Day 1 - Arrival
The big day had arrived!
As someone who doesn't really like travel this might have been one of the most difficult days, at least mentally. Locking up the house and heading off knowing that I wasn't returning for over two weeks was a huge mental challenge for me. Not sure why, but it's super difficult for me. Things were made a bit easier with all our preparation taken care of the night before and having a wonderful friend look after the place for us while we were away.
So, with the alarm going off at some crazy hour, we hopped up, got ourselves ready and headed out the door on our epic adventure.
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| The start of our journey! |
Of course, we had to get to the start first. A nice gentle spin into the city to meet up with everyone at BikeSA, load up our luggage onto the truck and get ready to go. A light breakfast was provided which was very welcome. Everyone around us was looking and sounding optimistic, though under the surface there were certainly some signs of nervousness as to be expected.
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| Lynskey and Marretta. Ready to roll |
Day 1 - Adelaide to Lobethal - 42 km
And suddenly, it was go time!!
To be honest, this was probably one of the least exciting days for me. Not that it wasn't a good ride, because it certainly is. Since much of it is on our backdoor everything about the ride was very familiar.
We started out with a police escort from the start onto Linear Park and then away we went. Having approximately 100 riders on Linear Park was kind of neat, and there was a lot of happy chatter about the place. For those in the know, there was also the uncomfortable knowledge that Stone Hut Road lay ahead.
V and I have done this climb a few times, so we knew what to expect. Others, especially some of the interstate riders, probably got a bit of a rude shock! There was a fair few people in struggle town over this short but steep stretch. I surprised myself on the climb, managing to ride the entire climb, albeit not continuously. Happy days.
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| How much fun is Stone Hut Road? This much! |
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| Plenty more climbing after this sign. |
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The day was short and enjoyable, and served as an introduction to a day in the life of the Outback Odyssey and helped people get into the swing of things, chat with a few of their new ride buddies, looking for the trail markers and generally find their way. Today was also the first day that we experienced our "deluxe camping" option. Ride into camp, find your tent and unpack. Awesome. Very much worth the extra expense.
Over dinner we met a couple from Mildura (Trish and Dave). Interesting Port Adelaide Cycling Club connection; Dave apparently purchased a bike (some time ago!) from PACC life member Pud Brooks. Also at our table was another Mildura racer Alison. Lots of racing talk at the table made us feel at home.
The only negative for the whole day was a result of my own stupidity. While trying to charge my phone in low light conditions I managed to short out a brand new powerbank. Expensive mistake :(
Strava data
Day 2 - Lobethal to Tanunda - 76 km
Today promised to be nice day out on the bikes. The course profile looked fairly sedate and the weather was good. We were also ending up at two wineries along the way. Sounds like a really good day out!
The first part of todays ride was a section we had intended to check out as a training ride, but never got to it. Our loss, since the roads were really peaceful and nice and smooth to ride on. As we headed out of Lobethal we dropped in to our friends Rob and Jill who wished us well on our journey.
After morning tea there was a short testing climb through Mount Crawford forest, surrounded by tall trees which was a nice way to break up the morning, though maybe not everyone appreciated the climbing aspect.
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| Miss V found a new friend at morning tea. |
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| Nice ride through the tall trees. |
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Today marked our first ever flat tyre of any of our Outback Odyssey adventures. On removing the tube from V's bike and draining all the sealant from inside the tyre we discovered the cause: the edge of the tyre liner had sliced the tube. Hilariously, we had a whole bunch of Marshals flock to help us. We made the decision to remove the liner and Marshal Pete insisted on simply patching the tube. No problems. Something of concern was that we had three more tyre liners on the remaining wheels. We couldn't help but think that we were both sitting on a ticking time bombs.
After the minor disappointment of the flat tyre we were off again. Predominantly flat or slightly undulating roads led us to a massive wooden gate which marks the entrance to a tourist walk for some of the wineries around Tanunda. Fantastic views of the valley from this point.
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| Top of Steingarten Road |
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| The awesome view from the top of Steingarten Road |
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After a fairly fast downhill stretch we arrived at Liebichwein. V and I are very familiar with this place since it's the same winery that V's dad sources his port from, and they catered the wine for the wedding of V's sister. They put on an amazing lunch for us, including a soup which was simply awesome. We were all super pleased to hear that the same group would be catering dinner tonight and tomorrows lunch!
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| A nice shady spot at morning tea |
A short but fairly lumpy ride from Liebichwein led us into Tanunda and to our home for the night at the very fancy Chateau Tanunda. Dinner was held in the Chateau and didn't disappoint. Over dinner we sat next to Kathy who we had ridden with in 2015 on our Mini-Mawson adventure and was part of our unofficial photography group at the back of the field. This was set to continue this time around.
