Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 102 - Orroroo to Auburn

Day:  102

Date:  Sunday, 11 October 2020

Start:  Orroroo

Finish:  Auburn

Daily Kilometres:  156 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10670

Weather:  Cold early, then sunny and warm

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pies

  Lunch:  Toasted lamb, cheese & tomato roll/Hot lamb roll with gravy

  Dinner:  Fish, chips & salad/Hamburger & chips, ice cream

Aches:  Nothing to speak of

Highlight:  Yet again, a beautiful dawn.  As we rode out of Orroroo on a very quiet road, the sun turned high clouds pink on the horizon ahead and then slowly lit up the gentle rural landscape around us..

Lowlight:  An aggrieved magpie swooped on me a couple of times, just missing my helmet, as we rode down a stretch of road bordered by magnificent old eucalypts.  Julie, who was riding behind, enjoyed the show, but failed to get any pictures.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left a sleeping Orroroo and headed south on a very quiet road into a magnificent sunrise (see above).  Our target for the day was the small town of Auburn in the Clare Valley wine district, 156km  away.  The weather forecast was for a following/cross breeze, but nobody had told the weather gods, and a light head-breeze and very gradual uphill made the first few hours relatively hard work, but the beautiful rural scenery compensated.  The rolling hills gradually changed from sheep grazing to crops, the road was often lined with eucalypts, and there were more farms and houses along the way, some of them very old.

After 56km, we stopped for breakfast in the town of Jamestown, whose signage proudly claimed it to be the birthplace of the iconic Australian, R.M. Williams.  Little was open in the old town, but there was a small supermarket on the fringe with hot pies, so we bought a couple and ate them in warming sunshine on a cold morning at an old wooden picnic table outside the shire offices.

As we continued on, the road was more tree-lined and the surrounding fields more verdant.  Thirty kilometres after a morning break in the little town of Spalding, we entered the attractive Clare Valley and began to see vineyards and wineries as the hills closed in on the road. The regional town of Clare was busy with visitors, many no doubt from Adelaide  enjoying a beautiful warm sunny Sunday in the country.

We bought some lunch from a very popular bakery and ate it in a small nearby park before buying a few things from the adjacent supermarket and setting out to ride the last 24km to Auburn.  To Julie's disgust, there was yet another long hill (there had been a few earlier in the day), but soon we were rolling down the other side and reached the very small town of Auburn about 3:30pm.  We found our motel, where the proprietor had left our room unlocked as he was going to Adelaide, and settled in.

After lazing around for a few hours, we phone-ordered take-out for dinner from the only such shop open in town and later Julie walked a few hundred metres to collect it.  There followed another quiet evening and another early night.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 101 - Wilpena Pound to Orroroo

Day:  101

Date:  Saturday, 10 October 2020

Start:  Wilpena Pound

Finish:  Orroroo

Daily Kilometres:  163 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10514

Weather:  Cold early, then sunny and mild

Accommodation:  Cabin

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pie/Chicken & lettuce sandwich

  Lunch:  Ham, cheese & tomato sandwich/Ham, cheese & pickle sandwich 

  Dinner:  Pizza/Beef schnitzel, salad & chips, lemon tart & ice cream/chocolate lava cake & ice cream

Aches:  Nothing significant.

Highlight:  For the first hour of the day, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise, with the rays lighting up the bluffs of Wilpena Pound in a deep orange as we pedalled below through the dark cypress pine forest on a road with no other traffic.

Lowlight:  For the first hour the day it was absolutely freezing.  Hands and feet were numb, and we relished every sliver of sunlight the forest and mountains allowed through until it was high enough to warm us without interference.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

It was very cold when we woke, and that might explain the hour and a half it took us to pack up camp before we left at 6:45am.  The sun had not yet cleared the horizon and we steeled ourselves against the cold as we pedalled out across the plain and turned south down the eastern side of the Wilpena Pound.  Compensation for the cold was the magnificent sunrise we were treated to on the walls of the Pound, and the serenity of the cypress pine forest.

