kick off the long ride that will take us to Kangaroo Island off the South Australian coast, up the Mawson Trail to the Flinders Ranges, "up the middle" to Katatjuta and Uluru. Onwards, further north to Katherine, Wolf Creek crater, the Bungle Bungles, Broome, down the West Coast through Kimberleys and Pilbera towards Perth where we will follow the Munda Biddi trail to Albury on the south coast; then traverse across the vast country to return home.
As we left Swan Hill, we were already mixing it with trucks - Wednesday must be a particularly heavy freight day in the area - on the main highway along the Murray River, and it wasn't long until the sun was in our eyes telling us to find a camp before the road (or something on it) got to us. We pulled down a dirt track to one of Major Mitchell's camps on the Murray. The sky was an amazing blue with wispy cirrus and contrails, all reflected in this quiet bend of the river. We found a spot free of River Red gums; perched with their visible roots, barely clutching at the bank, like at any moment they'd dive into the frosty river. Collecting some native nettles, we added them to some cous cous and tuna; boiling them to remove any sting.
Early the next morning, three kangaroos hopped nearby, waking me briefly to glance out of the tent at them. I love the sound of their big feet, like a strong steady heartbeat. We eventually rise also, and head to Tooleybuc. The lift span bridge warns of its limitations, and the flock of pigeons that reside on its structure leave with haste and a flash of grey wings whenever a truck passes on it, like they know something we don't.
Later that day on the road, I unexpectedly witness a fluffy white chick being stolen from a nest by a large grey bird of prey I can't recognise. Mallee gums and saltbush watch us pass from the sides of the road here; the bronze of the leaves and bark suit the red soil underneath.
When we reach camp, down a dirt river-access track off Tol Tol road on the outskirts of Robinvale, and follow its bends to the river bank, a large flock of cormorants takes off all at once. The pelicans remain, big and prideful enough to stay put for the likes of us. There is no one else around, so we scout around for a prize spot. The river reds are the frame of any picture of a wide river with pelicans lazily drifting around like sailboats, this way and that on the whim of chasing fish; the occasional water plops signal a carp surfacing; the blue sky slowing giving way to sunset gold.
Someone else arrives and sets up a campfire slightly upstream. This is what the Murray would have looked like -- campfires along the banks, but of course the Murray has changed a lot since then. More recent history of the man they called 'Possum' - a shearer who hadn't paid his dues in the 1920s and too full of pride or shame to return to Irish family, lived on the Murray the rest of his days in solitary: sleeping in tree hollows and subsiding on what the Murray would offer him. He walked the length of the Murray once or twice, and even buried himself up to the neck once to get away from the mosquitoes.
"When we were kids, we used to catch mussels in the River Murray by simply standing up in the river, looking down at our feet, and kicking up the mussels we saw. The water was that clear. The carp soon ruined that." This is the story a man who may have been in his 90s told me once when I was visiting the area.
But as we camp in the now, we see the planets Jupiter and Venus aligned on one side of the sky, and the moon rising over the river the other, reflected in perfect facsimile.
Next, we are riding on the Sturt Highway - the mix of birds of prey circling on thermals and the vehicles of prey that drive below them. But even with the graceful flight of wedge tails, with minor corrections to flight made with tail features and wing, there is little space for admiring gazes skywards because the road is narrow and doesn't like sharing; lest we become prey ourselves. We are joined by spinifex grass now, nettled amongst the Mallee gum. Ten kilometres out of the next town we spot some bush down a dirty road, so head in to make camp. The stunning sunset was the opening act before the main show: the star filled dome.
The next day we rode along a quiet, remote C-route to get to the Murray Sunset National Park. In the afternoon we were stopped for a snack, when a man in a ute pulled up on the wrong side of the road to lean out his window and say in a gruff voice "Where ya headed?". If that isn't a scene from "Wolfe Creek 15: Why do we even still have tourism" I don't know what is.
