A day off
Faced with the blessing of an unexpected day off, what is one to do but go for a ride. It's the middle of December, but yesterday dawned under cloud but with the BOM suggesting the threat of rain was minimal. So I chugged up Yorketown Road to One Tree Hill, and warmed up properly on Mount Gawler so that I was ready for Checker Hill. From there it's a short ride to our favourite cherry farm.
It's almost two years since the Sampson Flat fires, and the regrowth is lush. Closer inspection shows the fire scars and dead timber which will mark the blaze for decades.
The good news about a ride like this is that I can eat sugar! I ordered a couple of delicacies I normally have to forego at Kenton Valley Cherries. The bad news is that by the time I'd reached Lobethal I knew the additive to which I am allergic— we think this is what it is— is in the flour they use for their magnificent chocolate cherry slice. And in the bizarre thing which is this allergy, if I kept riding up hills, I was fine. Stop for a photo or to check the map and my throat begins to constrict and I sneeze like crazy!
You wouldn't know it was half way through December up here. I took the back road from the cherry farm (Hartley Vale Road) and then Berry Hill Road into Lobethal.
There is also some delightful virgin bush on this road.
The Lobethal to Adelaide road is a delight. Add Marble Hill and Montacute Road for an afternoon in paradise.
We need to get up there We've been down there!
Shades of Christo
I skirted the suburbs to cross the Torrens at the top of the Linear Park, continued along the edge of suburbia to Yatala Vale Road and came back to Elizabeth down the Grove Road. 107km, 1789 metres climbed, and good coffee. Nothing not to like, especially as, back at work, one of my colleagues was spending the afternoon in the Access toilets waiting for a plumber to grind the lock off! I think I had the better day.
Click to open the map and click again to enlarge or click here: for the Interactive Map
Good people.
Copyright ^Top