Eventually, the sun rose high enough to begin thawing us out making the rest of the first 56km to Hawker even more enjoyable.  At Hawker, where we had stayed on our way north four days ago, we called in at the service station and bought breakfast and supplies for later in the day as we did not expect to see any more stores.  As we pulled into the service station, two couples came over for a chat about our trip and we learned the males were about to start a ride along the 900km Mawson Trail that runs south from the Flinders Ranges to the coast.  Another one on the bucket list.

From Hawker we continued south with the aid of a nice tail breeze and entered an area of rolling red soil hills, with a light covering of new grass, perhaps courtesy of the recent rain, flanked by the mountains of the southern Flinders Ranges to the wast.  There were old crumbling farmhouses here and there, perhaps a sign that the land was not particularly fertile. We passed through the tiny hamlet of Cradock and, after one break en route, reached the slightly larger town of Carrieton where we stopped for lunch in a well-kept picnic area.  The whole of the tiny town looked well-kept, but most businesses were shuttered and keeping the place alive looked likely to require a big effort.

After Carrieton, the roadside fields became more lush and the farms looked more prosperous as we rode the last 36km of the day to the regional town of Orroroo where we arrived at 3:45pm.  It looked pretty quiet too, though the lady at the caravan park where we had booked a cabin insisted that it was a very busy and lively town, just not on Saturday afternoons on the final weekend of the school vacation.  She may have been biased, having lived here for 35 years and having two sons each owning one of the two pubs in town.

After checking in, we spent thirty minutes washing our very muddy bikes using a hose in the campground, conscious that we were taking them in for a service on Monday in Adelaide.  We then showered and did some trip-planning before wandering down to the closest pub for a very filling dinner.  Then it was back to the cabin to watch my team win a finals match on the TV, the icing on top of another very good day.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 100 - Wilpena Pound

Day:  100

Date:  Friday, 09 October 2020

Start:  Wilpena Pound

Finish:  Wilpena Pound

Daily Kilometres:  0 (click here for Julie's Strava and photos from our walk)

Total Kilometres:  10351

Weather:  Cold early, then sunny and mild

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Muesli

  Lunch:  Trail mix

  Dinner:  Chicken schnitzel, salad & chips, Tim Tams

Aches:  I am going to be very sore tomorrow after our hike.  Bike fit isn't hiking fit at my age, and although the cardiovascular system coped fine, my lower back and hips are aching tonight.

Highlight:  The 360° view from the top of St Mary's Peak (1168m) was superb.  You could see the unique Wilpena Pound, a huge 30 square kilometre basin surrounded by uplifted mountains, the folds of ranges running north, distant mountains, and dry arid plains stretching to the horizon.  The sky was cloudless, the temperatures mild and visibility excellent.  We were up there by ourselves for 20 minutes and felt like king and queen of the world.

Lowlight:  None today

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We emerged from our tent around 7am to a cold and clear windless morning and had a leisurely breakfast before setting off to hike the outside track to the summit of St Mary's Peak, the high point of the mountains surrounding Wilpena Pound, and the highest peak in the Flinders Ranges.

The trail notes called the hike strenuous, and they are not kidding.  After a few kilometres warming us up with some relatively gentle hills through groves of cypress pines, the track ascended steeply, with a lot of rock scrambling, up to the rim of the Pound.  Although we were constantly watching our footing and grip, we still had plenty of time to stop and admire the ever-expanding scene below us.

From the rim, there is a very slow out-and-back couple of kilometres to the peak, involving almost non-stop boulder-scrambling, testing both our strength and flexibility (neither of us have much of the latter).  It was hard work, but the view from the top, which we reached around noon, was superb (see above).  There was nobody else there and we savoured the grandeur in isolation.  Twenty minutes later, another couple arrived and we set off back down the mountain, meeting a number of other groups on their way up, some of whom seemed to be struggling, and another well off the track (we called out to them and set them right).

