BAROSSA VALLEY BIKE HIKE April 2008

Friday 4th April 2008 near Williamstown in pine forest 62kms

Dithered at Seacliff as the weather was "inclement"- misty rain. We hadn't set off on Wednesday as planned because of a storm warning - wind and rain! Eventually we decided to take off in reverse circuit by starting with a train to Gawler. We rode uphill on a secondary road to Williamstown. Great, but country side was very parched. Best thing today was the "Whispering Wall" at Barossa Dam. It really works - an arched dam wall that carries sound around the curve very well! The worst thing - we decided we would go to a pine forest to camp the night. Up and up a dirt road only to find that forest had been razed like a nuke site! So we had to ride down that bumpy dirt road and along the main road a bit further and came to a lovely pine forest camp site.

Saturday 5th April 2008 Tanunda Caravan Park 57kms

Went to sleep with the sound of currujongs but woke to the sound of chortling magpies after over 12 hours in the tent, and we slept most of that time! Williamstown is a pretty town, especially in the morning light. We arrived at Lyndoch in the Barossa Valley at 11ish and had our mandatory coffee and cake.
We rode on the main road to Tanunda. It was very pretty, gently undulating and but quite a lot of traffic. After setting up camp at Tanunda Caravan Park at midday we unhooked “Dobbin,” the trailer, and took off touring to Seppeltsfield Winery. It is HUGE and old. We tasted a yummy $39 bottle of wine, but after great deliberation decided not to buy it! Next we rode to Maggie Beer's winery and food farm. We adored the pheasant pate but it needed refrigeration, so we saved money there too. We reckon it was another great day.

Sunday 6th April 2008 in pine forest between Springton and Williamstown 62kms

Rode along the cycle way/ footpath to Nuriootpa. We enjoyed the cycle path in the Linear Park along the creek in the town. The highlight of the day was the Nuriootpa Bush garden, a community re-vegetation project with local indigenous plants. It was inspiring. Then we rode on to Angaston for coffee and cake and free inernet access as we had purchased goods for over $5! Then we turned south onto the Eden Valley, Springton main road which was gently undulating. There were lots of big, beautiful, old gum trees scattered in the sheep grazing paddocks. It was sad to see the country side so dry. Took photos of the Herbig family tree - A couple lived under this huge old gum tree and had 2 children there before they built their house and continued to have 16 children! At Springton we turned west towards Williamstown for some more pine forest camping in the Mount Crawford complex. The only unchained gate led us to a densely planted young plantation. We parked "around the corner" on a firebreak track. There was grazing hilly country to the east. It was very peaceful and we saw quite a few kangaroos.
Monday 7th April 2008 Wotton scrub near Carey Gully 65kms

Left campsite at 8:15am along an unsealed road to Mt Pleasant - very pretty but a rough 8kms. We had to walk up Mt Pleasant summit, which was on this road. We refilled our water bottles at Mt Pleasant and shortly after this town turned west again towards Williamstown, but only went 8kms where we turned south towards Gumeracha. The road through Foreston was mostly a long downhill journey through a valley of apple and pear orchards. You could smell the fresh fruit. Mm! We had coffee and cake at the Gumeracha Giant Rocking Horse. There was a fantastic array of wooden toys for sale - lovely quality varnished pine and painted highlights in primary colours. Then rode onto Lobethal and Lenswood. We had 3 mishaps today -
1) A bloody big truck towing a trailer overtook us while a car was coming towards us - scary! I headed for the off road!
2) Stu fell off his bike - on the ledge of the side of the bitumen. No major damage to rider or bike. Just damaged ego.
3) Stu's bike chain broke. Stu had the tools to take out a link and rejoin it. The chain is shorter now and so he can't use the big front cog, but otherwise all is well.

Lots of ups and downs today. We're stuffed!

We were in bed by 6:30pm. It was dark! At 8:30pm we had the biggest shock. A CFS truck came down the bush track headlight on and blared its siren at us! We were in the Keith Williams Conservation Park which we knew was a camping No-No BUT we found no-where else to go; we knew we were "perfect campers" - no fires, leave nothing behind etc. Stu got out of the tent and explained our situation and they "told us off" but understood our predicament and they went away. It was Monday night - CFS training night, but we reckon some-one saw us lifting our bikes over the gate and that some -one was "neighbourhood watching" very well!

Tuesday 8th April 2008 back at Trottnest 35kms

Departed the campsite at 8:15am making sure nothing was left behind! Gum Flat Road was not flat! There were some big uphill climbs where we had to walk, but it was pretty. We got to the T junction of Rangeview Road which goes from Carey Gully to Stirling. We had planned to turn off to Picadilly and cross the freeway at Crafers, but Stu was ahead, as usual and... we ended up going through Stirling and walking up the steep suburban Stirling/Crafers roads up to the Upper Sturt Road at Crafers. We turned off onto Sheoak Road which forms the northern boundary of Belair National Park. We entered the park at Waverley Ridge gate and a had a gorgeous ride through the park to the main western entrance. We then had to climb uphill again to Glenalta, where we rewarded ourselves with coffee and cake. We zoomed down Shepherd's Hill Road, Sturt Road and got to Seacliff late morning.

Another great bike ride - total 250kms. (5days, 4 nights)