Bike SA Annual Tour - Day 5

Western Kangaroo Island to Vivonne Bay - 24th October 2013

I woke this morning feeling like I was drowning in my own mucus. Not the best way to start the day. Who ever I got this cold from, I'm not super impressed with you right now. That said, the show must go on. With a fairly short day ahead, there was a relatively relaxed start to the day.

Entrance to Kelly Hill Caves

Once packed up we had a short 10 km ride to Kelly Hill caves where we were booked in for a 9:30 am tour. Well worth the stop off to take the tour through the caves. Hopefully some of the photos turn out and show how spectacular the formations were. Kelly Hill Caves could probably be a photo post in its own right it was that good! The walk up the hill to get to the entrance in cleated shoes was less fun, but definitely worth it.

Kelly Hill Caves

Kelly Hill Caves

Kelly Hill Caves

Miss V and I had been feeling pretty good today, and were clipping along at a decent pace. By the time the turn off for the unsealed section came up we'd pretty much already decided to do the extra kilometres and take on the unsealed road.

View from the cockpit

Our reward was the beautiful scenery along this section, with fairly nice roads with very few corrugations.  The nice bit of unsealed road had a bit of a sting in tail with a seemingly never ending series of undulations which completely wiped out what little energy I had in my legs. I think it was along here that I realised that I was properly sick. Sure the cough and sniffles should give it away, but when the legs are refusing to drive up a hill, that's when I know that this might be a little bit more serious.

Entrance to the Andermel marron Farm

Highlight of this unsealed section was the stop at the Andermel marron farm. Miss V and I tasted a range of local wines from Two Wheeler Creek Wines before taking a seat in their cafe. We had a recommendation for a number of people to try the marron cocktail, which we did, and it was absolutely sensational! We left with a bottle of their wine tucked in the backpack and made our way to Vivonne bay where we were staying for the evening.

The road back to Vivonne bay was a bit rougher than those experienced earlier in the day and a bit more sand to contend with. I took it easy, not wanting to crash with the precious cargo of wine in my backpack.

The camp grounds for the evening were in the ground of the Vivonne Bay Lodge, which had plenty of shelter from any unpleasant wind gusts, should they decide to rear their ugly head again.

Dinner was chicken and beef sausage, pumpkin soup and apple pie for dessert. Over dinner I felt like I was falling asleep which made me realise just how wiped out I was. So with that I ended up getting an early night in the hope that I could recover sufficiently for tomorrow.  Zzzz.

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