Back at the junction where the outside track reached the rim, we took the inside track, a long gradual very rocky descent along the side of a mountain, down into the Pound itself.  We only met one other group on the descent, and otherwise had to ourselves the stunning views, birdsong and sounds of a creek rushing unseen below.

When we reached the Pound floor which, with the mountains as a natural barrier, had been used for sheep grazing from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century, we found shady groves of cypress pines interspersed with some large clearings.  The walking was mostly flat, the air temperature perfect for hiking and the sky above a cloudless blue.  We couldn't think of anywhere we would rather be.

Near the gorge exit from the Pound we passed the beautifully restored stone cottage built around 1900 by the farming family who then lived in the Pound.  From there it was just a few more kilometres back through the gorge to the campground where we arrived at 4:30pm after our 21km journey.

After showers, we had an early dinner at the bistro, followed by an early night.  Back on our bikes tomorrow.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 099 - Blinman to Wilpena Pound

Day:  099

Date:  Thursday, 08 October 2020

Start:  Blinman

Finish:  Wilpena Pound

Daily Kilometres:  64 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10351

Weather:  Cold, windy and mostly cloudy

Accommodation:  Tent

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Cereal, toast and apple

  Lunch:  Soup, macaroni cheese & corned beef

  Dinner:  Hamburger & chips, donut/muffin

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  The whole 64km ride from Blinman to Wilpena Pound was spectacular.  The road was a bit of a winding roller coaster, and the west wind was icy and strong, but the scenery was magic.  Rolling hills, some topped by rocky bluffs, pine covered red-soil slopes, aged elegant eucalypts in puddled creek beds, distant sun-dappled mountains, and finally the mountainous crags of Wilpena Pound, made it a very interesting ride.

Lowlight:  While Julie was changing the SIM card on her phone (we have a backup SIM from another carrier), the card and holder catapulted out of her phone and disappeared into a large swathe of small pebbles surrounding our picnic table.  It took about ten minutes of careful searching to locate both.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

With only 64km planned for today, we felt no urgency to make an early start, the wisdom of which was confirmed when a temperature check yielded 5°C without the considerable wind chill.  We ate the continental breakfast that came with our room, then repacked our now mostly dry gear, before heading off at 9am after stopping in at the tiny general store/bakery to get a snack for morning tea.

It was cold and we were wearing more gear than usual, but at least it was dry, the sun was occasionally breaking through the clouds, and we were on sealed road.  We felt no time pressure, given the relatively short journey to Wilpena Pound, and enjoyed the beautiful scenery (see above), taking just one break along the way, but making plenty of photo stops.

There was much evidence of yesterday's rain, with lots of standing water by the road, and debris and water across the road in many of the floodways.  Some parts of the journey were through sheep grazing country, with homesteads visible in the distance, and other parts were through sections of Flinders Ranges National Park.  It's one of my favourite parts of Australia, and I have visited here many times in the last 50 years.

After a last 5km beat into the wind, during which we overtook a couple of mountain-bikers out for a ride, we reached Wilpena Pound Campground and checked in around 2pm.  It is nestled in a valley just outside the Pound, a massive bowl created by a ring of mountains which also tower over the campground.   It's a busy and big place.  Peak season and the last few days of school vacation, mean that there are many families camped here.  There is also a resort with a restaurant, bistro and accommodation along with a small supermarket.

