DAY 39
The alarm went off but it was still dark. WTF? Looking out of my room to the east I could see that it was still quite overcast.
Bugger.
I was hoping to get some 'golden hour" shots of the port bit of Port Lincoln. I got up, rugged up and went for a wander, making the best of what I had. I think I did ok....
DAY 38
That run of days off came around pretty quickly! Looking at the weather forecast and it looked pretty good with a big high pressure system centering itself over the continent for the bulk of my days off. That would make for some pretty decent weather if I were to head west - so, it was go west, young man!
Leaving Adelaide I actually had clear blue skies for the first time since having the bike down here. It was cool but that beats being rained upon before even leaving town.
I headed straight up Port Wakefield road as that was the quickest way out of Dodge and the most direct way to Port Augusta at the head of the Spencer Gulf and hence, Port Lincoln, my intended destination for tonight. The catch with getting to Port Lincoln, which is only 280 kilometres from Adelaide in a straight line is that one has to circumnavigate the Gulf of St Vincent and the Spencer Gulf to get there - so some 650 kilometres by road!
The road up to Port Wakefield is pretty straight dual lane carriageway but is marred by being cursed with "average speed" cameras. This made the ride tedious as I needed to keep a hawk eye on my speedo to avoid any "creep" that would see me paying extra taxes to the South Aussie Garment. (so far, so good though...)
Just south of the Port Wakefield township (and just north of the last average speed camera) is the Port Wakefield Proof and Experimental Establishment. Here, the army and navy test fire artillery into the Gulf of St Vincent. Interesting stuff!
DAY 34
I was back in Adelaide for another tilt at the Flinders Ranges. This time Andy and I actually had five days off that lined up with each other perfectly! We had planned Willow Springs, Blinman and Arkaroola overnights and were hoping the weather would play the game for us.
First order of business for me was to get my front wheel back in the Twin. Andy had picked it up from the wheel builder at GC Motorcycles and having it trued only cost me $50 which included tyres removal and refitting. Oh, how sweet it felt not having the ‘bars shake constantly as it has done for the last 30 000 kilometres!
We loaded up and.... waited for some showers to pass. Didn't want to get wet right out of the gate, did we? 🙄
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.😉
DAY 29
A bit of a sleep in again today but I was on the road by 0900. It looked like being a bit wet in places today but I would play it by ear as to the route selection for the day. I was favouring the northern end of the Hills and started out with a lap up Norton Summit road, then back down, then back up...just because I could.
