Bike SA Annual Tour 2013 KI - What a Wonderful (Windy) World

Still standing

Just in case you were really worried about us, we survived! It was a wild night, the rain didn't seem to let up until the small hours of the morning and it was difficult to get much sleep with all the thunder and lightning, but we managed. It was a slightly bleary but miraculously dry couple of riders that emerged from our tent that Tuesday morning. Spiky and Nutella hadn't been as lucky, but it was only a small amount of water, nothing compared to the coffee that was spilt in their tent earlier in the trip!

A bright start to the morning

The weather seemed to be clearing and the hot topic at breakfast was "who got drenched?". Everybody looked at little worse for wear, but generally ok and the clearing rain was cheering everyone up. Given the rainstorm the previous night as well as the lack of sleep, Mr Carl and I decided to do the sensible thing and opt for the sealed route for the day. This was disappointing as the unsealed route went down to the coast and through some places that had been highly recommended by my old boss. But a 93km day where we were unsure of the road conditions for about 30km was not the best idea and with slightly heavy hearts we ventured out on the road.

Seriously Wonderful!

It's impossible to be sad for long on a bike and soon we were riding along accompanied by me singing American Pie. Carl seemed to drift further off the front at this point in time, I'm not sure if it was to do with the limited amount of lyrics I knew or the varieties of keys I was singing it in (mainly off I'm sure). I'm not sure if things got any better when I switch to "What a wonderful world", especially as I knew even less lyrics, but I was rapidly cheering up and enjoying myself, which was the whole point!

The amazing volunteers!

Soon enough we had reached our morning rest stop and we had remembered our cups!  The night before, Carl had been enlisted for his technical expertise to help set one of the volunteers alarms on her phone. If it worked, she promised him chocolate, if not, we'd get no morning tea! Thankfully the alarm had worked and morning tea was waiting for us, complete  with random dog who had perfected the art of begging for food. Fran (the volunteer) was happy to see us dry and in one piece and provided us with a huge chunk of chocolate to help us on our way!

How can you resist?

We were also lucky enough at this stop to be invited in to see the work of an expert woodcarver - who wasn't home! He had left his workshop unlocked for us to take a look at and told us to leave a note if we were interested in anything. There are some things that are truly awesome about the country. His wood work was exquisite and his workshop was a treasure trove of bits of history. It was also framed by a gorgeous tree in full flower, which prompted me into full tourist mode with the camera.

The Office

Exquisite workmanship

As we were finishing our cuppas, Spiky and Nutella Bob showed up. They had been motoring along as well and seemed to be in quite a hurry! Since we were pretty much done, we waved good bye to Fran, Ralph and the random dog and set out again, this time with Spiky and Nutella in tow.


 

 

The orange caboose!

The road surface was beautiful and it wasn't long before Mr Carl and I pulled away from everybody else, cruising along smoothly and almost effortlessly. I think it was this next section that really earnt us the reputation of being a freight train, as we seemed to fly past people! Then of course we'd see something interesting and have to take a photo, so everyone would catch up. This offered me the wonderful opportunity to take photos of random riders, most of whom seemed more than happy to pose for the camera.

Romance in the cycling world

Karen and Brett  rode past posing for the camera, something to do with "it will be romantic honey" apparently! Actually, kudos to them, if I tried to hold Carl's hand while riding I'm pretty sure I'd end up on the ground! After a few more snaps, Mr Carl and I took off after the renegade bobs. We soon caught them and decided it was time to do some sportif training! 

Smile Mr Carl!

It really was a beautiful road surface and best of all we knew that about 15 km from morning tea we reached the summit for the day, turned a corner and headed downhill all the way to camp. Once Carl and I hit this stretch of road we really hit our stride, cruising along at about 35 km/hr with little effort. Or at least little effort on my behalf, as I was neatly tucked in behind Carl. He must have been putting in a little more effort than me as he soon wanted to stop and strip off a few layers. This afforded me more opportunities to take pictures and by now the people behind us had gotten used to the strange flying paparazzi and were more than happy to wave to the camera!

Pose for the camera!

