Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXI) - The Adelaide Exploration Begins

 DAY 28

Flying back into Adelaide late at night I wandered over to the storage shed and liberated the bike. I was very kindly staying at Andy's place for a few nights as he was stuck in Brisbane with Covid. I didn't have any major plans for this visit. I just wanted to mosey around the Adelaide Hills in general and as rain was forecast for today, I would check the radar and ride to wherever it looked dry. First order of business though was to grab some breakfast. Despite the forecast, it looked like it was going to be a decent day.

I decided to start with a ride up the old highway to Melbourne. The new road with it's tunnels and relatively straight layout only opened in early 2000 (IIRC). The old road is called Eagle On The Hill and is now a wide, smooth fun bit of road that would have been a frightening truckie's nightmare back when it was the main/only climb/descent of the hills. But wih it now being a backroad it is awesome fun on a motorcycle. Of course, too many people have ridden over their ability here over the years and it is now signposted at 60km/h. Barely enough to keep a motorcycle upright....

I stopped in at the Woolies in Stirling to buy a new USB/cigarette lighter plug charger as I had forgotten I needed one when I was back home. My GPS had been crapping out and I thought it might be the charger as the old $5 one had basically shaken apart. If this didn't fix it then a new cable was next on the list. From here I decided to follow the road out to Strathalbyn via Mylor, Echunga, Flaxley and Macclesfield. The trees starting to change colour caught my eye as I rode into Mylor so I stopped for a quick photo.

The roads here in the hills are mostly quite narrow with massive gum trees right up to the side of the roadway. Anywhere else in Australia they would have been all cleared as they are clearly a hazard if you drift off the road. But they haven't been and they are also quite the novelty and probably a window into Australia's roadways of days gone by - just pay attention and DON'T drift off the road!

Major intersections also take on the look of minor side roads. Well, that is my excuse for heading out the Meadows road at Echunga and not the Flaxley road. A couple of dead - straight - boring kilometres later I realised my error and turned around, went back to Echunga and took the correct road.

There are a couple of fun, twisty bits of road along here prior to Strathalbyn but the surface is mostly very ordinary. I remember getting kicked hard on the R1 along here 20 years ago. At least I was on the right bike for the job today!

Rolling into Strathalbyn it took me a while to find my way around. The GPS wasn't working and with the sun obscured by cloud I basically didn't know which way was up! Not a problem though as I had all day with nowhere in particular to be.

The old stone buildings are everywhere in Strath. Most are well looked after and fully functioning, unlike this old Laucke flour mill. Laucke is still an active flour brand in Australia with plenty of mills in South Australia.

Now and then..... that tree must be pretty old!

St Andrews church dominates the landscape as you enter town from the north west and looks even more imposing from down here in the park by the Angas river.

 

It took me a little bit of searching to find the Kenny Blake memorial sculpture. Whomever made this thing is seriously skillful! It is a magnificent bit of work and a fitting tribute to Aussie racer,  Kenny Blake.

Finding the sculpture also meant that I found High Street, which is where we used to stop for coffee back when I was resident in Adelaide. It had escaped me thus far as the town seems split in two halves by the Angas river and not being immediately obviously so I couldn't find it.

I decided to head out Nine Mile road toward Milang for a look. While a dead straight road it would take me to the edge of Lake Alexandrina for a scout around. I was surprised to find a railway rolling stock display on the waterfront. Not sure where it used to run to but hey, have an interesting looking website to find out!

A quick look along the shoreline and a lap of the little hamlet then I zipped across the road to Finnis.

Which then leads to Goolwa. Goolwa is known as the town at the mouth of the Murray river. It isn't quite at the mouth but close enough for a country as big as Australia. 

It was apparently still school holidays in South Australia so there were people everywhere! I dropped down to the waterfront and found some peace under the Hindmarsh Island bridge to have a bite to eat.

Heading further west I was soon in Victor Harbor. After a quick photo opportunity at the cenotaph I just went straight through town as it was incredibly busy. Victor is a very popular place for Adelaidians to "get away from it all" as it is only about an hours drive south of the city and is a VERY pretty location.

I then proceeded out Range Road toward Cape Jervis. I like this road as it is well surveyed, wide and has a good surface. It was also pretty much deserted today. I had a sprinkling of rain near Parawa but it didn't last long. I took the Yankalilla turn off and dropped off the range. Turning around in Yankalilla I headed east on the Inman Valley Way. This was a typical narrow bumpy road through farmland. It passed through Inman Valley before dropping me in Victor Harbor again. 

What to do now? Well, head out Range road again for another lap out and back....

The view dropping back into Victor is pretty damn good.

I bypassed the town and began back north on the main road to Adelaide. I wanted to get back across to Strathalbyn so I linked up a couple of dirt roads to make it happen. Mosquito Hill road led into Kokoda road, Deep Creek road then onto Bull Creek road and finally for a bit of the main Goolwa to Strath road. 

I finally needed to fuel up so stopped in Strath. I wanted to do the same bunch of corners as I did this morning so went back out the Macclesfield road toward Adelaide. The next few GoPro shots show how poor the surface is in places and how close those huge gum trees are to the road. This is what most Adelaide Hills look like as the country opens out a bit.

BIG gum trees line the roadside, so don't run wide!

It started to rain near Flaxley and then began to belt down near Echunga. I decided to take the road toward Hahndorf as I knew that would get me back to the freeway, where I could figure out how to get on said freeway and then hide behind my big screen at highway speeds.😁

It didn't work out quite like that as I got a bit wet before I could find the freeway. Didn't matter though as I wasn't wet, just had wet gear on the outside. As soon as I dropped off the hills though the temperature was back up into the low 20's celcius and it was completely dry. Another successful day with about 400 twisty kilometres under the wheels.

A schnitty and beers at the local pub was a great way to cap the day off. I really miss how every other corner in Adelaide seems to have a big old pub on it. It's a 10-20 minute drive in outer-suburban-Brisbane to find a watering hole. The vibe just isn't the same.

Cheers! 

To be continued......