After we set up our new tent for the first time, we showered, had a late lunch and did laundry and a few other things, before walking down to the bistro for dinner just before 6pm.  It was fully booked, but they let us eat at an outside table.  It was freezing, and we were happy to head back to our tent and some warmth after eating.  I heard on the news this afternoon that a number of nearby locations have experienced record cold October temperatures, and it feels that way.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 098 - Hawker to Blinman

Day:  098

Date:  Wednesday, 07 October 2020

Start:  Hawker

Finish:  Blinman

Daily Kilometres:  121 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10251

Weather:  Cold, wet and windy

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Ham & pickle sandwich/Chees & gherkin sandwich

  Lunch:  Roast beef & pickle sandwich/Ham & salad roll

  Dinner:  Bangers & mash & vegetables/Chicken schnitzel, salad & chips, ice-creams 

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Hot showers in our hotel at the end of a very cold, wet and muddy day.

Lowlight:  Many to choose from, but maybe the first squall that hit us about an hour after leaving Hawker.  The road was through open treeless country, and along with heavy rain came a bitterly cold crosswind, strong enough to cause unexpected sideways moves on the bike, on a morning when the base temperature (excluding wind chill and wet chill) was high single digits Centigrade.  We were both chilled to the bone, unable to feel our fingers or feet, and shivering uncontrollably.  There was no possible shelter from the elements, so we had no choice but to continue pedalling towards Parachilna, 70km away.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Last night, after reviewing the weather warnings for heavy rain and strong winds today, we modified our plans slightly.  Originally, we were going to camp at Angorichina, midway along the 33km of unsealed road through Parachilna Gorge, but the idea of setting up camp in the rain after a day's riding in the rain, did not appeal.  I called the only hotel in Blinman and was lucky enough to get a room (school holiday time in this tourist area) which I booked, even though somewhat overpriced.  Thus we were committed for the day to ride 90km north to the tiny settlement of Parachilna and then eastwards on the unsealed road up through Parachilna Gorge to the tiny village of Blinman in forecast heavy rain and strong easterly winds.  Of course, there was a temptation just to stay for a second night where we were, but I have booked accommodation for the next week plus an overdue service for the bikes in Adelaide, so changing plans would have been a pain in the butt.  Also, often when dire weather is predicted, it doesn't turn out to be quite so bad when you get out in it.

We decided to make an early start to give ourselves some buffer time, and left the motel at first light around 6:15am.  As if to warn us of the perils ahead, the motel carpark was entirely under water following heavy rain overnight, which wasn't obvious in the dark until I put a foot in it.  Getting out of the motel without wet feet proved a challenge but, in retrospect, we shouldn't have worried since we were soon soaked.  Out on the road, although it was very cold and raining lightly, there was a tailwind which was encouraging and we sped along as the gloom lifted to reveal fog-capped mountains to our right.

As the road climbed some gentle hills it became more exposed to what was now a crosswind, and it began to rain hard, with big cold drops whipped into us like bullets by the bitterly cold wind and life became quite miserable.  As the rain continued, we got colder and colder with still 70km to go before the first likely shelter.  I was worried about Julie, who I know feels the cold, becoming hypothermic and was mentally running through our options.  Stopping to put up the tent, was one option, but would have been very difficult in the conditions.  I decided that, so long as Julie was willing to keep riding, it was best to keep going.  If things really deteriorated, we could stop one of the few vehicles travelling in the other direction and seek assistance.

The first rain squall eventually passed and we had a period of relative dryness, but still with the wind.  Up ahead we could see eerie cloud-cloaked mountains and low grey clouds, some of which were unloading rain, so it was only a question of time til the next squall arrived, which it duly did.  This squall was even longer and colder than the first, but we were closer to Parachilna and motivated to just keep going.  It finally passed and we gradually dried out a little in the wind as we pedalled as quickly as we could to the tiny town.  We reached there around 10:30am, not having stopped once on the 90km journey, and found the small old station house/museum which offered protection from the wind and spitting rain and ate our breakfast sitting on the dusty concrete floor.

