Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XXIII) - The Adelaide/Flinders Ranges Exploration Begins

 

DAY 30

Well, I had a run of days off again so it was time to head back to Adelaide and do some more exploring! The forecast wasn't looking that great with tops of 14 Celcius and rain showers predicted. I applied my now proven method of just ignoring the forecast and giving it a crack. It works most of the time!

Before I rock and rolled though I had some chores to do. The bike needed an oil change and I figured I would do the filter while I was at it as 24 000km to a filter sounds like a LOT! Yep, I have done a smidge over 12 000km so far on this trip.😉

Unfortunately I couldn't get the filter to seat for some reason. It was a genuine Honda jobbie but it would leak as soon as I started the bike.....sooo....I took it off and put the old one back on! Luckily I hadn't destroyed the old one getting it off otherwise I would have been in a spot of bother. Oh, and how EXPENSIVE is oil these days?! $90 for 4 litres of Motul 5100?!!

This faffing around cost me the morning so it was just after midday when I finally set off. Those "showers" were rolling through by now. Just how I remember Adelaide from when I lived there 20 years ago. There would be a heavy, isolated shower that would just DUMP then there was a 45-60 minute window before the next one. I hid from my first shower in a BWS near Gepps Cross before paddling my way along the now streaming wet roads.

I then got myself onto the excellent new freeway that runs around to the west of the northern Adelaide suburbs. Some of it must run through what was previously military land as there were a few bomb proof bunkers that must have held munitions for the nearby Edinburgh RAAF base. Before I knew it I had dodged another couple of showers and was on the north side of Gawler and heading north.

My plan? 

Well, I had stumbled across a couple of You Tube videos made by Brent Pearson. He did an 8 Day Flinders Ranges ride on his Husky and made an excellent 3 part video about it. I was going to follow some of his tracks - well as many as I could in four or five days. 

I post Brent's videos here because they were great inspiration and they are extremely well made. He IS a pro cameraman for a living.......so these completely steal my thunder but I am all about spreading the love. 😊

I had a pretty cold ride up the Clare Valley as it was 14C and blowing up to 70km/h westerlies. When the weather is like that it isn't very conducive to taking photos. I did get this one at Watervale because the house looked so cute and typical of many South Austalain stone built houses.

As I got closer to Clare the weather turned for the worse. I took shelter from an impending dumping of rain under the verandah of the SevenHill Hotel. It was almost sleeting now so I dragged out the waterproof jacket liner and the winter gloves. Once the rain passed I felt much warmer, especially with the heated grips set to max. I decided I needed a break and a top up just up the road in Clare. It was 10C and I really wasn't sure where I wanted to go. I hadn't researched the towns ahead as I was planning on just "winging it" but when the weather is crap it is always nice to have a certainty with respect to a bed. (no, I wasn't going to be camping tonight!)

The pie was actually pretty good for a service station jobbie and helped me make the decision to head for Crystal Brook tonight. It wasn't much further up the road and it took me in the direction I wanted - following Brent's route - toward Port Pirie and the Bridle Track (see his first video).

I battled the cross winds along here what with the wide open plains of the mid north and I must say that even with the big sail area that my Africa Twin has it actually held the road quite well without being blown around too much. Passing through the little hamlet of Yakka I stopped for a couple of photos. More magnificent stone work was on display!

Just north of Yakka I had to turn west for Crystal Brook. The countryside is certainly open up here! Had I gone straight north to Gladstone for the night I might have enjoyed a tree sheltered roadway, with wind break planted along the western side of the road for many, many kilometres - but I would only find this out in four days time....

I rolled into Crystal Brook just before sunset and booked into the first pub I saw. Now, there were two pubs in town and maybe I didn't make the right choice......as mine was unheated. Like who runs a pub and doesn't have a big fireplace roaring on a bitterly cold day? I found this out by accident as “my” pub’s kitchen was closed so they pointed me to the other pub for food. Well, good lighting, non musty smelling carpet, heating and good food met me there. 

I should have stayed here…..I won’t name who was who but this is the pub I slept in. At least they let me lock my bike in the back yard. Having soft panniers and not wanting to completely unload them every night, this does give some peace of mind.

Crystal Brook was quite a nice little place with a wiiide, divided Main Street. There were some nicely restored old buildings too.