 
We repeated this procedure a few times and gave our orange caboose a few lifts as well, but eventually all good things have to come to an end. At the speeds we were doing we soon found ourselves in camp and faced the dilemma of where to set up the tent. 

After the previous nights experience we opted for somewhere high and (relatively) dry, not that there were a huge amount of options given the size of the Taj. We set up on a soft piece of ground on a hillside with slight drains running either side. We were also in close proximity to the coffee van, a stroke of genius you would have thought. We set up the tent carefully, making sure it was going to be water tight. We were ready for the rain!

Soggy

While we had been busy debating where to set up our tent, the volunteers had been busy trying to extricate a truck that got bogged  at the top of the hill. This should tell you how soggy the ground was, apart from us not being able to walk anywhere with out going sqidge, the truck had sunk into the ground up to it's axles! After a bit of extra assistance, the truck was extricated and moved somewhere a bit less soggy.

This is how I like to see rain

About 10 minutes after we set up the tent, the rain started. There we sat, safe and secure in a water tight tent, happy that we were going to stay dry. About 10 minutes later the wind started. At first the tent flexed a bit, nothing to worry about we thought. Then the wind really started and we suddenly realised just how exposed we were half way up a hill. Our tent poles flexed and we hoped that the tent would remain upright. We quickly secured more guy lines, getting drenched as we ran around the tent, mallet in hand in the pouring rain. I've heard of rain dances, but it was my understanding that they're meant to be done prior to the storm, not during!

Happy photos from earlier

The wind just kept coming and I was having  visions of the tent bouncing it's way down the hill. The three musketeers (three guys from Melbourne who always seemed to be tackling this tour together) set up next to us, so my visions included our tent picking up the their three tents as well! I decided I needed to know how bad this was going to get, while Mr Carl courageously decided to stick with the tent and hold it up should it come to that. I set off in search of a weather report.

I know that seeing the weather report wasn't going to change whether the tent would survive or not, but the scientist in me needed to know what was going on. Unfortunately, reception was hard to come by and so I ran around camp trying to see if anyone had any weather information. At one point in time I was told we were going to get 100km/hr winds and that there was a severe weather warning out for the area! This really didn't help my increasing sense of panic. 

The tree survived!

Eventually I bumped into he who shall now be referred to as the "Weather Marshall extrodinaire", Christopher. Christopher had just ridden in from the unsealed route, and whereas our last 30km had been a cruisy down hill, theirs had been a downhill slog into the wind. That's not a typo, they came in on the same road we did and the wind that had sent me panicking around camp had turned a down hill blast into "the worst conditions I have ever ridden in" to quote Christopher. But even in the face of all that he was cheerful, especially when the coffee van was up and running again! 

 

Happy Carl

Christopher had weather details (as well as excellent coffee making skills) and told me that the worst had been at 3:30 pm and everything was now getting better. It was this report I chose to believe (everything seemed better after I had had a hot chocolate) and it was this report that was true. By evening there was hardly a gust, the tent was still standing and we had scored a table near the fire. After an excellent dinner and amazing brandy snaps for dessert (hats off to anyone who serves brandy snaps to over 200 people) we wandered off to our still standing tent and went to sleep. All was well with the world. 





Strava details here 

Bike SA 2013 KI - Thunder and Lightning, Very, Very Frightening

Stopping to be tourists

As per the weather forecast the previous night, rain began to gently fall on the tent from about 5 am (possibly earlier, but I wasn't awake thankfully). The good news was that it was fairly light and it had pretty much stopped by 6 am. Mr Carl and I had yet to make up our minds whether we were going on or off road and we debated the issue over a hearty, hot breakfast. With the rain looking like making a return and our bodies feeling a bit beaten up by the previous days road conditions, we decided on do the sealed route, with the thought in mind that this might allow some recovery to tackle the unsealed route the next day.

Tourist Cyclists!

All sorted we hastily packed up and after a bit of a false start (we'd forgotten to sign out) we were on our way. Again we faced a fairy decent climb within a couple of kilometres of the start, not as bad as the previous day but still enough to wake me up! On the plus side, the cooler weather had made the flies disappear, which was a welcome relief.