The second part of the day's ride first took us for 8km to the mouth of the Parachilna Gorge directly into the very strong easterly wind on a rocky gravel road across the treeless plain.  Progress was slow and energy-sapping and the mountains never seemed to get any closer.  Eventually we reached the mouth and traded gradual climbing for a lighter headwind as we entered the very picturesque gorge.  The sides were steep and rocky while the base was mostly dry rocky river bed and stately eucalypts.  Even in the wet difficult conditions, we appreciated the beauty of the place, as apparently did a lot of other holiday-makers.  The higher we climbed in the gorge the wetter the road became, while each dip required crossing a large puddle or water flow.  Soon we were riding through a kind of soupy mud, about 2cm deep with the consistency of custard, most of the time.  On the steeper climbs, our road tyres sometimes lost traction, making for some excitement.  Passing vehicles generally slowed, but it only takes one idiot and my panniers and I got covered with sprayed mud.

We could have stopped at the campground half-way along the gorge road for a hot chocolate and some shelter, but we were still cold and wet, so opted to carry on another uphill 15km to our hotel in Blinman where a hot shower was becoming increasingly attractive.  As we climbed higher, the scenery changed to rolling park-like hills covered with conifers and no undergrowth, before we emerged into sheep grazing country near Blinman, which claims to be the highest town in South Australia.

We reached the hotel just after 3pm, covered in mud, as were our bikes and gear.  It was packed with holiday-makers seeking wet-weather alternatives and it took me a while to check in.  Meanwhile, Julie was outside entertaining a group of guys having a beer on the pub verandah interested in what we had been doing, eliciting loud cheers and applause.  I asked the proprietress if there was an outside hose or tap and bucket we could use to wash ourselves and gear down before going to our room, but she declined to help, so we felt entitled to bring all of our muddy gear and selves into the room, locking the bikes to a post on their rear verandah.  By the time we had unpacked, undressed, showered and washed off the gear in the shower, the bathroom was a muddy mess which Julie later mopped up superbly with their supplied flannel.

We later had dinner in the hotel, still busy with vacationers dodging the weather, and retired to our room, decorated with drying gear and clothes, for the night.  The TV doesn't work, the heater is struggling, and I found a used condom wrapper (not mine) on the bedhead, but it's nice to be out of the rain which we can hear being driven into our window by the wind.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 097 - Port Augusta to Hawker

Day:  097

Date:  Tuesday, 06 October 2020

Start:  Port Augusta

Finish:  Hawker

Daily Kilometres:  108 (click for Julie's Strava and photos)

Total Kilometres:  10130

Weather:  Cold early, then cool, windy and overcast.

Accommodation:  Motel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Donuts/Yoghurt

  Lunch:  Pie & kransky roll/Quiche & sausage roll

  Dinner:  Mixed grill & vegetables/Slow-cooked lamb & vegetables, ice-creams

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Beautiful scenery in the Flinders Ranges.  Sweeping treeless plains reaching out to lightly timbered craggy mountains with more distant mountains layered in different shades of blue.

Lowlight:  Cold cross/headwinds for most of the day threatened to spoil our appreciation of the scenery …. but failed.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Rather than following the main highway and the coast south to Adelaide, as our original round Australia route intended, we are going to detour via the Flinders Ranges and Barossa Valley on our way to Adelaide.  We can do this because of the time we saved by not going (not being allowed into) Western Australia.  It also gives Victoria a few more days to squash the COVID-19 outbreak, and New South Wales a few more days to consider letting people enter from Victoria, which is a precondition for us entering Victoria.

As we couldn't pick up our mail-ordered replacement tent from the Port Augusta Post Office, adjacent to our hotel, until it opened at 9am, there was no early start this morning. After breakfasting in our room, packing, and carting all of our gear and bikes down the hotel's internal stairs, we were at the Post Office soon after it opened and picked up the tent without any problems.  I felt reluctant to just dump the old tent, which had served us well, into a nearby garbage bin, but my unsentimental partner showed no such hesitation and we were soon on our way out of town.

