BALAKLAVA TO NURIOOTPA

BALAKLAVA TO NURIOOTPA = 77km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 2129km

BAROSSA VALLEY TOURIST PARK = $23.40 (with discount) unpowered

 

Crikey it was a tough day today!  We got up early thinking that we would arrive early as the wind although suppose to be from the east (headwind and crosswinds) and only gently blowing was wrong - it was an easterly but hell it was blowing ... I don't think South Australia has gentle winds ... I just think it blows all the time from any direction during the spring time here!

We did leave around 7.45am and knew that the bulk of the day would be gentle climbing (have a look at the profile).  We had our first small break in a place called Owen.  It had a great information board about the town and the surrounding area and what it grows ... we have started to see a new crop - lentils and also some of the fields that we saw on our way here about 4-5 weeks ago are now brown especially the bean crop, the lentil crop is now a golden colour as with all the grain ... have yet to see any vineyards yet!

We had a cuppa about half way at Hamley Bridge (a town between 2 rivers albeit empty rivers!).  We sat on a bench on the side of the road as they didn't exactly have rest stop facilities.  The bench was near this very pretty Liquid amber tree ...

from here we continue in a south easterly direction and come to a place called Templers where we cross over the main highway and continue east towards Nuriootpa.  Just at the junction there we pulled over for a quick jam sandwich ... and while Neil went off to photograph the bean crop I had quality time with Kouta ...





Here is some photos of the bean crop which we think is being harvested now as we saw some machinery in a field that had just been cut ...

Neils close up of the plant wasn't a great photo in the end ... I don't think he can see the viewing screen!

The been on the left is when it is green and once the field is really a dark brown and the pods are dry they must cut the field ... apparently these beans are for both human and stock consumption!





By now the wind has died down a little bit I think, but  probably because we are starting to enter the hills we just don't feel it anymore.  The sun is also warm and up until Templers we hardly had any traffic now we have quite a bit as we get closer to the bigger towns. 

Just outside Freeling I took this photo as it was my first view of vines since 4-5 weeks ago, the greeness of the vines looks lovely against the grain fields ...



12kms along from Freeling we come to the main highway that goes to Blanchetown and eventualy Renmark (highway 20) and it is a 2 lane highway with a shoulder.  We join it at the bottom of the hill and climb for 3km then down a bit and climb again for another 3km ... all up we were on it for 7km and then we took the Nuriootpa turnoff.

I thought I would be happy on the this main highway as the shoulder would be smooth compared to the other roads where the shoulder was very rough and off course with increase traffic they expect you to ride in the crappy shoulder ... anyhow the highway shoulder was definitely smooth but unfortunately due to budgetary demands when they resealed the highway they only resealed about 75cm of the existing shoulder (sometimes smaller and narrower than 75cm!) so at times we were procariously close to the traffic, if a truck wasn't in the inside lane we moved to the unsealed section which was sometimes a 4-5cm drop!

After the Nuriootpa turnoff it is another 7km to the town itself.  This is a big town of around 4800 people.  The top tourist caravan park is next to the 2 ovals and tennis courts.  At the entrance is a one of the first caravans ever made ...

It is called a house on wheels and built back in 1931.  The builder took his wife and 3 kids and travelled (on unsealed roads) throughout South Australia and the Eastern States.  It has a collapsible table to become a double bed and 3 bunks, an oven and food prep area the write up also said a toilet but I am not sure where that would be!

We have gone unpowered here and most likely will stop here tomorrow due to some hot weather coming and it is a nice enough park ... our spot is under pine trees and is in shade for the bulk of the day ...





PORT CLINTON TO BALAKLAVA

PORT VINCENT TO BALAKLAVA = 53km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 2052km

BALAKLAVA CARAVAN PARK = $25 powered

 

Well what a day!  Crikey the main roads are busy!  We left our quiet little spot at Port Clinton and just before we joined the Yorke road at 1km we let out a big 'woo-hoo' for hitting the 2000km mark.  This road is flat to Port Wakefield but busy we thought and it only got worse when we joined the road that comes across from Wallaroo and then we had to join the main highway that goes into Adelaide!  Fortunately we only had about 10km of these busy roads to endure but I tell you riding on quiet roads sure does spoil you .