Much cooler weather
 

The sneaky coffee stop

 
For the most part it was a fairly cruisy ride once we were over the hill. I felt a bit bad for not doing the unsealed as I suspect there would have been much nicer scenery, however as things turned out, it probably wasn't a bad decision. We were riding on what appeared to be fairly major roads, however the traffic was light and courteous. Our coffee van had made a sneaky stop at the turn off to Hog Bay Road and as always, was well patronised when we rolled by.


 

Mr Carl doing what he does best!

Actually, we had been hoping the coffee van would make an appearance at the rest stop, since we had inadvertently packed our cups with our luggage and sent it on ahead, but it was not to be. It would have been a good day for a cuppa too, the misty weather was a little on the chilly side and hadn't really cleared since morning. We consoled ourselves with a juice and some fruitcake and spent sometime chatting to our fellow riders.

Lush, roadside vegetation

Mr Carl ended up chatting to Mary and Denis Safe, who along with Simon Gillett are the driving force behind the Amy Gillett Foundation. For those of you who don't know, Amy was a cyclist training with the Australian team in Germany a few years ago, when the team was hit by a driver. Amy lost her life, and her parents, Mary and Denis and husband Simon set up the foundation in her memory. I've ridden every South Australian based Amy's ride since they started and Mr Carl and I have ridden the Gran Fondo twice. These rides are part of the way the foundation raises money and awareness regarding rider safety and they are always amazing events. I was touched by the opportunity to meet some of the people behind the foundation and have the utmost respect for them. It probably helped that they were interested in cyclocross!

Mr Carl - Photographer

So after having a relaxing chat and nibble, we all headed off. Shortly after we entered this lovely stretch of road that looked like we were riding through a rainforest! I couldn't believe my eyes (there's not much between KI and the Antarctic but the occasional stray whale) so I had to stop and get a photo. I think I was beginning to get a bit of a reputation as paparazzi nut as I was happily snapping away at anyone who rode past!

No more photos!

Karen and Brett (aka Spiky and Nutella Bob) rode past posing for the camera. Or at least that's how I saw it, Karen since tells me that's her "no don't take a picture of me" hand wave.  After a few more snaps, Mr Carl and I took off after the renegade bobs. We soon caught them and decided it was time to do some sportif training! 

Beginning the Bob's Freight Train

With Nuttella Bob in the lead, we formed the Bob's freight train (Mr Carl was an honorary Bob), picking up other riders as we motored along. Spiky Bob was still struggling with the notion she had signed herself up for sportiffs, but she hung on for quite a while until Mr Carl took a turn on the front and blew the group apart. If anyone wonders why I'm usually out of breathe when I ride with him, that's why - I'm usually struggling to keep up!

Nutella Bob loves hills!

Having lost the rest of the Bobs, we decided to keep motoring, especially as the sky was getting darker. This plan was working well until a nasty hill about 15km from Parndana, our end point for the day. Mr Carl told me afterward that the hill had a 15% gradient in some places, which isn't very nice at the end of the day. So in the true spirit of bike touring, I stopped to take photos (and breathe, but that wasn't the real reason)! After capturing Nutella Bob struggling his way to the top I thought I really ought to get going and so, with only two scenery stops, I made it to the top. There was a brief discussion as to whether we should wait with Brett for Karen, but with the sky darkening and rain beginning to fall, Mr Carl and I decided that all haste was needed in getting to Parndana.


The next 15km were wet, dreary and a bit miserable, but I'm glad to say they were the only time in the whole trip that we were rained on while riding. We rocked up to Parndana sopping wet, with the rain still falling, albeit tapering off. With this in mind we thought we'd get the tent up quick smart in fairly close proximity to the toilets and food (but not too close, it's a fine line). I think Carl and I got the tent up in record time, at which point it stopped raining. Still, it's nice to know we can hustle when we have to.

Dreary, wet and miserable, but still pretty

Now you think being in camp, our worries would be over. A shower, a hot chocolate, a massage, a nice meal and the day would be done. Well I had all those things (the hot chocolate was so amazing that I'm still suffering withdrawals), but little did I know that our troubles were just beginning.

