DAY 42
I didn't have to be up early but I was..blast it! I had slept well with the heating off but it was bloody cold outside this morning! I put on every layer I had and wheeled the Twin out of it's little holiday hut where it had sheltered for the night, backing it up to my door so I could load her up.
Loaded, I then took a (very) short walk around Melrose to enjoy the sunshine and take a couple of photos. The pub is a fairly typical looking jobby and probably not the best looking of the two in town but the owners were awesome and you can't beat great service!
Having a Chiropractor in a town this small is a bit odd but they might have plenty of business with all the mountain biking that happens here...or the Chiro is a mtber themself. That is Mt Remarkable behind their beautiful old stone building.
It had warmed up a bit (6C according to the bike) so I pushed off toward Adelaide. I was hoping to hit the big smoke around midday so I could wash the bike and sort my gear before catching a 4pm flight home.
It was a magic morning but the roads were still wet from last night rain so I took it easy. I had been seeing old, abandoned stone buildings everywhere I travelled and today I made myself stop to get a photo. This one was a bit far from the road but very typical of the architecture of the early settlers. There is plenty of stone in South Australia...and not many trees, hence they made great use of the most abundant natural resource.
I had ridden this route from Melrose to Adelaide a couple of times now and it always seemed to be cold and wet in Clare so I would try something that avoided Clare this morning.
The first bit was standard route though and as I rolled into Wirrabara I noticed a "silo art" sign that I hadn't seen before. It wasn't obvious there was a silo nearby as the town had a lot of tall gumtrees in it but following the sign to the right at the RSL, just 350 metres down the road there was indeed a silo. And it was arty!
Back at the main street I also stopped for a quick look at the cenotaph outside the RSL. Not one of my best photos but I just couldn't angle it right...
Back on the bike and southward until just past Yakka, where I then turned right for Brinkworth. But just outside town I dodged left for Blyth, where I passed another Twin, all loaded up, outside the bakery. No stopping for me though, I was straight through town and left again to Balaklava. Again, just outside town there was a bypass to the left. This took me to Mallala. Somewhere along here I encountered my first highway patrol of the entire trip. I had just overtaken a semi trailer (no idea how fast that was) and was generally keeping to 110km/h, which is what I thought the limit was (it might have actually been 100). Luckily for me the highway patrol had three or four cars right behind him on this narrow road and I had a semi right behind me. Maybe it was my lucky day because I didn't see him again.
Rolling into Mallala, I had been making great progress so felt it was time for a coffee. I stopped in to the Mallala Takeaway and got a bit trapped talking to a couple who were over from Perth for the V8 Supercar round that had just concluded. They had been in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in the early 1990s when I had been there. Even though I said I hardly ever got to Derby, they began naming every person they knew in Derby, asking "do you know them" ? "No, no I don't" I answered many times.....
Once they finally left me alone I ordered a coffee and grabbed a commercial pie from the pie warmer, then wandered across the street to look at THE most impressive WWI memorial you will ever see in a small country town.
But holy fcuk, I was suffering some sort of Karma for trying to brush those West Aussies in the cafe' as the pie was bloody thermonuclear HOT! 🤯 It fair took the lining off the roof of my mouth....but tasted so good I kept nibbling at it and of course, scalding myself in the process. A bit like Bart and the cupcake.
The memorial is right on the edge of the road and right at the centre of a 5-way intersection. I am guessing that once upon a time the memorial was in the centre of the intersection but with the length of modern trucks, the road had been moved to make it a bit safer. Only just a bit safer mind you as I really struggled to find a break in the traffic to get a photo of it. With the position of the sun I needed to stand on the road and I couldn't believe how much traffic was rolling through this tiny little town! Anyway, I got there in the end. More detailed information on the memorial can be found here.
Mallala's main claim to fame is that it had an Empire Air Training Scheme airfield here during WWII, which was later turned into a racetrack. I haven't been on the track but I did watch the ASBK races there when I lived in Adelaide. It seemed a janky little track, very old school with solid concrete walls right beside the track. Very sadly, the talented Liam Magee, nephew of GP racer and now GP commentator Kevin Magee, was killed during an ASBK race here in 2002. Very sad. Today, South Australia has a HUGE new, PRIVATELY BUILT motorsports complex to the east of Adelaide, at Tailem Bend, called The Bend. It is FIM world standard and no doubt will be bidding for the F1 and MotoGP races in the future. Mallala might be relegated to club racing these days.
From here it wasn't very far back to Adelaide and I rolled out the Two Wells road, where I rejoined the ever wonderful Port Wakefield road. On the outskirts of Adelaide I spied a car wash so rolled in to pressure clean the Twin. This way I could tuck her away as soon as I got back to my hidey-hole in Adelaide.
Total distance for this trip was just a smidge over 2850 kilometres. The bike didn't miss a beat (again) and the new slightly used rear tyre still looked good for some big distances yet.
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