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