CX practice while sightseeing

It's probably worth mentioning at this point the awesome job the footy club did providing our meals. I had a brief discussion with one of the ladies involved in the cooking and they had many issues trying to get supplies to feed in excess of 200 people (Parndana's usual population is about 60 apparently). The chicken supplied was originally meant to be whole chickens, but somehow changed to maryland fillets then when the lady rocked up there were breast fillets! Given their plans to cook it on the weber she had been worried it would be dry, however the food was amazing and the footy club was a wonderful venue to host three times the towns population of hungry cyclists!

Nutella Bob really likes hills!

KI's a very good place to get away from it all as there is very little in the way of reception. So for me, who has a habit of checking news and weather fairly regularly, it was a nice break. However the outside world goes on without us and we were reminded of this by Mark, a fire fighter from NSW, gave us an update on the fires that were burning in that state. Mark had a very personal relationship with the fires, not only as a fire fighter but also as someone who lived in the area. The fires had been within 5 km of his house and before leaving for annual tour he had been fighting fires that had destroyed homes.


As the rain came down we all wished we could somehow send it over to the fires, but since we couldn't, we did the next best thing, chucked some change in a bucket to go to the Red Cross to help with the recovery effort.

As we were eating and listening to our companions stories, the rain kept falling. Slowly the room got louder and louder and the rain got heavier and heavier. Suddenly the sky was lit up with the flash of lightning and thunder roared in our ears. At this point in time, everyone was looking nervously at the tents in which we would be sleeping, wondering if they would hold up to the storm that was on top of us.

Parndana footy club saved many people the indignity of a damp rest by offering the use of their giant shed (apparently some bunk beds as well) for all those who were worried. The volunteers we were seated with suggested that moving into the shed would be highly advisable, however Mr Carl and I, being the highly experienced campers that we are, decided to tough it out in our tent. As we snuggled into our sleeping bags, with the rain bucketing down, lightning streaking across the sky and thunder in our ears, I wondered would we survive the night?

Do we need one of these to get through the night?

Strava data for the day

Bike SA 2013 KI - The Corrugated Course

The view from the top

Mr Carl and I managed to creep out of bed fairly early, partially due to the excitement of getting started and partially because an 80km off road day is a fairly big day in my mind. We were a little disorganised, the pack up skills we perfected on the outback odyssey were a bit rusty, however we were soon on the road. I tend to take a while to warm up n the morning, my legs often refuse to co-operate until they've spun through about 10km, so facing that nasty 12% hill within 2km of the start really woke me up. I'd like to say it got easier, but it really didn't and I was extremely jealous of all the people who had more gears than I did! 

Road improvements

Complaints aside, we made it to the top and enjoyed the view while catching our breathe. At this point in time we were still on sealed roads and it was easy to motor along on the cross bikes, as long as you dodged the potholes. This was actually one of the few sealed roads we encountered that was in poor condition, however I suspect that may be because it only lasted about 7km. As Hazeline had mentioned the day before, it would get better once we reached the unsealed section - and it did.

A particularly pretty flower

 


The CX bikes were really in their element, cruising along effortlessly, and much to Mr Carl's pleasure, much faster than 10 km/hr (roughly the average speed we travelled the odyssey at, including stops). However, I was determined to play the tourist and get lots of shots for the blog, so I stopped frequently to enjoy the scenery, whether that was a particularly pretty flower or a spectacularly framed view. 







One thing that stopped us both in our tracks was when the road appeared to run straight through a lake! It wasn't really a lake, but due to recent rains, both sides of the road were flooded, providing an opportunity for some beautiful, reflective shots. We later found out that much of southern KI had been flooded and the annual tour route had been revised to account for this.

An unexpected lake

  

East lake

West lake

The lighthouse keepers view

Mr Carl admiring the view

Eventually we made it down to the Cape Willoughby Lighthouse, which was our morning tea stop for the day. I am convinced that a cuppa always taste better after a bit of hard work, whether that be working in a shearing shed, gardening or flying along a road on a bike and this cup of tea proved no exception to that rule. It is moments like these that really make bike touring so enjoyable, sitting somewhere a little off the beaten track, enjoying a cup of tea and a fine view. And the view at Cape Willoughby was magnificent, well worth the ride and the hills. I'd even go so far to say it was worth what we went through later on in the day, which is a big a call as you'll soon find out.

