Day 5 Port Pirie to Port Augusta

This morning came early... it was a cold and wet when we crawled out of our tents about an hour before daybreak. We put our wet tents in the clothes dryer, had breakfast, and got packed up.

It took us a while to get going, but we were on the road just before 8am. Riding was very good today, and we did the 58 miles to Port Augusta by 2.45pm.

We've checked into the Flinders Hotel/Motel and Andrew is busy fixing our first flat tire of the trip. He seems to have picked up a piece of steel-belting wire in his rear tire.

Day 4 Port Pirie day off

We met up with Paul last night as he was in town, having just finished riding the York Pennisula something or other... We had a GREAT meal at the Solomontown Football Club- they have a great feed every Friday night apparently, and we were warmly received and well fed. Cheers guys!!
Paul brought Andrew a small gift in the form of a dozen eggs from "Cooks Chookhouse Eggs"...Hilarious, but Andrew loved 'em!

Today we met up with Paul for a quick morning ride to stretch our legs... we stopped for a lunch at the loudest curryhouse this side of Dehli!! The guy running the place was BLASTING techno over a cheap boombox... we were the only customers in the place and had a good laugh. After stopping into the tourist office for some maps Paul offered to drive us out to the Flinders Range for a short hike through the Telowie Gorge. This was a stunningly beautiful area; the type of place where you simply become quite with a shift in conciousness similar to walking into church. Amidst the towering red rock walls and strange vegitation there was the constant sound of gently running water.
I managed to spot a few of the rare Yellow-tailed Rock Wallabies which are as nimble as mountain goats moving up a nearly vertical rock face. I also spoted what turned out to be a "geo-cache" container. According to Dave, these are containers hidden by participants in remote or odd areas whose locations are marked via GPS; other participants then seek them out and add their names to the notebook inside. They may also leave some small trinket, and take one that's in the container. We added our names and email addresses to the list.
After the hike we drove on to the town of Melrose so that Paul could check into his motel for the next leg of his ride. We were immediately lured into the funky looking "Over the Edge" bike shop. The guys that ran the shop were very cool, and quite helpful. I bought what has since become my favorite thing in the world, "Q-Olium Anti-friction Cream"!!!
Dave decided he needed a bit of mountain biking, and so made arrangements with Paul to have him bring him back to Melrose, go riding, and then shuttle him up to Port Augusta.
On the way back from Melrose we stopped to photograph one of the funniest falling debris signs I've ever seen...
Tonight its just Andrew and I in the caravan park... well us, and the vampires (long story).

Day 3 Redhill to Port Pirie

We slept in today and struck out for Port Pirie a mere 25-30 miles away. We are adjusting to the demands of pushing our heavy bikes, and I'm glad for the short day. We rolled into town about 2pm and have set up at the Caravan park where we will camp tonight and tomorrow. Tomorrow is a day off!

Day 2 Port Wakefield to Redhill

Today was a bitch for me... even with perfect weather and a tailwind everything seemed to be an effort. We made it to Redhill, about 20 miles short of Port Pirie for a total of 53 miles. However, we managed to find a hidden gem in the form of the Eureka Hotel! This hotel was built in 1878 and looks like it was plucked right off a movie set. It has a rustic bar, community toilets, balcony, the works. Redhill has only 200 or so residents, and used to be the end of the line for the railroad. Of course when the end of the line was moved to Port Pirie the town suffered.

As it turns out, we are the only guests tonight in the hotel... we had an excellent meal from the kitchen and of course a pint to add to the atmosphere!

Day 1 continued

We were up at 6am and actually rolling at 8.10... Dave had some trouble with securing one of his bags. We took the requisit photos at the YHA in Adelaide and with a little trouble navigating we managed to actually make it out of Adelaide! I had asked for directions at the desk, but I really didn't "believe" the instructions they gave me... something about the number of "ummms" sapped my confidence.

Anyway, it was a PERFECT day for cycling, about 65f , no wind or a slight tail wind. We stopped at the Southlight service station and as I rolled in, there was Karla the Aussie sheep dog!! I was so happy to see her- I didn't know if she'd still be alive as she was very old when I met her two years ago. This was the spot where I was compelled to give up my first attempt to ride to Darwin due to the Pnuemonia. I was very emotional for me to be back here again today. I gave Karla a good scruffle and shared my sandwich with here. It was tough to say "good-bye" knowing that I'll never see here again.

We had a good day riding. Andrew and Dave are both stronger riders than me, but I just plodded along and we rolled into Port Wakefield at 3pm. We had booked a room, but opted instead to camp at the caravan park since the weather was perfect and the price was literally a fourth of that of the room.

We had a beer at the old historic pub, a very cool place to be sure!

Day 1 Adelaide to Port Wakefield

....And away we go!! We're packed, breakfasted, and ready to roll. Hopefully by day's end we are in Port Wakefield South Australia!!! 58 miles today

Spot Tracker

You can check out our progress by following this link:

https://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=1yFomHrRl7IWLgWGVScdjAmFDWPo0hZLy

We are logging in with spot tracker GPS each day, and this site has a map indicating
our locations. Its password protected and the password is: kangaroo