MT PLEASANT TO KAPUNDA

 

MT PLEASANT TO KAPUNDA (VIA NURIOOTPA) = 67km
CUMMULATIVE TOTAL = 772km
KAPUNDA TOURIST AND CARAVAN PARK = $25 (powered)

We had a lovely rest day yesterday at Mt Pleasant and managed to get some much needed washing done ... we were both down to our last shirts and shorts - despite the coldness we had to get all our thermals and leggings washed so we froze a bit in the morning while the clothes dried.
A few photos from the surrounds at Mt Pleasant ...

a penny farthing sitting outside the pub

in the local playground they had wooden animals and I thought this piece of wood like a snake wrapped around the tree was great!
Mt Pleasant is a nice enough place very small with limited facilities but we didn't want to ride on the roads around here on the weekend, especially Sunday, as it was extremely busy with people just out driving.  We did miss the farmers market on Saturday morning but they did have a car market on Sunday morning where lots of people come to buy used car parts etc.
This morning was a little chully but we began cycling around 8.30am.  We were still climbing out of town for a bit and then down into Springton which has the Herbig Family Tree, which if I remember clearly it is a famous tree where a family lived in the tree when the area was first settled ...

Like alot of trees around this area they are very 'gnarly' in the trunk section and could quite possibly provide shelter if needed.
From Springton you climb for a short way and then down into Eden Valley which has a lovely campground in the local recreational grounds but again very limited services in town.  There is a very steep climb out of Eden Valley and then you to down and start to undulate a bit with a bit more down than up. 
It is pleasant riding along this road towards Angastown and the traffic is light today and very courteous.  We are surrounded by fields with very old gum trees and usually sheep and occassionally we see the odd vineyard.
At Collinsgrove there is a rather pleasant hill to climb ..

before you start coming into Angastown you start to see more and more vineyards ... this one judging by the start of the trunks of the vines wer pretty old!

and some young ones ...

We got to Angastown and didn't realise there was a big park at the other end of the town but I did see a  toilet sign so I indicated to Neil to duck down there and guess where the toilets were?  right next to the very first Angastown Cemetery!!! 

It has seats so we sat and had a cuppa and cake there.  There are only a few headstones remaining and when you read what headstones there use to be it is quite alarming just how many of them belonged to babies and children, life must have been hard and it is very depressing reading.

 

From Angastown we continued through to Nuriootpa which is 6km from Angastown and it seems that Nuriootpa is where everyone lives that services Angastown which is a very old touristy wealthy town (who don't pay enough rates as the road conditions through the town are absolute shite!).  They have newer homes and a new shopping mall where Neil and I found a great little $2 shop called Chickadee.

From Nuriootpa we headed North towards Koonunga got lost and had to go on the highway for a kilometer and then took the Belvidere road north to the Kapunda-Truro road.  This was a nice quiet road with heaps of vineyards and flat and we also spotted a dead snake freshly killed today we reckoned (so that is 3 live ones and 2 dead ones so far!).

More vineyards ...

Now these vines were a little different and further on became quite common amoungst some of the farms ... the vines were like little bushes ...



 

Once we come to the Kapunda-Truro road we turned left and went up a hill and then down 2 long ones and then up again as we got closer to Kapunda.  It is a reasonable sized town the campground is nice and quiet and we will stay here 2 nights to get a good rest.  The town has an IGA with fresh food!  Next to the campground is a very small zoo with an emu ...

Kouta was interested in the oversized chicken but kept his distance. Also with the Emu in a cage along the fence is a kangaroo but I don't think it was too interested in us!

I did forget to mention that this morning on our way out of Mt Pleasant we did see a few kangaroos and I tell you they were huge - I am so use to seeing the little wallabies but these kangas were massive and quite a few had joeys in there pouches as they weren't so agile when they bounded off!