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.
















Strava data here

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