|
Day: |
001 |
|
Date: |
Wednesday, 24 August 2005 |
|
Start: |
Adelaide |
|
Finish: |
Snowtown |
|
Daily
Kilometres: |
159 |
|
Total
Kilometres: |
159 |
|
Journal: |
I got up at 5:30am and set off in the dark
at 6:10am with best wishes from Jenny and Heather (my sister and her
partner with whom I had been staying in the Adelaide suburbs). It
was also cold and I wore most of my gear. I first rode into the
Adelaide General Post Office (GPO), which wasn't exactly the
direction I wanted to go, because I thought I should ride from GPO
to GPO. It probably added about 6km. I then made good progress
north out of town with a slight following tailwind helping me
average 23kph. There was a lot of morning traffic including plenty
of trucks, but it wasn't too bad. After about 38km, I noticed the
bike was wobbling a bit and feared a major problem. I got off, but
couldn't see anything wrong so continued on. However, it was
getting worse and I soon realised I had a flat rear tyre! I made
one abortive attempt to patch the very small hole which seemed to
have been caused by the spoke hole on the inside of the rim. With
some difficulty, and glad I had brought the pliers, I moved the
protective tape. Unfortunately, after I had put the wheel back on,
I found the tyre was still slowly deflating. I took it off again
and this time replaced the tube. This seemed to fix it, but it had
cost me about 75 minutes of stuffing around. I set off again, a
little nervous that there might still be a problem and rode for a
couple of hours to get to Two Wells where I had a couple of very
fresh donuts for a little bakery and an orange juice in the sun for
breakfast. Prior to breakfast, I had to keep getting off the road
because a house was being transported up the highway. It was two
lanes wide and had a police escort. I had to get off three times
and they were all waving to me by the end. As I was leaving in the
morning, Jenny had told me that you're not supposed to wear
underpants with bike shorts! How ignorant am I? And now my
underpants inside my bike shorts were starting to chafe a bit. I
ploughed on to Port Wakefield at 105km for lunch and found some
public toilets where I removed the underpants. I had a quick pie
and pastie for lunch at 12:30pm, watching the traffic go past and
sitting in the sun - very pleasant. I set off again at 1pm and
found the going much harder. The wind had swung around and was now
mostly against me and there were more undulations, although the
scenery was rural, green and pretty. There were some reasonable
hills. I got stopped by a couple of Asians seeking directions, but
couldn't help. I stopped for a snack at Lochiel and thought about
where I would aim for the night. It looked like Crystal Brook,
although I still had 60km to go and it was already 3pm. I continued
on, but the going was hard and I was getting tired. I reached
Snowtown at 3:50pm and, after a bit of map checking, decided I was
better to stop there. The campground was a dead loss - nothing
there - so I tried the hotel where I got a room for $25. It was a
bit run down, but OK. After a shower I walked around the town on a
pleasant evening. It was old, but obviously losing population.
Many closed stores. This was where the grisly Snowtown murders
occurred, but I saw no reference. I got some snacks, fixed the tube
in my room then had a pub dinner - bangers and mash made with
kangaroo and feral goat meat by local hunters. bed at 9:30pm. |
|
ADVENTURE LIST
Round Ireland
(2016)
Hume & Hovell Walking Track
(2013)
Via Alpina
(2012)
Australian Alps Walking
Track
(2011)
Land's End to John O'Groats
(2010)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2009)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2008)
Round Oz Bike Record Attempt
(2007)
Australia Tip to Top MTB
(2006)
Adelaide to Darwin MTB
(2005)
Sydney to Melbourne MTB
(2004)
Three Peaks Race
(2004)
Appalachian Trail
(1986)
Alpine Track
(1983)
|
