Melbourne to Adelaide 25

Today was probably the hardest day of our ride! It wasn't the longest nor did it have us climbing higher than before - it was however progressively hotter as the day drew on and that combined with a reasonable distance and total climb all added up to making it our hardest. The ride out of Strathalbyn was lovely as soon had us climbing through rolling hill country and this continued right through to the top of Willunga Hill. Willunga Hill is the "famous" hill climb that features on the "Tour Down Under' bike race - we did take the longer route to the top and not the more direct route straight up from Willunga that the tour rider's do. While we didn't get the grueling uphill, we did experience a fantastic downhill all the way to the Willunga Bakery where we stopped for our morning tea. After Willunga we headed out of town and along the way we came across some road signs that first of all said, "Local traffic only" (whatever that means and then a c...

Space. Wide open space. Paddocks larger than an average NZ farm. All with very little feed and this is a normal season where the farmers are not crying drought! The landscape changed yet again to these massive flat paddocks with very little in them (not even gum trees) and then where it was near the water catchment and flat there were huge areas of what at part of the year would be wetland however at this time of the year it is very much "Dryland" and then surrounding these low, shallow dry lack beds are what appears to be salt tolerant shrubs and plants. We were up and away early today as Ian was taking Stephen to catch the bus back to Melbourne from "Tailem Bend" - a 12-hour bust trip for Stephen, so this meant we had to have our bags packed into the truck by 6:30 a.m. Having done that it was off to the bakery for breakfast and then into the ride. This meant we were fortunate to be riding out of Miningie just prior to Sunrise and we were treated to it rising over ...

A staggered start it was for the team this morning and as my bike was one of the three already on the truck from yesterday, I was the first bike off the rack and on the track ahead of Peter and Elio who hadn't travelled as far as I did yesterday, so they remained about 9 km behind me all day. With the head start that I had and a good back wind that we all had I remained in front right through to Miningie our accommodation for the night. I was very pleased with the time it took me to do the 90 km's, cutting it out in around 3:25 with an average speed of 26.2 kph showing on my Garmin. There was also 296 metres of climbing which was made up from the many low "Sandhills" that we had to ride up - I think the steepest of which only got to a 2% gradient. Today was also another day where we got to see wildlife, we had to slow in the car to avoid the two "Roos'" and a deer, then a short while later while I was on the bike I saw a hind and a fawn along with a ...

We had two teams get away this morning 90 minutes apart, not because some wanted to sleep in, but due to the fact that there is no accommodation where our day's riding will finish. This means that Ian in the support vehicle will be providing a shuttle service back to Kingston for our overnight and then tomorrow morning drive us and our bikes back to the spot on the road we finished at today! That all makes perfect sense, I am sure! Suth Easterly winds were predicted which is just ideal for us cyclists heading in a Westerly direction. While Elio, Peter and Ian stopped for a coffee at the bakery I went for a short ride around Robe then met up with them for the ride out of town to Kingston whihc is about our halfway point and where we stopped for morning tea. On our way out of Robe we past some vineyards and wineries and then once again were back in very dryland grazing country - that's proabably why I happened to see a camel at one point! The Coast was never too far away from us ...

We had scoped out a good bakery in Millicent and so it was there we went before we got underway on the ride today - they tell me their coffees were good, and I can tell you it was an excellent pepper pie! The Garmin was working well today so there was no problem with the navigation like yesterday, not that there was a big need for directions as there isn't much choice and so long as the ocean remains on our left we must be heading in the right direction.  The landscape has changed yet again and now we are in what appears to be a huge flat-sh plain with grazing properties being the order of the day. While the landscape is lovely, I'd have to say that the "Skyscapes" are amazing if there is such a thing? The sky is a lovely blue with beautiful cloud formations that make me want to stop and try and capture what they look like as I go. We stopped at Beachport for our morning tea stop today and this is another lovely well worth a visit seaside town just off the main highwa...

There was a coffee shop the Boys had spotted and that's where today's ride went before heading off to see the "Blue Lake" which is a huge crater beside the town that has filled with water and now is the source of the town's water supply - if definitely was a lovely blue colour. Drom there we carried on up the hill and then on up to the Tower overlooking both lakes and the surrounding countryside - the Tower was a couple of hundred metres further up the hill and the path to it had a 22% gradient in some places so it was a case of walking the bikes up that section of path, After we had  one the "Touristy" bit we headed back down into town to pick up the bike path beside the  old railway line and out of town went the four of us. Just before we pulled onto the bike path Elio went by and said something about "coffee" - further down the track when we realized we were three short things began to fall into place and we could see that Elio, Peter and St...