It was hard riding into a headwind, as we passed through the industrial edge of town, crossing some tidal inlets and scrubby wasteland.  Not very inspiring after two days off.  When we turned left off the main highway towards Quorn, our lunch destination, the wind was no longer directly in our face, but still opposing as we began gradually climbing towards the Pichi Richi Pass across treeless scrubby plains.  As we got into the foothills, the scenery became more attractive, with some dry creek beds populated with gum trees, and steep slopes on either side.  The road was paralleling the tourist Pichi Richi railway, and near the top of the long climb we met the day's steam train coming the other way.  We stopped to take a photo and got a whistle blast and wave from the engineer as well as many waves from the passengers.

At the top of the climb, after passing through a low grassy gap in the hills, we emerged into a higher valley and descended through sheep grazing country to the small windswept farm/tourist town of Quorn.  Forty kilometres had taken us three hours, a testament to the difficult conditions.  The historic town has some attractive old buildings, but it has seen better days and many businesses were shuttered making it look particularly bleak in the cold and windy conditions.  We found the small town supermarket and bought some hot food for lunch, which we ate on a bench outside, along with some supplies for tomorrow in case we were too late to buy them tonight when we reached our destination, Hawker.

We left Quorn around 12:45pm, with 66km to go, and hoping to reach Hawker before 5pm, the store closing time according to Google.  The first half of the journey was across another vast windswept treeless plain with mountains in the distance to either side and ahead. The wind made the riding hard work but the excellent scenery compensated.  We took a break in the lee of a roadside slope with 30km to go, just as the road began to climb to another low pass. The road ahead swung slightly to the west on the gentle climb, neutralising the wind and making the ascent easier.  Along the way, we passed the atmospheric and desolate stone ruins of some old homesteads dating from the mid-19th century and also got some spectacular views of mountains near and far.

There was a slight descent from the pass into another high flat valley of sheep grazing land giving us an easy run into the very small town of Hawker which we reached about 4:30pm.  We stopped in at the service station/grocery and bought some drinks and snacks before checking into our motel.  After showers, and confirming our room had a microwave, Julie returned to the service station (which didn't close at 5pm) and bought some microwaveable dinner that we later ate in our room.

It's cold here and we have the heater going full blast in our room.  We are a bit apprehensive about tomorrow's ride, which includes 33km of uphill on unsealed road, when the forecast is for cold winds and heavy rain.

Round Australia Bike Ride - Day 096 - Port Augusta

Day:  096

Date:  Monday, 05 October 2020

Start:  Port Augusta

Finish:  Port Augusta

Daily Kilometres:  0 (click here for Julie's Strava and photos from her walk)

Total Kilometres:  10022

Weather:  Rain overnight, then cold, windy and mostly sunny

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Fresh fruit & yoghurt, donuts/muffins

  Lunch:  Pizza rolls

  Dinner:  Hamburgers & chips, ice cream 

Aches:  Nothing significant

Highlight:  Another lazy day

Lowlight:  It rained heavily overnight and the bathroom roof in our old hotel leaked steadily, requiring the deployment of buckets and other containers.  We could have complained, but it would likely have resulted in a room change, which would have been a pain in the butt, so we didn't bother.

Pictures: No photos today.

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Not much to report today, with the focus on relaxation.

After a good night's sleep we bought breakfast at the nearby supermarket again, there not being many other options, and later went for a short walk around the downtown area, including the visitors centre and along the foreshore bike path.  The port town is historic with many attractive old buildings set around a well-planned street grid, but it also seems very quiet with a number of defunct businesses.  Of course, we are here on a long weekend, so may not be getting the true picture.  On the way back from our walk we bought lunch from (you guessed it) the supermarket. 

I spent most of the afternoon catching up on correspondence (and resting my legs) while Julie walked 12km out and back to the Australian Arid Lands Botanical Garden along the Red Cliffs Walk in the brisk sunny conditions.

For dinner, we returned to the same take-out cafe (third night in a row) and ate back at our room.

Back on the road tomorrow.