After the final 10 km of gravel track, we make it to the Murray Sunset park at sundown. The stars gradually arrive for their shift and we glance up every 5 minutes or so and get blown away again by their number and beauty. As we get into the tent, a huge orange moon rises from the low scrub; but it isn't long before we sleep.
Next morning, crossing the border into South Australia and making it through the quarantine checkpoint, we head towards the bogan centre that is Loxton, via a C-road, to get supplies for the next few days where we won't see many services. We're heading down the Karoonda Highway, which is a rail-trail of sorts: the road running close enough to the no-longer-used track most of the time, with localities (no longer towns) spaced about 10 miles (16 km apart). Karoonda is aboriginal for 'winter camp' according to Google, so it seems appropriate. The road is fairly quiet and has green parrots and wedge tails to keep my interest. After 90 km we find the bush camp with the shooting stars and satellites I mentioned earlier.
Next day we have some rain and headwinds. I spot some mammatus clouds that look a lot like a face - with puffy cheeks and a mouth. Out of the mouth sprouts a rainbow. A technicolour yawn cloud! A truck barrels towards me, bringing with it a cloud of water vapour it has picked up along the way from the wet road. I pass into the cloud of wet and turbulance like it might consume me. We are still on the Karoonda highway and make it into the town of its namesake in the afternoon, emptying it of its snackfoods on approach. This is a land of Poll Merino stud farms and wheat. Karoonda is the only town of consequence on the line, with huge silos taking the harvest from the grain trucks that pour it in over a grid at the bottom of the silos. The town is pretty much just a service station and a IGA store.
The headwinds have been wearing us out slowly like a slow release poison, but as we leave town the headwinds have kicked up a few notches - the grass on the side of the road is now at 45 degrees. Not far out of town I pull into a siding and we carry out bikes over the railway line to camp on the edge of a plot of pasture. We are exhausted and merely stare at the ground before mustering the will to pitch camp and cook food.
Recovered, the next sun up we continue on to Tailem Bend to cross the Murray on the ferry (after visiting the bakery), and then on to Wellington, whose pub overlooks another ferry crossing (and whose beer and fish burgers I can recommend). We then skirt around Lake Alexandria to head into Langhorne Creek where to take camp at a roadside stop.
The stars are still amazing at night here. We are about 60 km from Port Elliot where we will "port" for 2 nights, and do some whale watching if we are lucky. We are looking forward to Kangaroo Island and the promise of more golden sunsets and star-filled nights.
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Wednesday, July 8, 2015
Gone like a shooting star
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Next big trip!
Between 1 July 2015 and 31 December 2015 we are riding from Melbourne to
- Kangaroo Island and Adelaide
- Mawson Trail to Flinders Ranges
- Uluru - Katajuka
- Katherine
- Broome
- Perth
- Munda Biddi trail
- Adelaide
- Melbourne
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
#microadventure weekends
In amongst some weeknight 5-9 microadventures (as inspired by Alistair Humphreys), we've been doing a lot of weekend microadventures too.
Here's the last 4 weekend microadventures...
Caught the train out to some bushland on Thursday night, arriving in the dark and camped overnight. Went to sleep with Mopoke owls hooting. Woke to find ourselves surrounded by brilliant yellow wattles in full bloom in the early morning auburn light.
Later... rode along the Bellarine Rail trail to Queenscliffe and kept riding to Barwon Heads where we camped two nights, enjoying the coastal scenery.
Finally, on Sunday, rode back along the Bellarine Rail trail - racing the steam train between Queenscliffe and Drysdale -- we won! - and headed home.
Saturday morning, caught up with friends in Colac and rode the Colac to Beech Forest rail trail. Saw a few swamp wallabies on the way. Camped over night in a cricket oval under some great stars. Went for a walk that night and spotted some glow worms in the railway cutting.
Rode back to Colac and trained home on Sunday.
