Day 13 - Strathalbyn to Hallet Cove - 96 km, 1352 m - Ride total 1163 km

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 couple of km's further on there was the official looking "ROAD CLSOED" sign. As these had never stopped us in the past, we continued coz our route to the beach was straight down this road. However we did shortly find why the road was closed and that was because there was major work happening with "our" intersection and the main highway - we only had 75 metres of worksite to cross and as all the work appeared to be going on a 150 metres to our left off we went without asking and got to the Concrete Median barrier where our bikes were quickly lifted over and across the highway we went. No one raise an eyebrow on the worksite (well not that we saw). Our planned route then took us back along the Coast and the beginning of a great ride along the Esplanade overlooking some of the best beaches there are and even though it was a Friday there were still many vehicles and people all along the beaches for the next 40 odd km's - there was no surf, a big flat beach that simply made for great safe swimming - It was just a pity we still had to make it to our accommodation for the night.

We stopped at Moana on the beach for our lunch stop then headed on for the last 20 km's and although the beach was flat the road and trail, we were on took an up and down route that had us pedaling up small inclines in 30-degree heat. At one stage the route took us off road and alongside a reserve and then got down to a path through the long grass - this had us wondering however as it appeared to go somewhere we did carry on and eventually went through an underpass under the highway and onto better trails. As we had to walk at about that time I found when i got back on the bike my left-hand shoe was no longer locking int my cleat on the pedal, so I rode the last 10 km's with only my right foot locked in and doing most of the work. It was so good to eventually arrive at our five-bedroom modern home which is our Air B&B accommodation for the night,

Ian and I went off to do the shopping for dinner and tonight's meal was a starter of fresh Watermelon and Grapes (drinks being beer or orange juice) followed by Hot Roast Chicken salad with a Honey and Caramel Ice Cream desert.

As I was on catering it did mean with the later finish that today's blog is quite late being published. 

Even though this has been our hardest day as I sit here writing this having had a nice shower and meal and reflecting back on the journey it still is one, I would come back and ride again.