A bit of a slow start, Will and I were both feeling a bit fatigued, but managed to wrangle ourselves out of bed and into action. Rob was ready well before us, so headed into town for a relaxing coffee at the bakery. Before too long I met him there to wait for Will, who was getting some fuel for our little stove.
Chatting to Bruce from the bakery, thanks for the great info.
After chatting with some locals and getting some good information for our destination today, we headed off, about 10am. Some good rolly polly hills, into a slight breeze, it was already getting warm. Will and Rob, we're having a good chat, which obviously helps them a lot, because they were bursting ahead. I was feeling bad, thinking I was going so slow, as I couldn't catch them, so looked at my speedo to see I was actually doing 23km per hour. Gee guys, that is not bad at all, but I still couldn't catch them. Eventually they stopped chatting and saw how far back I'd got, and slowed up for me.
Just before we left town we spotted the public toilets and info centre. Great murals.
What a ripper down hill this is going to be, "Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'......."
We had a great run through to Sheringa, with amazing views. We saw plenty of really old Dry Stone walling through the paddocks, and at one stop discovered that they were from the 1850's, and some were built by prisoners. Did you know that South Australia did not have any convict settlements, it was a "free" state?
Amazing structures, and how they have lasted this long.
The kids are impressed with dry stone walls too, can't you tell?
Rob stopped for a photo, but catches us in no time.......
At Sheringa, a check of the temp showed 39C, in the sun, but with the breeze, it was about 35C. We stopped for a cold drink, and decided to have a burger too. We sat in the cool shop, away from the flies, and had a nice relaxing Poweraid, and a chat to the owner and some other travellers. Then it was back to it, with about 30kms to go to Mt Hope. We were told about the old cricket oval, that had a toilet that would be open and it even had a shelter. Sounds perfect.
So glad to get here for a cold drink. It is a surfers paradise if conditions are right.
I wish we were going to Nowhere Else, it's heaps closer..
The wind started to pick up a bit, and there were more rolling hills, but with some fun downhill runs. We came upon the Hamilton Eating House, an old building in excellent condition, that would have made a good camp, but not far enough for us today. There was some fruit for sale inside, grapefruit and lemons, but none of us needed any. It was an interesting stop at the beginning of Lake Hamilton, which we rode around the edge of for about 10kms. Wow, what a huge salty lake. It is actually spring fed. Great views, not great winds.
Beautiful scenery, and nice gentle hills, Rob is really enjoying this ride.
The Hamilton Eating House.....in such good condition.
Enjoying the shade, even the flies were too hot to be painful.
We might have to cut you both off at the knees to get inside, it'd help me keep up too.
15 more kilometres, and we made it Mt Hope, where we found the toilet, with no water in the feed tank. Bummer! As we were sussing out the situation with the water feed, and tanks, a local couple, John and Barb, pulled in and help us. Basically, there was a tank we could get water from, in our collapsible bucket, and use to flush. Awesome. John and Barb gave us some fresh eggs, and some good info for our camp and tomorrow's ride, and a couple of tourist mags about the area, then left for Coffin Bay for their fishing weekend.
Just the beginning of Lake Hamilton. It is 10kms long.
Eggs are great, thanks Barb, but we can't use the lemons I'm afraid.
John and Barb, showing us yet again, the great side of people. Thanks so much.
We went over to the shelter, and got ourselves sorted, and started cooking dinners. We had a visit from one of the local dogs, who was very friendly, and then her mum came over for to offer us anything we might need. We were all sorted, but just as we were getting into dinner, Annie came over with three pieces of fresh Black Forest Cake, she'd had for morning tea with friends. Woo hoo hoo, thank you Annie, that is fantastic. So after a dinner of Mexican Chilli Spaghetti (a new creation), we all enjoyed our cake before retiring to our tents to escape the mosquitoes. I am tired, but Will is reading. A not so big day tomorrow to Coffin Bay. Hoping for good winds.
The shelter, which the kids will enjoy overnight, it's going to rain a bit.
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