Cape Willoughby Lighthouse

 
Mr Carl and I wandered around, taking in the scenery before heading back out on the bikes. We'd come down a wonderfully fun hill on our way into the lighthouse and now faced the uphill slog that we had seen other riders undertake as we flew past them. Surprisingly this wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be (anything would have been better than the first hill of the day), the hill was quickly summited and we were on our way. Thankfully we turned west before we had to ride up the other hills we descended on the way to the lighthouse, though if I had known what was ahead of us, I may have preferred the hills!

The fun ride down

Devil's Kitchen

 

Left now

Initially the left hand turn led us onto a nice, cruisey road, a bit undulating and a little sandy in patches but a fairly pleasant ride all the same. We appeared to be riding through farming country and were treated to a mixture of green paddocks, farmhouses and the odd lake, though I'm not sure if these were just due to recent rains. 

It's dead!

We also had a slightly heart stopping moment when there appeared to be a rather large snake on the side of the road. Being cautious we stopped (this had nothing to do with the sandy road surface of course) to see if the snake would move. As it appeared somewhat sedentary in it's habits, which was surprising given the amount of flies around it, we inched closer. It was then that we realised that the flies were there for a reason and the snake was one of KI's many road kill victims. Having established that we were safe, we rode a little up the road to take pictures and let on coming riders know that the snake was dead. I'm guessing that Mr Carl and I are perhaps more observant than others as most people seemed to reply with "what snake?"!


 

East West Road in one sentence

It was shortly after here that we turned onto East West Road. This is where the villain of the day makes an appearance in the form of corrugations, sand and unending undulations. I probably would have happily traded my CX bike for Contessa here, no questions asked, though by all accounts those that did have suspension and more gears fared little better than we did. The conundrum that we faced was that you needed to go fast over the corrugations to minimise their impact, cautiously through the sand so that you didn't fall off, have enough gears or power to get over the undulations, carefully brake on "safe" sections of the descents so that you didn't face plant into a pile of sand and on top of it all, stay on the correct side of the road and carefully go around other riders.

A much nicer road

I don't think anyone got through this section easily, it was the real challenge of the day. I only walked a small section, on a rise where the only clear patch was on the wrong side of the road and I didn't want to chance someone coming the opposite direction. Mr Carl had the only flat of our trip on this section and if I was honest, I was pretty happy to have a break while he changed the tube. You'll notice an absence of pictures from this section, the surface required too much concentration to look around and enjoy the scenery, which is a bit of a shame as from what little I did see, it was a fairly unique, dry habitat that was very different to the other areas we travelled through.
 

More pretty flowers

 
We endured East West road and made it down safely to lunch at Browns Beach. Everybody was a bit shaken up, including our coffee van and mechanical support, both had driven along the same route we had ridden and commented that it wasn't really much better in a car!

The weather had cooled by the time we left browns beach and we were a little worried about rain, so Mr Carl did his best impersonation of a freight train along the next section of sealed road and we flew by everyone! Everyone that is except the orange caboose (aka Ron), a very powerful guy on a mountain bike who managed to hook onto the back for about the last 5km before we turned off road again. This was the first of many times Ron joined us on the Adelaide Cyclist Express (apparently Mr Carl and I earned a bit of a reputation for flying past people and as we were both wearing our Adelaide Cyclist kit on the first day, everyone decided we were the Adelaide Cyclist Express), and he was amazing and cheerful company every time.

Browns Beach

I suspect the off road route into American river wasn't as bad as it felt, but after East West Road I felt every bump. The cloud had come in by now and it was cooling down, providing little opportunity for good photos. Eventually we made it to American River, thankfully before the rain, and managed to find a spot for the Taj in a patch of weeds down the back of "The Shed". Actually the weeds provided a very soft surface for our tent, kinda like medieval bedding, or at least that's what I told Mr Carl when I picked the spot!