DAY 31

I was up early the next morning and set off for Port Pirie. The main road actually bypasses the town so I stopped for a quick photo across the flats to the zinc refinery and the Spencer Gulf.

I decided to go off the highway into Port Germain for a look. It was a pretty little town with plenty more stonework on display.

I went down to the wharf and as the light was still good thought I would put the drone up for a photo of the old light house with my bike and the Gulf in the background……except I couldn’t get the controller to hook to the drone. I had brought it on another trip and it was yet again a dead weight! 🤬 No more! It has never worked as I intended it to (it flies ok and takes ok photos but doesn’t perform the follow me function like I want) and is now on Gumtree.

So, earthbound photos it is.

Out of Port Germain I found the Bridle Track (as in Brent’s first video above) and was pleased to see that while it must have been quite wet yesterday, today it was just right.

The views back to the west were stunning. It was a cool, clear morning after yesterday’s shit show of rain and wind. I really enjoyed this dirt track as it climbed then followed a ridge line. There were a couple of rocky pinch climbs that got my anxiety levels up somewhat - because I was on a big heavy bike and alone - but I was very surprised at how well the bike handled those climbs.😎

After quite a few gates and chasing some sheep I dropped off the ridge line. It was pretty country and reminded me quite a bit of central west NSW.

Next stop was the little town of Melrose. It has been reinvigorated over the last ten years of so by the building of kilometres of mountain bike trails. The town oozes mountain biking, so I stopped and indulged in a coffee and muffin with cream.

Leaving Melrose I beetled along through Wilmington to Quorn. I’ve heard of Quorn and have always wanted to visit. Today was the day to look around. There is an historic railway system here called the Pichi Richi rail which would have been cool to check out but being a weekday, not much was happening.

I visited the local IGA for some supplies. It seems my two bottles of water had ejected themselves on the “lumpier” parts of the Bridle Track. I made sure to cinch down the elastic straps on the bottle holders this time.

Next town was Hawker and as I didn’t have a need for anything I basically went straight through with a brief stop at the war memorial on the edge of town.

There was quite a bit of wiiide open space north of Hawker and I took the opportunity to put the drone up for a couple of shots.(after I managed to pair it with my phone - but still not the controller🤬)

The scenery soon changed and I found myself enjoying a twisting, perfectly surfaced road as it rose over ridges and fell through dry floodways. Some of the dry creek crossings were spectacular and the road dipped and curved through many of them before rising out the other side - all of this while cranked over. It was a bloody sensational ride! Maybe more so because it was unexpected.

Yep, after living in the Kimberley in West Australia for four years in the early ‘90s I thought I had seen plenty of rugged scenery and wasn’t expecting much…..

But the colours were simply stunning! I think I was lucky that they had had some rain in the lead up, with about 35mm falling the day before to give everything a “freshen up” for me.

This was the view that greeted me from the road at Rawnsley Park, looking toward Wilpena Pound.

And looking back at the Pound from the Wilpena turn off.

I didn’t need to go into Wilpena but decided to take a look. It was very busy with tourists and campers. I grabbed a small bottle of red wine to enjoy with dinner and got out of “Dodge”.

Not far north of Wilpena there was a lookout with views back to Wilpena Pound and the road to the south. This road twisted and turned over hill and dale and reminded me very much of roads in some of the national parks I have visited in the US. Did I mention it was outstanding riding?!

Canyon road 😛 with Wilpena Pound in the centre background.

Not too far north of this lookout I found the Willow Springs turn off. I would have never gone in here if it wasn’t for Brent’s recommendation. I am so glad I stumbled across his videos just a week ago!

The road in was quite wet and slippery so I took the three kilometre ride pretty gently. Arriving at the homestead I proceeded to the Caretakers quarters where Michelle fixed me up with a campsite. I didn’t get Brent’s recommended Number 5 but Number 3 was just fine. 

Looking down on Willow Springs station from the hilltop above my camp site showed stunning terrain.

I set up the tent pretty quickly as it looked a bit like rain and there was no other shelter if it did. The camping was so cheap that I bought a bag of firewood to flick a few more bucks their way and of course, to keep me warm as it was pretty cold today and only going to get colder tonight.

The wood was wet and a little green so it took me a while to get a decent fire established. Once I did though, it was veeery pleasant to sip on my “glass” of red while enjoying my Green Chicken Curry.

Yeah. Not a bad day really. 😎

To be continued…….