We left Burra and its copper mining historic sites early(ish) - i.e. too late for John and too early for me, with a bit of a tail wind and downhill towards Clare Valley.
Too easy! We somehow encountered an unexpected steep hill just before the town of Clare which sent John into more despair and puzzlement over why we ALWAYS seem to be cycling uphill in the heat of the middle of the day. But Clare offered us a friendly cafe where we ate (and John slept) and a pot of Peppermint Box honey for $2.
Onto the Riesling Trail, which was absolutely wonderful.
At last a cycle trail designed for an overloaded tandem! 20km of disused railway line, built with much efort in the 20's and only removed in 1983 after a bush fire. So much work to build it and now nothing! but it offered us a bird's eye view of the countryside.
All around us vinyards amongst eucalyptus (strange sight!) and we arrived at a grassed camping site in Leasingham just in time to take a shower and go to bed before a few spots of welcome rain.
More Riesling Trail the next day took us to another lovely village, Auburn, where we met:
1) another tandem! (ridden by two Canadians who had come here especially for the Tour Down Under. You might not know this but the Tour down Under is the equivalent of the Tour de France and it was going on around Adelaide Hills.
2) Cogwebs, a cycle-internet cafe shop, run by Judy and her husband, both from Bournemouth. Judy was very efficient, friendly and was going to participate in the Tour Down Under the following day. It was very refreshing to meet an English person.
3) Cygnets of Auburn, a wonderful French style restaurant where we savoured a delicious cream tea (at 10 in the morning...) listening to French music. Merveilleux!!
But all good things come to an end and we pressed on to Saddleworth. This is when the chain started to give us trouble, jumping in and out of gear, causing us some consternation. However, after John's tender care (he cleaned it with an old flannel found on the side of the road back in western Australia - I had thought what a waste of space! how wrong was I!, then oiled it carefully)... Bingo! Chain working perfectly again! I must say I was very impressed with his expertise!
So we managed to cycle on through Marabel, consisting of one pub and the statue of Marabel, the undomitable mare whose special side bucking technique managed to throw off every rider for 8 years! Marabel holds an annual Rodeo and we love looking at the photographs of bucking horses and their riders. Eventually arrived in Kapunda, exhausted and ravenously hungry (as always!), with great expectations of a civilised meal. It wasn't to be. The campsite was lovely, set in a quiet grassy park (albeit with a dead parrot near the tent... was not too pleased about it but as I wasn't going to move the tent or touch the parrot, I had to put up with the thought of it). Food was disappointing: the one good restaurant was closed (usual story) so we ate a pizza in the take-away, surounded by loud music and Friday nighters. Kapunda is another copper-mining town (rich deposit of highest-grade copper was found here before Burra - in 1842) and with quite pretty lacy iron decorated houses.
It was also the home of the "Cattle King", Sir Sidney Kidman, whose horse saleswere reputed to be the largest in the world. His properties covered 340,000 sq km of land (!) and he apparently thought that England would make a good horse paddock!
The next morning was a late start. Although we got up relatively early, I was pining for a coffee and tried unsuccesfully to get information at the tourist centre about the best way into Adelaide. Cycling into cities is always tricky. We left the town at 11 a.m. John grumpy because of the late start. Reached Nuriootpa, the start of the Barossa Valley then had an Apfel Strudel at Tanunda. The Barossa Valley (in fact a mispelling of Barrossa in Spain) with its 60 wineries (I prefer vinyards) produces about a quarter of Australian wines and is very scenic.
Many of the towns here have a Germanic feel, are dotted with Lutheran churches and cottages (the settlers came here to escape religious persecution in Prussia and Silesia) and of course surrounded by vines everywhere. It seemed to us a much better way to use Australian soil than farming or cattle and sheep keeping.
It was very hot again and John was still grumpy but we manged to reach Williamstown, where we found a small and very GREEN campsite. John happier.
We also saw a friendly funny small flock of lamas
The following day I conceded and we got up and left very early. It was still dark! However that day was one of the loveliest rides of the trip. We cycled through gentle wooded hills with kangaroos grazing by the road side. Long shadows and a special light made everything so beautiful. It was also downhill! Much of the Adelaide hills are conservation and wildlife parks. Reached Cudlee Creek by 9 a.m. where we nearly had a divorce. I wanted to stay. John wanted to push on to Adelaide, only 30km away. As we couldn't split the tandem in two we had to find a compromise. I, the wise one of course, (not sure if John agrees with this) conceded and we pushed on.
As it happened, it was a good move, as usual good things follow bad ones. Everyone in and around Adelaide was watching the Tour Down Under cycle race, which, thank goodness, was that day in a different part of Adelaide Hills. Result: no-one on the Gorge Road from Cudlee Creek to Adelaide. The road was spectacular, narrow, windy and fortunately more downhill than up, following the gorge of the river Torrens.
It took us by chance to the Linear Park: a strip of woodland up to half a km wide, 40 km long, with a sealed cycle path following the river Torrens all the way right to the centre of Adelaide; and nobody had told us about this gem! We found the campsite easily right beside the cycle path. It was set in the grounds of the 5th earliest house to be built in South Australia, Vale House. Beside it a huge spreading magnificent Moreton Bay fig tree formed the centre piece of the caravan site and provided us with welcome shade. We'd made it to Adelaide!
The other obstacles have been head wind, heat and hills. The roads have been narrow, mainly without a lot of traffic but the road trains can be worrying (to say the least!) as they travel at over 100km/hour and couldn't always swerve around us when overtaking. Flies in areas where there is cattle can be a real nuisance (understatement!). We can cruise at 25-35km/hour and they can't keep up with us, but when we come to a hill and I have to pull hard on the handlebars, they seem to delight in crawling all over my face, drinking out of my eyes and crawling up my nose. Nicole says it is good for my character!