Thursday 18th - Sunday 21st September
Caught the train out to Woodend and enjoyed a couple of dark beers at Holgate brewery. Camped in the nearby oval with brilliant stars. Saw a single shooting star before drifting off to sleep. Woke with frost on the bivy. Rode out to Hanging Rock after some bakery breakfast(s), managing to time it so we were walking out when a school group walked in so we had the place to ourselves.
Rode back into Woodend and then headed out to Wombat State Forest on some great fire trail type roads. We camped overnight in the beautiful forest.
The next day we found a great billabong. We kept riding, stopping at Trentham for lunch. Riding the Domino rail trail into Lyonville, to visit a friend at her rural property. Dinner at Radio Springs and camped overnight.
Rode back along the rail trail, another lunch in Trentham, and back to Woodend for the train home.
Here's the last 4 weekend microadventures...
Thursday 4th - Sunday 7th September
Caught the train out to some bushland on Thursday night, arriving in the dark and camped overnight. Went to sleep with Mopoke owls hooting. Woke to find ourselves surrounded by brilliant yellow wattles in full bloom in the early morning auburn light.
Later... rode along the Bellarine Rail trail to Queenscliffe and kept riding to Barwon Heads where we camped two nights, enjoying the coastal scenery.
Finally, on Sunday, rode back along the Bellarine Rail trail - racing the steam train between Queenscliffe and Drysdale -- we won! - and headed home.
Friday 12th - Sunday 14th September
Friday night caught the train out to Colac, rode a few km in the dark out to Meredith Park where you can bivy on the sandy edge of the shimmering Lake Colac.Saturday morning, caught up with friends in Colac and rode the Colac to Beech Forest rail trail. Saw a few swamp wallabies on the way. Camped over night in a cricket oval under some great stars. Went for a walk that night and spotted some glow worms in the railway cutting.
Rode back to Colac and trained home on Sunday.
Thursday 18th - Sunday 21st September
Caught the train out to Woodend and enjoyed a couple of dark beers at Holgate brewery. Camped in the nearby oval with brilliant stars. Saw a single shooting star before drifting off to sleep. Woke with frost on the bivy. Rode out to Hanging Rock after some bakery breakfast(s), managing to time it so we were walking out when a school group walked in so we had the place to ourselves.
Rode back into Woodend and then headed out to Wombat State Forest on some great fire trail type roads. We camped overnight in the beautiful forest.
The next day we found a great billabong. We kept riding, stopping at Trentham for lunch. Riding the Domino rail trail into Lyonville, to visit a friend at her rural property. Dinner at Radio Springs and camped overnight.
Rode back along the rail trail, another lunch in Trentham, and back to Woodend for the train home.
Friday 26th - Sunday 28th September
Caught the train out to Frankston and rode along the Baxter rail trail to some bushland where we camped over night. Woke to a beautiful sunrise.
Rode to Flinders to eat fish burgers above the pier for lunch.
Rode onto Dromana right when it was Grand Final time for the quiet roads. Stopped at Red Hill Mont cidery on the way. Rolled rather quickly down Arthurs Seat road with a very nice dry cider in the belly, putting the fun into it.
Enjoyed a friends raucous birthday party at Dromana. Camped overnight in backyard.
Rode to Bittern (via lunch at Red Hill) to catch some trains back home.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Swan Hill to Adelaide
In order to attend the Velo City international bicycle advocacy conference in Adelaide, Simon and I decided to catch a train to Swan Hill and ride through the Mallee to get to Adelaide.
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Tuesday 20th May 2014
We intended to catch the 7:42am vline train from Southern Cross to Swan Hill but a school group with about two items of baggage each arrived before us and took up all the room in the baggage car. As there was no room left two bicycles we were given refunds on our tickets. This put a spanner in our works from the get-go. We instead booked tickets on the 6pm vline train to Southern Cross, vowing to arrive at least 30 minutes early and thus be the first items of baggage on the car. We spent the rest of our time catching a train to Frankston, riding a rail trail to Langwarrin park, riding around the dirt tracks, riding back, eating fish and chips, catching the train back to Melbourne and waiting for the 6pm train. We managed to get on that later train, arriving in Swan Hill around ELEVEN PM. We then saw the sights (the giant thing on the side of the road) and rode out of town to camp in a bushland reserve at the locality called Woorenin South about 14 km north west along the relatively quiet Woorenin road. On the ride out there was a clear sky with a great spray of stars and then an amazing bright orange half moon camp up behind us to chase us all the way to camp.
