Bike SA Annual Tour 2013 KI - These shoes were made for . . . throwing?

I don't think he was getting in our tent!

This day began a little earlier than all the others, as I woke some time in the wee hours of the morning to a "thunk, thunk" against the tent wall. Thinking that the local fauna were being a bit enthusiastic, I went back to sleep. A bit later, I heard it again, except being slightly more awake, I realised it wasn't local fauna, but someone throwing shoes against our tent!

What's in that bag?

Creepy crawlies

Now admittedly, Mr Carl, being ill, was doing a fairly spectacular job with his snoring. However I thought it was a bit of a drastic reaction when a disembodied voice yelled "turn him over, he's keeping the whole camp awake." Not being 100% awake (what with it being night time and all), I simply looked over and realised that Mr Carl was already on his side, so what she said didn't make any sense. 



It was then my brain caught up and I realised she was having a go at him for his snoring, which made me mad. So I yelled back "He is on his side, leave him alone, he's bloody crook!" This unfortunately woke Carl, effectively stopping the snoring. Which left an opening, which the frogs in the pond took up with full gusto!

 

Easy to spot!

 



Suffice to say I was a little grumpy at breakfast, and had planned many terrible things to do to the lady's shoes should they still be there in the morning (they weren't). However there were places to see and riding to be done, so there was no point in staying grumpy.

Not so easy

Today we had a few options, we could see a bird display at Raptor Domain, we could ride the extra 11 km down to seal bay and go on a tour and we could visit KI Spirits. Being that neither of us were feeling all that flash, we decided to head straight to Kingscote, with the priority getting some cold and flu medication for Carl. Thankfully this still involved stopping at both the bird park and KI spirits, which were rest stops for the day.

Almost found them all

The road was pretty cruisy and the weather was smiling on us once again. The Adelaide Cyclist freight train made good use of these conditions to fly along, though illness and interrupted sleep had left us feeling a little fatigued. Still, it's impossible to be too grumpy on a bike and the shoe throwing incident wasn't worth ruining the day over.


 

Disturbingly realistic

Soon we rolled up to the Raptor Domain wildlife park. Carl and I had decided to forego attending the show in favour of getting into Kingscote sooner, however we still had a lot of fun playing tourist. The wildlife park has a really cool game for kids (and grownups) where they've hidden insects around the place and you have to find them. They're not real insects, but some of them were surprisingly hard to see and we had a lot of fun trying to find them all!

Baby Wedgie

Karen and Brett had ridden down to see the bird show the day before and had recommended that we keep an eye out for the rescued wedge tail eagle chick, however when we had first turned up we found the cage but it was empty. Thinking that we were going to be out of luck, we continued to play find the insect, until the majority of riders had either gone in to the bird talk or headed down to seal bay. As we were getting ready to head of, one of the keepers rocked up and she had the wedge tail eagle chick with her. 

Bikes equal happy!

The lady called us over and told us the story behind the chick as she put her back in her cage. She had been rescued from the Northern Territory and was 6 weeks old (I think). She was probably about the size of a large chicken so it was amazing to think about how much she had grown in 6 weeks. Because we were such a small group, the lady invited us to carefully pat the chick. We were all a bit tentative, after all she had a wicked looking beak, but she was gentle and seemed to enjoy the attention. This was truly an amazing moment, having always admired wedge tails as powerful and graceful birds, I was truly honoured by the opportunity to touch one.


 

No matter what the bike

Now that the day had definitely brightened, Carl and I powered along, heading to lunch. We picked up our orange caboose for a while, until the undulations resembled hills a little too much. We were trying to catch Karen, as she had taken off to try and stay in front of Brett (who had gone to seal bay), however she beat us to the lunch stop. It was a bit of a novelty for us being one of the first ones into lunch, rather than the last and we gorged ourselves on baked potato with all the trimmings. 

No cold can stop him!

Soon we were on our way again, chasing Karen and heading to another awesome stop. This time our destination was KI spirits and afternoon tea would be provided with a bit of extra kick! Brett and Karen also managed to turn up and so the four of us set about trying a vast assortment of spirits and liqueurs. This was actually a bit tricky, as we didn't want to put ourselves in a posistion where we were unable to ride, so we chose carefully a few that tickled our fancy. Karen and Brett, having been here before, recommended the honey and walnut liquer. This was delicious, and if we had more room in the backpacks we would have grabbed a bottle of that as well as the KIS lime and ginger bottle that we did take with us. This was a fruity, tart drink that was perfect with tonic water and I can't wait for summer so I can sit outside, relaxing, sipping it and listening to our pond.