At Port Wakefield we weren't going to stop for a cuppa until on the road to Balaklava but we saw someone standing on the side of the road waving and I didn't recognise him at first but Neil did and so we pulled over and the I realised it was the guy from Point Turton who was always chatting to us ... a very nice person and this time we got to meet his wife who we never saw at the campground as I don't think she was well ... you could hear here but we never saw her.  So we stopped and they made us a cup of coffee and biscuit and his wife was over the moon with us and loved to chat!  I think she may have Parkinsons as she was shaking a bit, not sure.  But a lovely couple. 

From there were took the quiet road to Balaklava.  We came along this road on our way to the Peninsulas and by now the wind had picked up and it was a tail cross wind so that helped. 

Balaklava is a nice town with around 2200 people.  Neil has already been to the Foodland and we are having vege burgers tonight.  Our campsite is okay, no grass for us as we want power so we have pitched the tent on gravel and our table and chairs is on the concrete slab.

We do have some rather sad news ... or maybe it is best if I show you the picture and some of you might understand? ...

... yes it is with a sadden heart that Neil finally listened to me and threw away his 'nancy fancy pants' - I was sick of Neil threatening to wear them that I said to him on his way to the supermarket to stop by the op shop and pick up some shorts so he can wash the other ones ... he came back without shorts but too late they were already in the bin!  his reasoning is that why should he carry another pair of shorts when he can wear his other cycling shorts ... I give up!  Next tour I am packing his clothing bag and keeping it under lock and key in the craft room so he can't get at it!

Tomorrow we stay here and then our plans have changed again I think ... looks like we might try a biggish day to Nuriootpa.





PORT VINCENT TO PORT CLINTON

PORT VINCENT TO PORT CLINTON = 70km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 1999km (can you believe it that we are 1km off 2000km!)

PORT CLINTON CARAVAN PARK = $25 powered

 

A slight revision of the route back home yesterday found us staying in Port Clinton rather than Ardrossan as we are now no longer going to Kadina to pick up supplies we will pick them up along the way in Balaklava and Nuriootpa.

So we were a little late in starting this morning ... for one we overslept and for another everyone kept chatting to us and this stopped us from packing up!  One thing we did learn is that the other day when we had the wild winds this caravan park really suffered in those high winds.  Generally most people put their roll away awnings in at night as they don't like the strong winds, well not too many did and got caught in the early morning winds of Monday and quite a few vans had their awnings ripped and some even ripped off!  Some of the park was more exposed to the full force of the wind (remember we were quite sheltered at the Yorketown caravan park due to the embankment on the footy oval which protected us!) more than others and someone was telling us that everyone spent Monday helping each other holding things down ... LOL I said to Neil that I don't remember the radio saying there is going to be strong winds just 'maybe' thunderstorms ... we knew there was going to be strong winds as we looked at the bureau and Elders which both said 40km winds which is the constant and gusts would get even stronger than that.

When we finally did leave we rode along the esplanade and this Port Vincent has a very nice waterfront - very well kept for the public use.  We took the Lime Kiln road and this was a short steep climb from the bay and links up with the highway again and this is what we found ...

It must have been placed there breast cancer awareness month!

This road was nice until Port Julia and Neil just had to stop to inspect the crop!

and then the traffic was incredibly heavy, the road deteriorated and we had some short but very hard undulations for the next 25km to Ardrossan.  To make matters worse we were suppose to have a westerly but it was a gentle northerly swinging to the east so we were not happy cyclists.  Alot of dickheads today on the roads - trucks going in both directions with loads.  We were both relieved to get to Ardrossan for our coffee and we did shout ourselves a bakery item ... didn't feel like anything too sweet so we both opted for a spinach and cheese pastry roll (at $3.90 each!) and it was lovely - you could actually taste the spinach (normally they go easy on the spinach and heavy on the potato!).

Ardrossan is quite a big town with a population of around 1100.  The supermarket was well stocked so we picked up supplies.  We had our break at the end of town where we got a great view of where they store the grain and with its 'zoom slide' down to the ocean where it loads up the ship(s) ... it is a pity they weren't loading ... but I suspect the silos might be empty!

So Ray both Port Giles and Ardrossan have wheat storage facilities that also load up the ships.

The town has a nice mural near where the public toilets are ...