Wednesday 21 May 2014
Because we lost a day due to the train drama, we decided to show up in Adelaide a day later than planned and miss a talk that was related to but not officially part of the conference on the Monday 26th. And because we had an idea of the spots we already wanted to camp along the way we had a pretty lazy day of riding up Woorenin-Vinifera road (nice and quiet) to the Nyah-Vinifera park on the Murray river were we spent the rest of the morning lazing by the river under the river red gums and reading books.
At lunch time we got some lunch at roadhouse at Chinkapook-Nyah West road (which has an 'internet cafe' with a strict policy on attire "all computer users must wear shirts"). The afternoon was spent riding along the Chinkapook-Nyah West road in 27 degrees and a bit of a headwind. We arrived at Chinkapook in the afternoon, but too hot to continue, and despite the infuriating flies, we camped early behind the Chinkapook public hall (which has a handy, most required water tank).
Thursday 22nd May 2014
We turned right onto the Robinvale-Sea Lake road, we rode 5km up this road and then turned left into Chinkapook-Mittyack Rd which we rode this about an hour until it put us on the Calder Hwy. Another hot, headwindy day. By the time we had 10 km left until Ouyen we were already feeling pretty wrecked. Lunch in Ouyen at the Fairy Dell on Oke st (burgers with the lot), then back onto the Calder for another 37 km to the Hattah roadhouse where I had an icecream. Another 10 or 15 km we finally make it to the camp for the night, in Hattah Kilkyne NP on the boundary of the park, down a track. Lovely Mallee but the flies and mosquitoes were extremely attracted to us. 120 km under out belt for the day seemed our fill, arriving at camp after dark.
Friday 23rd May 2014
This was always going to be a big day on the road for us. We awoke as early as we could, rode the 33 km into Red Cliffs to stock up on water and have a second breakfast, then back out 2 k to meet the Red Cliffs-Meringur Rd C254 -- a long straight road into headwinds, through a mix of Mallee scrub and agriculture. We arrived at the Werrimull pub in the afternoon, with the thermometer on the wall under the cover stating it was 32 degrees. There was beer. I had a puncture to fix. We looked pretty sorry for ourselves. Riding on until we got to Meringur, we turn north on a lovely quiet road with only a few rises, to get to the Sturt Highway. Its getting pretty dark at this stage, so hi-viz goes on and lights. We ride on and on, next to the busy traffic of the Sturt until we get to the Walla Walla track in the Murray Sunset NP, after 145 km of riding on a hot day in a headwind. We find a patch of dirt to lay our bivy bags. At 2.30am we're awaken by a b-double truck pulling up 50 metres away, and another vehicle. They start having a conversation - a loud conversation with much swearing and generally appearing not really friendly types. My bladder decides it is time to pee but I don't want to wander around until these guys have left so I return to slumber but then I'm awaken by a nearby gunshot. And then another few. After the first shot woke me I was peering out into the dark. After I saw the flash with the second shot I started shaking and couldn't stop myself for about 30 minutes. After 1 hour and a half of missed sleep, 8 gunshots and they even let off some fireworks no less, the several times when they started the truck and then stopped it again (much to my chagrin) they finally left us in peace. And I can finally get up and pee without being accidentally shot. That was not a night when we recovered from riding 145km in a headwind.
Saturday 24th May 2014
After breakfast we went down the track from where we camped to look for evidence of last nights shots and fireworks. I managed to find the wrapper for the fireworks.
