Yesterday definitely did not go to plan, but we still had a good day. Will and I were all set to head off, but liked the idea of being lead out by Jilden and Jo. Jo was going to come over, so we could help her with some jobs, but by lunch time she hadn't arrived. We were bored, so decided to head to her house, as we had also planned to ride her bike (Bouncer) over to her mum's for her, so we could get an early start. She wasn't home! Should have called first, but didn't. After a quick call, Will jumped the back fence, and broke out Bouncer, along with all his gear, so I could ride him. Will and I left at the same time, 10kms for me, and 11 for him in the car. Would you believe, that we both arrived back at Jean's at exactly the same time, 39mins? I had a ripper head wind, and Will stopped quickly to fuel up, but wasn't long. We ended up heading back to Jo's and went for dinner before bringing her with us for our quick get away.
Come on Bouncer, let's go for an adventure.
The alarm sounded, and we gathered our wits about us, ate discussing cereal, drank coffee, and we're almost ready when Jilden arrived at 8:10. On our bikes by 8:20, and pedalled off to locate the Coast to Vines rail trail, that runs from Marino Rocks to Willunga. It was an absolutely fantastic trail, almost totally off the roads. It did have a few short, steep, pinch ups, that had me out of the seat so I didn't stop and topple over.
Gathering our bits and pieces together.
Jilden has us all in order, now we can get going.
Cross this main road, then onto a back street along the rail line....
And onto the rail trail. Coast to Vines official trail. What a treat.
Our first stop was at the Hallett Cove train station, to farewell Jo, as she had to be back home to get stuff sorted. We'd ridden 8kms, so felt warmed up, and had already enjoyed some nice views of the ocean. From here, we road through many outer suburbs, and came to our second stop for a snack and a drink at around 11:30, after 36kms, at a little cafe at the McLaren Vale & Fleurieu Visitors Centre.
Toodle loo Joanne, be "Safe" (private joke here), see ya in a couple of weeks.
This was the actual train line once upon a time. Pretty cool.
A brief pause for an important phone call for Jilden, then onwards.
We saw heaps of road cyclists out on this trail, as it was a Sunday.
Plenty of vines, providing many delicious wines from McLaren Vale.
Smiles all round, this is a great ride.
We passed this yard full of old and interesting cars,
And this winery, we recognised the label from one of Rob Purse's photos. A nice drop.
Only another 6kms further, we came to Willunga, and the end of our rail trail at a nice town park. This was our lunch stop, which was good, cause I was hungry. But it meant that Jilden was leaving us, and heading westward to Seaford, and a train back to Joanne's mum's to collect his car. It would be a 70 kay day for him. We have to say a huge thank you to him, for taking us on the bike paths of Adelaide. Although you can find great maps on the SA government website, under transport, it is much easier to just follow someone who has been riding them all for ages.
Thank you so much Jilden, it has been a great pleasure.
So we sat and ate our home made lunches, and watched a bunch of little kids dressed as super heroes, having a birthday party. Jilden ran through our route options on an oldie worldie paper map, and then we said good bye and safe riding. Unfortunately for us, we were headed straight up Willunga Hill. Since making it alive (just) up this renowned hill, I have discovered it has a difficulty rating of 61. The toughest hill in Australia is Mt Baw Baw, with a ranking of 121. Never gonna even look at that one. Willunga Hill (or Will-Chunda, as we will call it) is a twisty turny climb of 250 metres, over about 4kms. There were some pretty steep bits, and I was reminded of Spain, and was pretty sure I could do this. But today, I was struggling quite a lot, and very quickly became a bit light headed and shaky. I had to stop and take a rest. Off I'd go again, get about half a kay, then stop again. It was warm, but not hot, and I felt like I was going to do what I don't do, "Chunda". Holy cow, the guys on the Tour Down Under ride this hill, a lot quicker than me, I wonder if they felt spewy? After five or six rest stops, we reached the highest point, with a "King" of the hill painting on the road, and thanked the lord I was alive, without chunda. I have since discovered that a Will Dickenson road this hill in 7 mins 55 secs, in 2006. It took us about 45mins. Huh!
Leaving the happy trail for a much harder section of our day.
I'd already had a few stops before here, but this would have been the Chunda spot, if it was going to happen. Ugh!
I was not feeling good. Oh no I wasn't.
Why are you smiling Will, I am gonna die! Again!
Shit yeah, made it! Cadel Evans has done this too, makes me feel pretty good now.
We rolled down for about 500mtrs to the Victor Harbour road, then along that for another 500mtrs, turning right onto Pages Flat rd. This road had rolling hills, but much more down hill action. We cruised along making up some speed and time. It was very pretty farm and bush land, and we soon came to Myponga (sounds like a New Zealand name, and was very scenic too), where we had a short break, ate a Banana each, before heading on to find Normanville.
Myponga Reserviour. Could be New Zealand.
Another 15kms of mostly downhill, to go, and although the wind had picked up, it didn't really effect us too much. Just out of Yankalilla, we had a gorgeous glory run, down the twisting road into town, then a gentle roll through to Normanville, only a couple of kilometres further on. We took a pause at a park to decide on which caravan park to stay at, then headed through town to the Jetty Caravan Park. On our way, we noticed the bottle shop, and an open IGA, so took the opportunity to get dinner supplies. Then we found our nights accommodation, in a bunkhouse room, cooked on their Barbie, and I had an early night. Feeling like I'm getting a head cold, I have taken an antihistamine and a couple of panadol, hoping it will get it sorted quickly.
Actually made it back to sea level. Tomorrow is gonna be hard getting back up.
Where to stay, where to stay?
Here, let's stay here.
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