Dinner was held in a mixture of "The Shed", a marquee and the veranda and everyone enjoyed a good feed. Apparently the barman was very surprised by the capacity of much of our crew to consume wine, admittedly I was too, I had one cider and I was done!

Farm houses

Grasshopper and Karen provided the weather and a the obligatory dinner joke (Karen has a knack for telling jokes with a very straight face, and it was only because of my outback odyssey experience that I knew what she was up to). The weather report wasn't fantastic, with rain on the horizon, so Mr Carl and I were a bit unsure whether to take the sealed or unsealed route the following day. We decided to leave that decision to the morning and headed off for a good nights sleep.

Random lake

My favourite picture of the day!

Strava data for the day

2013 Bike SA Annual Tour - Kangaroo Island - The Bob's on holiday

Mr Carl relaxing on the ferry

Earlier in the year, Mr Carl and myself were talked into taking an October holiday by Nutella and Spiky Bob (aka Brett and Karen). Mostly this consisted of them pointing out that it included bikes and Kangaroo Island, with an added bonus of not really having to organise anything ourselves as Bike SA were running it as their annual tour. So it was that we found ourselves with a car full of bike stuff heading down to Cape Jervis to catch a ferry to Kangaroo Island.
        

Nutella Bob - not quite as relaxed

 



I was hoping for glass like conditions, and was somewhat nervous to see what I considered excessive breeze at the ferry terminal. Thankfully this didn't translate to unpleasant ocean conditions and I was able to enjoy an uneventful trip over.

 

Almost glass like

Penneshaw

Landing at Penneshaw, we wandered up the hill to the camp ground and discovered what would soon become the bane of our existence - flies! The warm weather had brought them out in droves and inspired fast tent construction to escape.



Tent construction and lunch completed, we set about investigating the local area and making sure our bikes were still working. Lunch had included a suggestion to check out Dudley wines, a suggestion the four of us decided to take to heart. 

Mr Carl and Spiky Bob make it to the top!

We had a couple of maps to follow, but unfortunately the maps didn't exactly agree where the winery was, so a few enquires later and we had not only rough directions, but also the closing time, 5pm. Given that it was 12km away and it was 3:30 when we made the decision to head out there, we thought we had plenty of time. What we didn't know is that there were a couple of significant hills between us and the wine. As it turns out these were the same hills that Mr Carl and I would have to face first thing the next day, so we quickly understood just how much pain we were likely to be in.

Mr Carl at the top

Nutella Bob catching his breath

 

Sheep everywhere!

Once we crested the hills, we had a pleasant ride along a country road, complete with an encounter with a friendly farmer and sheepdog! We also bumped into a car full of tourists who wanted to take our picture! This became far less confusing when I recognised Hazeline, the masseuse from Outback Odyssey! Our trusty massage troupe had taken advantage of their one free day to do some wine tasting and sight seeing.

After tasting a few wines . . .

 



After a few scenery stops along the way, we eventually made it to the winery with 10 minutes to spare. Thankfully the lovely lady running the winery was happy for us to come in and have a quick taste. I must say, the winery is worth visiting if only for the view from the balcony - it's amazing! The wine was pretty good as well, and we ended up with a couple of bottles in our pockets for the trip back. 

Best view from a winery

 

The downhill view

Mr Carl and I had chosen to bring our CX bikes on this trip, with the notion that they offered the best of both worlds in regards to riding on paved or unpaved roads. What we hadn't counted on was some steep downhills which made both of us somewhat nervous as the CX bikes don't necessarily have the best brakes. Cresting the last hill before Penneshaw I was treated to an uninterrupted view straight down to the ocean. With this unwanted endpoint in mind I very carefully began my descent, attempting to wash off speed where it was safe to do so. Meanwhile, Spiky Bob on her road bike shot straight past me, flying down the hill and achieving the fastest speed out of all of us for the day.

Bob's on holiday (and Mr Carl)

We made it back to camp just in time for dinner, which was delicious as long as you managed to avoid the extra seasoning of flies. The jovial atmosphere of the camp made it hard to head off to bed, but the knowledge that we would be facing some pretty tough hills the next day inspired a good nights rest.





 

More winery views

The view from the road