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| Chateau Tanunda! We've arrived! |
Day 3 - Tanunda to Riverton - 79 km
This was a bit of a known event for us, since we chose part of this section as one of our training rides. That said, we really enjoyed it last time, and we were looking forward to it this time, plus discovering the parts beyond Kapunda.
The day started poorly for me, with a flat front tyre less than 5 km into the day. The manner in which it deflated was suspiciously similar to a flat tyre that I had a few months ago. Suspecting a leaking valve, we simply pumped it up and made sure to close off the valve. It held for the remainder of the tour.
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| Smooth roads lead onto ..... |
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| .... sandy roads |
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| This looks like fun! |
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| Lynskey and Marretta at a photo stop. |
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Not too far out of Kapunda on a fairly quick downhill stretch Miss V had her second flat tyre. This was getting a little bit tiresome to be honest! On inspection, it became apparent that the patch from yesterday had failed. Easy decision to make to replace the tube and get on our way. Then, like a white knight galloping to our rescue, Lindsey the mechanic on the tour arrived and took over replacing and inflating the tube for us. Outstanding!
The roads during this section were generally pretty nice to ride on. A few undulations, but the surface was usually pretty nice. One thing that was very noticeable was just how bare and brown the region was. The impact of the lack of recent rain was quite stark.
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| Beautiful gravel roads |
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| Historic bridge outside of Kapunda |
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| Miss V enjoying the ride through the countryside. |
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Dinner tonight was a little bit special. The kids from the local high school prepared all the food and served us. Fantastic effort by all!
Day 4 - Riverton to Burra - 87 km
On paper this looked like it ought to be a fairly easy, albeit long, day. What we didn't account for was the energy sapping head wind that we encountered for much of the ride.
The first section was along the Riesling Trail, which, being an old rail line was relatively flat. Unfortunately it was also very exposed to the the wind which made things generally unpleasant. Perhaps those riding bikes around the Barossa Valley to the wineries might enjoy this trail, but for me it was pretty boring and uninspiring. There were a couple of places along here which were okay; mainly the tree lined cuttings through which the path travelled. Quite similar to sections on the Sea to Vines trail outside of MacLaren Vale. So it wasn't all bad, but I'm not sure it's somewhere that I would go out of my way to ride.
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| Riesling Trail. Some parts were ok. |
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| Miss V on the Riesling trail, before the rain hit us. |
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Around the time we reached Clare the rain started. Initially fairly lightly, but then it started properly pouring. We weren't too far from lunch at this point with the promise of shelter in a kind farmer's hay shed. By the time we got to the lunch stop, we were fully soaked with things made even worse with a freezing cold wind. Some lunch and shelter was much appreciated at this point.
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| Incoming rain at the lunch stop. |
After lunch, we readied ourselves to leave the comparative comfort of the hay shed and to get back on the road. Just as we were about to roll off another heavy rain front passed through, so we waited that one out. Once that had passed we rolled out to travel the final stretch to Burra.
What we hadn't noticed during lunch was that the wind had turned completely and was now in our back. A very pleasant surprise! We crested the Camel's Hump climb where we felt the full force of the wind. Holding my phone out to take a photo became an exercise in frustration as the phone acted like a sail and tried to pull you over. But I managed to get a few shots, because I'm stubborn. :D
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| Braving the elements on top of the Camel's Hump climb |
The ride down the other side was, quite simply, amazing. For much of it we were travelling at the same speed as the wind at around 40km/h, and so the descent was dead quiet and very peaceful with nothing but the noise of the tyres on the dirt apparent. What had been a fairly ordinary ride throughout the morning had become sensational.
Approaching Burra, we were directed by the Mawson markers around a tricky and at times, rocky, little loop around the outskirts of the township, before heading into town along a river side trail not unlike Linear Park in Adelaide. After signing in we found our way to our rest day accommodation.
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| Home for the rest day. Lynskey and Marretta can't wait to get inside. |
Strava data
Day 5 - Rest day in Burra
Finally! Our first rest day had arrived. A rest day where all our pre-Odyssey preparation would pay off. Except it didn't quite work out the way we had planned.
We were staying in a lovely cozy cottage with big solid walls, a proper bed and heating (such luxury!). It also advertised that it had laundry facilities, except we were told that they weren't working when we checked in. So we spent much of our rest day hand washing clothes and having them strung up across the living room praying that they would dry in time. Not quite as relaxed as we had been hoping for. That said, it gave us an opportunity to disconnect, reset ourselves and prepare ourselves (and the bikes) for the next stretch.
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| Inside our cozy cottage. Home for the rest day |
One unplanned thing that I did do was revisit my bike fit. I'd been getting a bit of lower back pain, and so I flipped my stem to raise the handlebars a bit. Easily reversible if it doesn't work out, but worth a shot if it makes the longer days more comfortable. We'll see how that pans out.
Continue to Part 3
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