We had quite a long break at Ardrossan and didn't start again until around 1.30pm.  We rejoined the highway and funny enough the wind was now back on our left and coming from the west and sometimes even slightly behind us.  The road was in better condition, the traffic had eased off and the road flattened out a bit!  Sometimes you could see the coast and water and sometimes you couldn't.

Port Clinton is not much of a town and it doesn't really have many 'holiday home' type houses here - I suspect because there is alot of mangroves and the tide goes way out and there is no where to launch a boat, so what holiday homes that are here tend to be in this caravan park which doesn't have many tourist sites but also doesn't get many tourists through here!  To look at the park it doesn't look like much but it is very basic and has a very clean set of toilets and showers!  And my favourite feature of a park ... no one to disrupt us and stare at us and then ask the same questions ... LOL.

We say farewell to the ocean tomorrow morning and start heading inland a bit to Balaklava.  We passed through this town on our way to the Peninsulas and Neil seemed very keen to stop here on the way back ... why? ... well my theory is that when we did stop here before he did the shopping in the IGA and he came out of there beaming and all smiles as he had a bag full of markdowns ... so I suspect he wants to go back there just for the IGA!







YORKETOWN TO PORT VINCENT

YORKETOWN TO PORT VINCENT = 60km (via Edithburgh)

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 60km

PORT VINCENT FORESHORE CARAVAN PARK =  $25.20 (with discount) powered

 

It was a very windy day yesterday on our rest day ... I don't think it would have been suitable to ride our bikes anyway in fact it would have not been suitable for anyone to be on the roads yesterday even today with a gentle cross wind we saw the caravan wobbling along!

So today we were back on the road again and decided to take the longer and more scenic road to Port Vincent via Edithburgh.  We had a tailwind across to Edithburgh and we found this funny crop in someones field ...

LOL they are actually quite picturesque.  We had a brief stop at Edithburgh which is a lovely spot but everything is closed down but there is still alot of holiday houses in the town.

Do you remember Ray that you mentioned there was a port on the East coast where grain is loaded onto ships?  Well it is from Port Giles which is just north of Edithburgh ...

From Edithburgh we took the quiet coast road to this Port Giles  and you get some lovely views looking back towards Edithburgh

Now this is a huge grain storage area and as we rode by it there were workers there getting ready for the seasons grain crop.

Just north of Port Giles is Wool Bay where we had a cuppa and looking back along the coast you can see Port Giles ...





I have to mention that I think I killed a baby snake this morning ... I looked at my front wheel and saw a little wiggling brown thing on the road behind my front wheel and it was too late to brake and I think it may have been squashed by my back wheel if not the trailer.  But in saying that the snake was wiggling really fast so I was hoping he managed to miss my wheels.

After Wool Bay the road goes inland and joins the Vincent highway.  From here we got north to Port Vincent and we found a funny looking thing in some field ...

I laughed at it as I wondered how they got the shed on top of the big metal pipe.  Neil said it looks like something to do with what they call 'dolomite' or limestone as there was a bit of quarry rocks behind it all.

Port Vincent is a nice enough place and the caravan is packed and we are amongst a huge population of grey nomads.  It is a nice enough place and although crowded it is not necessarily cramped in but we do have a very opinionated Queensland couple behind us ... Neil is chatting to them right now!

Tomorrow we are either in Ardrossan or Port Clinton ... we have changed our plans again as I want to avoid paying some shocking camping prices!  Kadina wants $30 - it is a big town but it is not on the coast and what is worse is that the $30 is for nothing - no kitchen or anything so we may miss it and go elsewhere!



 





CORNY POINT TO YORKETOWN

CORNY POINT TO YORKETOWN = 55km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 1869km

YORKETOWN CARAVAN PARK = $25 powered

 

This post is a little delayed as it was a stinking hot day yesterday and night and even now so I have sort of waited until it has cooled down a bit to sit in the tent and do this.

Knowing yesterday was going to be a hot day we got up early and left around 7.30am before it got to hot ... by 8.30am it was hot!  There was not much wind around and when it did come up it was a gentle tailwind.  Basically we were about to complete a small loop between Wallaroo, Marion Bay, Corny Point and then back again through Wallaroo.  Being a Sunday morning there wasn't alot of traffic around up to Wallaroo.  As you can see from the profile there was a few bumps along the way but nothing major ... we did get a good view of Hardwicke Bay (you can see Point Turton in this photo) from the hill just before Wallaroo (around the 34km mark)

and this is the road ...Wallaroo is at the very end of this road!