Karen really likes honey

Suitably happy, we cruised the final leg into Kingscote and found we had plenty of time for one more stop. On the outskirts of Kingscote is the Honey Shop, which sells all different honey related products based on the islands thriving honey producing business. KI honey is particularly special, as it is made by Ligurian bees and I believe it is the only place in the world where this species of bee still exists as a distinct species. Every effort is made to protect the bees, and no bee related products, including honey, may be brought to the island. The shop also has a display hive where you can see the bees hard at work.

Happy Bees

After some honey chocolate fudge and and honey icecream, we headed into town to the campsite. It was a real novelty having plenty of space to choose from and we even had the luxury of the soft grass on the oval (no subsurface irrigation here). Mr Carl and I tried to choose a slightly more remote spot in consideration of other campers, however as the day wore on, more people chose to camp near us.








I indulged myself in a massage, then Carl and I wandered down to the town centre in search of a chemist. After wandering around aimlessly for a bit we found a map, which indicated that the chemist was up a side street, not something we would have figured out by ourselves.

  

Aussie icon

Having purchased a enough drugs to knock Carl out we wandered back to the city centre to have a bit of a poke around. On our way we caught site of a couple of signs from a notable Australian cycling icons hanging in shed, so I had to grab a picture. I'm sure the locals thought we were daft!

Patience is not a virture for birds

Since we had a bit of time until dinner we wandered down to the beach and eventually found ourselves at the place where there is a pelican feeding display everyday. It was about to start, so we joined the crowd, which included Brett and Karen, and settled in to watch. 

Mr Percival in person

Honestly I wasn't expecting a lot, but the gentleman undertaking the feeding was incredibly knowledgeable and had quite a sense of humour about the whole thing. He probably needed it given the amount of gulls that kept trying to land on his head. He told us quite a bit not only about the pelicans, but also the gulls, including a pacific gull which had joined the feeding. It was a really awesome experience and a far cry from the 5 minutes of watching birds eat fish that I was expecting.

Take off!

Finally we wandered back up the hill to dinner. Dinner was a slightly more gregarious affair, with people making full use of whatever they could find to dress to the theme of pirates vs frocks! We were entertained by local musicians and enjoyed the party atmosphere, however we were both still a bit worn out due to illness and opted to head to bed early. We fell asleep to the sounds of the party kicking on and the knowledge that numerous people, many years our senior, were partying so much harder than we could! 

A festive affair

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Bike SA Annual Tour 2013 KI - Caves, Crustaceans and Chardonnay

There was a little bit of relief packing up the tent that morning and leaving Western KI Caravan Park. Not that it had been a terrible place, quite the contrary. Knowing that we'd have a chance that evening to pick a new campsite, possible one that was less exposed, made me breathe a little easier as we got ready for the day.

Tourist time

I was also fairly excited since I had managed to talk Mr Carl into being a tourist and coming on a guided tour of Kelly Caves with me. I absolutely love caves and I had been hoping for a chance to get to see these ones. There had been a tour available on the rest day, but we hadn't been sure what the weather would be like, so we decided to sign up for the tour a day later. 

Posing for the camera

 

Mr Carl had unfortunately contracted a cold and was feeling a bit worse for wear, so our plan was to take it easy. With the rest stop at Kelly Caves a mere 13km from the starting point, this was an easy thing to achieve. However, just to make sure we weren't stressing ourselves too much, we stopped for photo opportunities part way there.





 



Soon we were at the caves and I signed us up for the tour. The most difficult thing about the tour was walking up the path to the cave in bike shoes. As I had found the day before, bike shoes are not the best shoes to hike in and the caves were at the top of a reasonably steep incline. However we made it and soon we were climbing down a ladder, deep underground.







 

On a side note, I love the way some of the names for places on Kangaroo Island have evolved. Kelly caves was apparently named after the horse that fell down a hole which made people aware the caves existed. Unfortunately for the horse, having fallen down the hole, it was never heard from again. However the rider eventually made it out in one piece and decided to name the caves after the horse he had to leave behind.

Successful cave photos

Kelly Caves are stunning, with many examples of stalagmites, stalactites and other cave formations. The lady who guided us through was full of information and stories and told us so much about not only the caves we were wandering through but how caves are being managed the world over. I think the scientist in me, having just been involved in putting together some other ecological management documents, was thrilled to hear the amount of care that is being taken with these natural wonders.