We rode into Loxton, which is an extremely bogan town for lunch, then headed onto Wunkar Road, which we hoped would be a quiet b-road heading west -- an alternative to the busy Sturt Highway. Little did we know that it would be swarming with motorbikes heading towards the pub at Wunkar -- the Golden Grain Tavern. The road is a fairly dry, desolate, straight one that cuts through Mallee country and pastoral land including wheat fields. It was pretty dystopian into a bit of a headwind.
At one point we were even passed at about 160 km/h by a Mad Max car replica, with six large Kawasakis on its tail. When we got to the turn off to the pub we could see a crowd of bikers in gathered the driveway and I was daring Simon to ride in and go for a drink. He decided it was getting late and we should keep riding. Coward. They look friendly!
We kept riding into the night and finally found a conservation reserve in the mallee to camp for the night. Laying in our bivy bags we heard the occassional gunshot and firework going off, presumably from the Wunkar tavern, but the night was mostly peaceful.
Sunday 25th May 2014
We ride into Swan Reach, have a roadhouse breakfast, and cross the Murray on the free ferry.
Then we ride on a nice and quiet road through beautiful Mallee scrub to the pub at Sedan.
They were putting on a feast there of burgers with salad and pasta for about $7 so we ate there and had a beer. At some point the pub was buzzed by a light aircraft. I'm not sure why but probably just goes with the gunshooting, fireworking countryside we're riding through.
If I had known about the hill climb coming up -- Sedan Hill -- I probably wouldn't have had that beer. I think it was two kilometres of pure misery for me because I'm severely anemic at the moment and really struggled up this one. The view was great but it really did make me want to cry. But I made it up the stupid hill.
Then it was some sweeping downhills to enjoy, riding into Keyneton, then turning to head towards Eden Hill. Unfortunately we ended up on a main road with no shoulder and a lot of end-of-weekend traffic coming back from some motor racing event with cars pulling cars on trailers and no idea how to share a road or pass safely. There were these signs for "Cycle Friendly Barossa" on the side of the road that I just laughed at.
Then turning again off that busy road once we made it to Springton to ride up another stupid, but fortunately short, hill -- which actually congratulates the bike rider for having ridden up it -- followed by a curving road through farmland that we continued riding until dark, when we camped by a fairly dry river.
Monday 26th May 2014
Riding into Williamstown, for breakfast, then headed towards Gawler to get on the Stuart O' Grady path, which is a decent off-road path beside the Northern Expressway.
Unfortunately this path dumps you straight on the Port Wakefield road (basically the Princes Freeway) and you get to ride some rather amusingly (not amusing at all) bike lane (rubbish shoulder with no decent surface, glass and debris everywhere, cars parked in it and running next to a three lane freeway doing 110 km/h) with bicycle symbols painted in it.
Suddenly this "bicycle lane" ends and you have a stripe of yellow paint to ride on between a metal road barrier and three lanes of cars travelling at 110 km/h and refusing to pass you safely, occasionally honking at you in the manner they like to do. We get off this apocalypse of a road as soon as we are able and pick our way into the "cycling utopia" (I AM JOKING) that is Adelaide city where I am nearly driven off the road repeatedly until we make it to our hotel. We are in Adelaide to attend an international cycling conference (with 600 delegates from across the planet, including Europe) where Australia shows the world just how far it is Australia has to come in basically not (literally) killing one mode of its transport system. Embarrassing.
But we did win the accommodation prize, so we get to arrive smelling like dirty socks and with bikes covered with dirt to the clean-pressed but unimpressed concierge at a flash hotel for our $300 a night accommodation, whom we ask politely through the holes in our dirty faces can we please take our bikes up to our room on the 8th floor. And they let us!