We got the last loaf of bread at Wallaroo and had a cuppa there ... the food bags are very light and will need to be restocked with the basics very soon!

From Wallaroo we joined the  St Vincent highway to Yorketown (this highway continues up the east coast of York Peninsula) and there was a marked increase in traffic - there was a big British motorbike group going the opposite way to us and I tell you some of them were going barely faster than us and they all sounded like they had lawn mower engines! 

By now it was a stinking hot day and the wind was behind us helping us get to Yorketown!  About halfway we go down to some very flat country and there are the remains of saltwork beds ...

Generally when you see these white dry salt beds it makes you thirsty!  they look so dry!  We also came across an interesting position for a birds nest ...

it was a very good view but also a very long drop to the ground should the wind blow to hard ... speaking of wind we are at Yorketown today having a rest day ... the forecast for today was to be another hot day with chances of thunderstorms ... well it is definitely a hot day (it got as low as 25 degrees last night so all 3 of us didn't get much sleep!) around 32 degrees and it is blowing around 50km per hour and coming from the north so had we cycled we would have had a head wind so happy to be here in Yorketown.

You know how Neil is really good at finding things? well his find today is somewhat different to what he normally picks up ... but you are going to love this Sharon ... he was riding along not long after I took the above photo and saw some small package on the side of the road, but he ignored it (mmm that is unusual!) and a little bit further on he sees the same package again ... and again he ignores it and thinks that it doesn't look useful to him ... about 1km further along he sees a 3rd small package like the first and second and thats it he thinks and it gets the better of him and he stops and picks it up ... it is an unopened packet of Mentos 'aqua kiss' watermelon flavoured chewing gum .. now we don't chew chewing gum (I find it makes me want to eat!) so we are saving it for you Sharon as we think you chew it (and also because when you read this we want to be able to hear the scream - LOL!)

The Caravan park is nice, small and quiet with grassed sites but no shade so we put up the shade cloth and sat under that for the bulk of the afternoon.

Today is just catching up ... would do some washing but the threat of rain is all around but nothing seems to come of it and because I have thought that 'if I do the washing it will probably rain' ... it probably will happen ... so one more day in these clothes is ok!

Tomorrow we head for Port Vincent ... Oh and Flo you were right that photo is of Barley ... I didn't pay attention to the photo properly!





MARION BAY TO CORNY POINT

MARION BAY TO CORNY POINT = 45km

CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 1814km

CORNY POINT CARAVAN PARK =  $24 powered

 

Only a short day today but not an easy one ... I have decided that I am never going to support push bikes paying a rego ... in the past I have always thought we should pay especially if it stopped the ridiculous notion that by paying a rego that gives us (pushbikers) a right to be on the road (despite we do pay taxes which the building of roads is predominantly funded from!).

So you ask why am I not supporting paying a rego ... because we just went on the most ridiculously lazily made road ever!  I tell you it was a waste of 3 million dollars to slap a bit of tar and pebbles on the ground and call it a road.  Basically if I paid a rego I would expect the road to have been graded first before applying tar and pebbles!  It was that lumpy and bumpy it was unbelievable, my hands and feet were full of pins and needles from the 40km of small vibrations!

Anyway enough of me ranting ... I forgot to mention last night that Marion Bay water supply is from a desalination plant.  This is the first time we have tasted this type of water and I have to say lucky it poured with rain in the Melbourne Catchments!  In your cuppa you can taste the chlorine, I wasn't game enough to try drinking it straight.  In the shower it lathered up but the soapy water became very slippery on the base (I found that very strange!) so this morning we went to where the desalination plant is and I expected a big boiling kettle ... I was pleasantly surprised there wasn't one!

all it is is a couple of tanks and a shed!  I think the one in Wonthaggi Victoria is a little bigger!

The road curves north up to Corny Point and it is a very quiet road, for the first 16km on 2 cars passed us and after that maybe a total of 20 all day ... so with the traffic flow being so low I think it was a waste of time sealing this road!

It started of very cloudy and we could see rain around us but we had very little just a few spots here and there.  Most of the time we missed the heavy showers as the road ahead was wet but we fortunately got none.

We had a head wind today and the road is very rolling, not hard but coupled with the wind and poor road surface it sort of slowed you down a bit.  Plenty of grain growing and Neil jumped the fence to pick this grain and would like you all to guess what it is?