 

The caves were a photographic challenge, but we both managed to get a few shots that were worth while. The guide also talked about the adventure caving that they offer there and I was hard pressed not to sign up for it then and there, but I figured it might be best to continue on with our cycling holiday before jumping head first into something else.

Eventually the guide dragged us back out of the caves, I don't think any of us really wanted to go but another tour was on it's way and we had more cycling to do! Thankfully morning tea was still being served at the caves and even better, Rory the coffee man was on hand as well, as Carl and I had once again forgotten our cups. Admittedly this was a very convenient excuse to indulge in amazing hot chocolate and coffee as well as some fruit cake.

The only evidence of rain we saw

 

After gorging ourselves we decided we probably ought to roll out and started the trek to our second destination of the day, Two Wheeler Wines. This involved a cruise along the bitumen, then a left hand turn up a dirt road. The effect of the rain was evident on the dirt road, with large puddles running along the edge and a slightly sketchy surface in places. But for the most part it was a gorgeous cruisy ride and I believe we had a slight tail wind, which made it even better. 

The view from the top

Another view from the top

The road was mostly undulating but a couple of hills made sure that by the time we reached the winery we were ready for a drink. I probably also needed to recover from the slightly scary experience of flying down a hill and encountering a concrete creek crossing. While the condition of the crossing was quite good, it was difficult to make out from the top of the hill and it required a certain degree of blind faith that speed would get you though. Suffice to say that once we reached the winery, I was more than ready for a drink and the barman was more than ready to oblige.

To clear up the confusion

Strangely enough, I think that Two Wheeler Wines was my favourite place (except the caves) of the whole trip. The barman really made the experience so enjoyable and allowed us to relax after the stresses of the last couple of days. He insisted that we start from the top and work our way down, we weren't allowed to miss anything and really, who were we to argue? 

Marron

He told us about the winery and the marron farm and it was really easy to see how passionate he was about both the wine and the food. This was evident in how good the wines tasted, I don't think there was one I really disliked and I was very surprised just how awesome their anise myrtle liqueur was, especially as I don't like liquorice. 

A happy cyclist

Speaking of dislikes, neither Mr Carl or myself are big seafood fans, but a friend recommended we try the marron cocktail and after all the wine tasting we thought that was an excellent idea. It was delicious! We split a bowl of chips and a marron cocktail between us and the plates were almost licked clean. Not only was the marron amazing, but the locally produced sauces that accompanied it were just perfect. I think this was the most amazing find of the whole trip as you really don't expect unique, top notch food and wine up a dirt road on Kangaroo Island. 

 

Posing again!

Eventually we had to head back into town and Mr Carl graciously offered to carry the evenings imbibement. He was actually looking a bit second hand at this point in time so I tried to jump on the front and give him a break from the wind which was no longer behind us. After enduring some corrugations slightly reminiscent of the first day of the tour, we rolled into Vivone bay with our wine bottle intact and proceeded to scope out a place to set up the taj.

The roads we travelled

After a bit of investigation, we set up in a secluded area which included our very own koala overseer and a evening frog chorus. It also had the remnants of an irrigation system, which was a little worrying until we figured out that it was well and truly disconnected. After a shower, we headed over to tea to share our bottle of wine and find out what Karen and Brett had been up to. All in all I think this was my favourite day of the tour!

Happy Snap!

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Bike SA Annual Tour 2013 KI - Relaxation, Rain and Remarkable Rocks

Sunrise

Ah, a rest day! Theoretically a day to recover from all the trials and tribulations of the previous days. A chance to dry out, take stock and recover. More importantly, a chance to sleep in! It didn't quite work out that way as I still woke up at sunrise and needed to leave the tent, however I was clever and grabbed my camera on the way out. 

Early morning visitors

 
I was lucky and captured (badly) some of the early morning visitors to the camp site. Apparently they were much closer earlier in the morning, as Rory, the coffee man, took a picture of a wallaby as it bounded past his tent! After a pleasant early morning stroll around camp, I went back to the tent and enjoyed the warmth of my sleeping bag for another hour. Quite a luxury.
 