View Larger Map
Tuesday 20th May 2014
We intended to catch the 7:42am vline train from Southern Cross to Swan Hill but a school group with about two items of baggage each arrived before us and took up all the room in the baggage car. As there was no room left two bicycles we were given refunds on our tickets. This put a spanner in our works from the get-go. We instead booked tickets on the 6pm vline train to Southern Cross, vowing to arrive at least 30 minutes early and thus be the first items of baggage on the car. We spent the rest of our time catching a train to Frankston, riding a rail trail to Langwarrin park, riding around the dirt tracks, riding back, eating fish and chips, catching the train back to Melbourne and waiting for the 6pm train. We managed to get on that later train, arriving in Swan Hill around ELEVEN PM. We then saw the sights (the giant thing on the side of the road) and rode out of town to camp in a bushland reserve at the locality called Woorenin South about 14 km north west along the relatively quiet Woorenin road. On the ride out there was a clear sky with a great spray of stars and then an amazing bright orange half moon camp up behind us to chase us all the way to camp.
Wednesday 21 May 2014
Because we lost a day due to the train drama, we decided to show up in Adelaide a day later than planned and miss a talk that was related to but not officially part of the conference on the Monday 26th. And because we had an idea of the spots we already wanted to camp along the way we had a pretty lazy day of riding up Woorenin-Vinifera road (nice and quiet) to the Nyah-Vinifera park on the Murray river were we spent the rest of the morning lazing by the river under the river red gums and reading books.
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| Mighty Murray |
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| Amongst the River Reds |
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| Tough life |
At lunch time we got some lunch at roadhouse at Chinkapook-Nyah West road (which has an 'internet cafe' with a strict policy on attire "all computer users must wear shirts"). The afternoon was spent riding along the Chinkapook-Nyah West road in 27 degrees and a bit of a headwind. We arrived at Chinkapook in the afternoon, but too hot to continue, and despite the infuriating flies, we camped early behind the Chinkapook public hall (which has a handy, most required water tank).
Thursday 22nd May 2014
We turned right onto the Robinvale-Sea Lake road, we rode 5km up this road and then turned left into Chinkapook-Mittyack Rd which we rode this about an hour until it put us on the Calder Hwy. Another hot, headwindy day. By the time we had 10 km left until Ouyen we were already feeling pretty wrecked. Lunch in Ouyen at the Fairy Dell on Oke st (burgers with the lot), then back onto the Calder for another 37 km to the Hattah roadhouse where I had an icecream. Another 10 or 15 km we finally make it to the camp for the night, in Hattah Kilkyne NP on the boundary of the park, down a track. Lovely Mallee but the flies and mosquitoes were extremely attracted to us. 120 km under out belt for the day seemed our fill, arriving at camp after dark.
Friday 23rd May 2014
This was always going to be a big day on the road for us. We awoke as early as we could, rode the 33 km into Red Cliffs to stock up on water and have a second breakfast, then back out 2 k to meet the Red Cliffs-Meringur Rd C254 -- a long straight road into headwinds, through a mix of Mallee scrub and agriculture. We arrived at the Werrimull pub in the afternoon, with the thermometer on the wall under the cover stating it was 32 degrees. There was beer. I had a puncture to fix. We looked pretty sorry for ourselves. Riding on until we got to Meringur, we turn north on a lovely quiet road with only a few rises, to get to the Sturt Highway. Its getting pretty dark at this stage, so hi-viz goes on and lights. We ride on and on, next to the busy traffic of the Sturt until we get to the Walla Walla track in the Murray Sunset NP, after 145 km of riding on a hot day in a headwind. We find a patch of dirt to lay our bivy bags. At 2.30am we're awaken by a b-double truck pulling up 50 metres away, and another vehicle. They start having a conversation - a loud conversation with much swearing and generally appearing not really friendly types. My bladder decides it is time to pee but I don't want to wander around until these guys have left so I return to slumber but then I'm awaken by a nearby gunshot. And then another few. After the first shot woke me I was peering out into the dark. After I saw the flash with the second shot I started shaking and couldn't stop myself for about 30 minutes. After 1 hour and a half of missed sleep, 8 gunshots and they even let off some fireworks no less, the several times when they started the truck and then stopped it again (much to my chagrin) they finally left us in peace. And I can finally get up and pee without being accidentally shot. That was not a night when we recovered from riding 145km in a headwind.
