One Man's Web

This week's 200km was a trip to Victor Harbor and return. I find this a fascinating ride. At 212 km it's only 11km further than my loop up through Angaston. But where I can do that in well less than 12 hours, start to finish, this ride takes a whisker over 13 hours at best or, this week, 14hrs 18. Is it the hills? Does an extra 675 metres climbing make that much difference? Certainly, the climbs are a lot more concentrated.

It's a fast slope down the Linear Park to the city and then flat out to Darlington on the Marino Rocks Greenway and the Sturt Linear Park. The first climb begins at Darlington,... Read on >>>

Farina is an old railway siding on the original Ghan line to Alice Springs. It's about 600km north of our house, and a group of volunteers have restored the old underground bakery which is near the station homestead. It seemed like a good ride; what's not to like about a bakery. :)

I was feeling a bit undercooked after some illness, so Day One was a deliberate test for whether the ride would proceed. It was a 214km stretch to Jamestown, which is a great launchpad for going further north. The immediate challenge on this day is the ride out of Adelaide.  Highway One is suicidal. All roads have a "personality" and the road from Gawler to Tarlee (Main North Road) is also unpleasantly busy, and feels bike-unfriendly. It is one of the few places I expect oncoming traffic to overtake in my lane, forcing me off the road! But there is a very nice workaround which costs only 8km.... Read on >>>

I've been enjoying 200km loops out from Adelaide. My latest trip introduced a variation on the normal routes through Angaston and/or Sedan. I took the bike paths up to Nuriootpa and then cut across to Greenock and on up to Kapunda, which is just shy of 100km. From Kapunda I cut across to Truro which allowed me a "straight" run down to Mt. Pleasant and home via the Torrens Gorge... Read on >>>>

One of my long-time friends was leading her last service before retirement recently. We travelled over to be there, and I took the opportunity to ride home to Adelaide. She was the minister at Creswick, which is a little north of Ballarat, and the shortest way back to Adelaide is along the Western and the Duke's Highways. Traffic is very heavy on both these roads. They are not pushbike friendly, especially the Western Highway. I chose a parallel route for the first 170km and then headed due west to the coast to take the much quieter Princes Highway along the Coorong. The direct (car) route is 630km. My tourist route was 769km, which is pretty good given the big loop out to the coast. I planned the ride over four days... Read on >>>>

My last couple of rides have been out around Fox Creek. The first ride involved a gentle pedal up the Linear Park and the Gorge from our place, and then a long climb up Fox Creek to the top of Croft Road... Read on >>>>

I was planning a long nonstop with lots of gravel last weekend, but a close Covid contact put a stop to all that! So, after a clear PCR test, on a supposedly rain free Monday, I took a consolation loop up through Clare, and return to Adelaide.

A fast trip north from Adelaide has only one sensible route, from my perspective anyway. Highway One is constant noise and one is always at risk from the high traffic volume. Main North Road from Gawler to Tarlee is also busy, and in my experience, often just feral. Something clicks in Tarlee, apparently, for the traffic then slips into the typical courtesy of country drivers. There is a third route which our family used to call "the middle road," or just, "Brinkworth." From the family farm between Gladstone and Crystal Brook this became the favourite trip to Town, aka Adelaide... Read on >>>>