Man of leisure

Eventually the sound and smell of breakfast encouraged us to crawl out of our tent. Nothing motivates more than the smell of bacon and eggs! Breakfast was enjoyed at a leisurely pace as Mr Carl and I discussed what to do for the day. Mr Carl was a big fan of the hibernation plan whereas I was keen to get out and see a few bits a pieces. Still there's something to be said for a relaxed pace to the day and after a gorgeous hot chocolate, I made the call to ride down to the visitor centre.

Awesome display at the visitors centre

Mr Carl decided to stay and undertake domestic duties (mostly cleaning his bike), while I enjoyed the morning sunshine and spun the 7km or so down to the visitors centre. It was a lovely ride and strangely enough it felt good to stretch the legs. You would think I'd have had enough riding, but a short spin in the sunshine felt glorious and the stress from the previous day melted away.

Relaxed geese

The Flinders Chase National Park visitors centre has an amazing information area which covers the geological, biological and cultural history of the island. The display manages to interlace the three components to create a compelling story of the Island. Well worth the ride out there. 

Not so relaxed goose

I also managed to squeeze in a quick wander part way down the platypus walk, encountering many of the Cape barren Geese who frequent the area. I suspect the geese are somewhat acclimatised to humans, at least they didn't seem in a hurry to get off the path! The walk included some great information and representation on the mega fauna that used to inhabit Kangaroo Island. I didn't manage to get too far, cycling shoes, even mountain biking ones, aren't really designed for hiking, but the walk was a nice way to enjoy the morning.

Pretty flower

I headed back to camp with the theory that I might be able to catch the one o'clock bus out to the Remarkable Rocks and Admirals Arch. While I was grabbing a bite to eat, I managed to convince Carl to jump on his bike and head out to the visitors centre as it had been such a lovely ride. At this point in time the weather was still clear and sunny, so he agreed that he ought to go, chucked on a pair of knicks and a jersey and headed off. Shortly after, as I was sitting, waiting for the bus, I noticed the temperature drop and the wind pick up. I realised then that while I might have had a lovely ride in the morning, Mr Carl was likely to freeze.

Before the storm

 The one o'clock bus eventually turned up and I headed out to the remarkable rocks. Many people had ridden (and in some cases were still riding) the 22km out there, including Brett, and as the bus wound it's way up and down along a spectacular road I appreciated the hard work it had taken for them to get there. As the wind picked up and we passed numerous cyclists struggling on their return journey, I couldn't help but be a little bit grateful that I was in the bus.

 

After the storm

The first stop for the bus was Remarkable Rocks, a stunning geological formation with a remarkable ability to channel wind. At least that was my experience as I tried to get photos and not get blown away by the gale force winds. I had just about taken all the photos I wanted when a squall started to blow in from the south west. Watching it approach the rocks was mesmerising and I wanted to capture it on camera. What I didn't account for was the speed at which it was travelling, even a short sprint back to the bus left me soaking wet.

 

We then headed over to Admirals Arch and the seal colony that inhabits it. There were still many cyclists making there way back through the gale force winds and squalls and I was really glad that I was in the bus. 

 

Hiding from the wind

On arrival at Admirals Arch the rain continued to fall so we decided to wait it out as we had all had our fill of getting wet over the past couple of days. After about 10 minutes it squall passed and we headed out, trying not to lose hats or our footing in the wind. Eventually I made it to the leeward side of the formation and much like the seals camped out there, enjoyed respite from the wind. I think I was a little bit sick of the weather by this point in time and grabbed a couple of shots before heading back to the bus. In my defense, I had been there before many years ago, but it was nice to be offered the opportunity to visit the colony again.

More Flowers

After a slightly humid trip in the bus, as most of us were more than a bit damp, we arrived back at camp. Surprisingly I was mostly dry by the time I got out of the bus, which was a nice way to end the trip. Mr Carl had also survived his ride, suffering more from being cold than anything else, managing to miss most of the rain. The Taj was also still standing, which was impressive given the afternoon winds.

What can I say - I like flowers!

Mr Carl and I hibernated in the Taj for a while, before waiting for a break in the rain to head into the eating area for tea. We chatted and made blog notes until tea was served, enjoying a local wine with dinner. It was a good night to be celebrating too, as the weather forecast for the next day promised little in the way of rain or wind! With this pleasant news ringing in our ears and feeling rather worn out from the days excursions we headed to bed, unfortunately missing the talent show, though by all accounts it was a good night. Curling up in my sleeping bag I felt a sense of relief that we had come through the past three days of poor weather relatively unscathed and that things could only get better from here.
















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