I think Neil needs to 'get a life' if he is telling me to get people to 'guess' what type of grain this is on the blog!  But I will guess that it is wheat.

About half way to Corny Point we come very close to the coast but do not see it at all except for a very quick snippet if you happen to be glancing left between 2 shrubs.  But we can see the sand dunes along Fromby Bay ...

One thing we have noticed with South Australia is they can be a little out with their distance between towns signs and today we were totally confused ... theoretically we should come to a very sharp right turn at Dunn Point and then a few kms east to Corny Point ... Instead we get a 'welcome to Corny Point' sign at the right hand turn and a caravan park sign ... so we think okay we are correct with the distance from the Marion Bay sign but not with the sign that is 5km back that said Corny Point is 8km away.  So we both think that we are in Corny Point and so we ride along pass the houses and general store and still no sign of the caravan park,  we pull over to discuss things as we couldn't both have missed the caravan park, but I saw a public toilet sign that said 2.2km so I guessed that was were Corny Point is and on par with the '8km' sign ... so we ride along and I was right, although it was a stressful 2km - I think the welcome sign was meant to be for Dunn Point!  yep sometimes I feel like I am back in Queensland with a whole heap of Bob Catters' LOL

So tomorrow we make for Yorketown and will hopefully pick up supplies in either Warooka or at Yorketown itself ... depends on when we get therei one closes 12.30pm and the other at 2pm.



 

POINT TURTON TO MARION BAY

 

POINT TURTON TO MARION BAY = 61km (diversion to Warooka)
CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 1769km
MARION BAY CARAVAN PARK = $20 unpowered

We had a lovely restday at Point Turton yesterday, not alot to do but sit around on the computer, read and watch people go by.  We did go for a walk along a cliff track to walk the dog in the morning and we got to see the whole of Point Turton ...



as you can see there are quite a few houses here, and there is more to the right of the photo - a very popular place with absolutely nothing here only a general store and a tavern/restaurant above the caravan park.
We did have a little drama in the caravan park in the afternoon ... someone came towing a very long caravan and as he went to turn he took it too wide and didn't take into account the part of the caravan behind its' axle and it did a 'tail swing' (I think that is what Neil called it?) and his van scraped alongside a parked car ... it was an awful sound and the caravan had most of the damage being like a tin can whereas the car (which is a very old ute built like a tank) only had one long big scratch.  Well that certainly got everyone chatting!
This morning we left and diverted to Warooka to pick up some food for the next couple of days.  The wind was blowing from the East completely which is unusual as normally there is a bit of a north or south associated with it.  Nevertheless it was a headwind into Warooka and then back out it was a tailwind and we took the Marion Bay turnoff which heads in a south west direction so it was a cross tailwind for us.  The road is very quiet and a little bit bumpy at times but great to ride.  Both sides of the road have low shrubs so you are protected from side winds.
We did have a little encounter with some cows being moved so we pulled over and let them have the road ... Kouta was super excited about us pulling over to watch ... The cattle saw us and immediately stopped and bellowed but when cars went past they just ignored them but with us they always stop and look!

Kouta was jumping about in the trailer ... he looked when they first came into sight and almost stretched his neck muscles to get closer to them ...

and then he looked at the other side when they passed us ... stretching his neck even further to smell them ... he now looks like a Lama with his enlongated neck!

Once they passed we continued on and had a cuppa at 30km (half way).  There was very little traffic along this road ... I would say a bit more leaving Marion Bay. 

Marion Bay itself is a small community although there are land sale releases everywhere - not sure if they want to be like Point Turton!  But not alot of new buildings.  The National park is a little further on but because we have the dog we will not be visiting it.  Instead tomorrow we will take the north road that runs alongside the national park up to Corny Point.

The campground is almost empty, big and caters for caravans.  We have got an unpowerd site as they have a big kitchen which is where I am doing this blog.  Huge fridge and freezer, kettle and toaster, bbqs which cost $1 for 15mins and a gas stove/oven which I will use to cook our gnocci on tonight.

Our unpowered site (one of 2 in the park!) is nestled in amongst trees and we are around the sites that tend to have permanent holiday vans here but no one is about so that is good.

Tomorrow we are off to Corny Point - not sure if there is reception as it is in the middle of no where!