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| Some peace before the Sturt Highway |
Saturday 24th May 2014
After breakfast we went down the track from where we camped to look for evidence of last nights shots and fireworks. I managed to find the wrapper for the fireworks.
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| I refer Your Honor to Exhibit A: Fireworks wrapper |
We rode into Loxton, which is an extremely bogan town for lunch, then headed onto Wunkar Road, which we hoped would be a quiet b-road heading west -- an alternative to the busy Sturt Highway. Little did we know that it would be swarming with motorbikes heading towards the pub at Wunkar -- the Golden Grain Tavern. The road is a fairly dry, desolate, straight one that cuts through Mallee country and pastoral land including wheat fields. It was pretty dystopian into a bit of a headwind.
At one point we were even passed at about 160 km/h by a Mad Max car replica, with six large Kawasakis on its tail. When we got to the turn off to the pub we could see a crowd of bikers in gathered the driveway and I was daring Simon to ride in and go for a drink. He decided it was getting late and we should keep riding. Coward. They look friendly!
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| source https://www.facebook.com/events/292567567563644/?ref=22 |
Sunday 25th May 2014
We ride into Swan Reach, have a roadhouse breakfast, and cross the Murray on the free ferry.
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| Swan Reach ferry crossing |
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| Making progress... |
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| Nice and quiet |
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| One side of the road looks like this... |
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| And the other side looks like this... |
They were putting on a feast there of burgers with salad and pasta for about $7 so we ate there and had a beer. At some point the pub was buzzed by a light aircraft. I'm not sure why but probably just goes with the gunshooting, fireworking countryside we're riding through.
If I had known about the hill climb coming up -- Sedan Hill -- I probably wouldn't have had that beer. I think it was two kilometres of pure misery for me because I'm severely anemic at the moment and really struggled up this one. The view was great but it really did make me want to cry. But I made it up the stupid hill.
Then it was some sweeping downhills to enjoy, riding into Keyneton, then turning to head towards Eden Hill. Unfortunately we ended up on a main road with no shoulder and a lot of end-of-weekend traffic coming back from some motor racing event with cars pulling cars on trailers and no idea how to share a road or pass safely. There were these signs for "Cycle Friendly Barossa" on the side of the road that I just laughed at.
Then turning again off that busy road once we made it to Springton to ride up another stupid, but fortunately short, hill -- which actually congratulates the bike rider for having ridden up it -- followed by a curving road through farmland that we continued riding until dark, when we camped by a fairly dry river.
Monday 26th May 2014
Riding into Williamstown, for breakfast, then headed towards Gawler to get on the Stuart O' Grady path, which is a decent off-road path beside the Northern Expressway.
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| The off-road bike trail that doesn't make it into Adelaide |
Unfortunately this path dumps you straight on the Port Wakefield road (basically the Princes Freeway) and you get to ride some rather amusingly (not amusing at all) bike lane (rubbish shoulder with no decent surface, glass and debris everywhere, cars parked in it and running next to a three lane freeway doing 110 km/h) with bicycle symbols painted in it.
Suddenly this "bicycle lane" ends and you have a stripe of yellow paint to ride on between a metal road barrier and three lanes of cars travelling at 110 km/h and refusing to pass you safely, occasionally honking at you in the manner they like to do. We get off this apocalypse of a road as soon as we are able and pick our way into the "cycling utopia" (I AM JOKING) that is Adelaide city where I am nearly driven off the road repeatedly until we make it to our hotel. We are in Adelaide to attend an international cycling conference (with 600 delegates from across the planet, including Europe) where Australia shows the world just how far it is Australia has to come in basically not (literally) killing one mode of its transport system. Embarrassing.
But we did win the accommodation prize, so we get to arrive smelling like dirty socks and with bikes covered with dirt to the clean-pressed but unimpressed concierge at a flash hotel for our $300 a night accommodation, whom we ask politely through the holes in our dirty faces can we please take our bikes up to our room on the 8th floor. And they let us!
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| Official mascot of the ride |
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