One Man's Web

Six Hundred Kilometre Day

This trip was an attempt at 600km in 30 hours, which for my age and condition was always ambitious. In the event I covered 566km in 33.3 hours. Riding time covered that distance in 26 hours. I had estimated a 600km loop, and the actual distance came up short. I decided not to ride an extra 34 km at the end, which indicates how tired I was!

I improved over my 400km day  trip by taking much shorter breaks at water stops. I still needed to take a decent break at Jamestown, where I slept in the middle of the main street  (a park) for just over an hour.

I left 3pm Tuesday night (15/11) and arrived home just after midnight on Thursday morning.

Visual Highlights

A surreal light show north of Brinkworth, where I could see five headers at the same time in the night. They light up like huge slow moving dust clouds. Above these, over the Hummocks, was a lightning storm and the red pulsating aircraft lights on the wind farm.

I rode into the silence of pre-dawn Wilmington looking for water. As I left, a sheep dog began barking with every ounce of energy it could muster. As it turned out, I was not the problem. As Cochranes  bring in the Adelaide papers every morning at 4.15, this dog sprints across the main street, and defends the honour of the town. It chases the paper truck back out of town! It's pleased to do a mighty job, and trots home with its tail up, puffing contentedly.

In the morning I watched Mt Remarkable appearing out of the night as I rode down from Willowie. Closer to Mt Remarkable, during the night, I almost hit a roo, who lazily loped in front of me. 2 metres is 2 metres, but when you are resting down on the ski tips, and away from the brakes, it's also a fright!

South of Spalding were kangaroos in the wheat, sitting up looking at me. Ears and eyes poked out of a heavy crop and swivelled as I rode past; a bit like Wall-E (plus ears.)

Someone had hit a large doe just north of Clare. The thing was bigger than a yearling steer. It must have given them a shock! Since when do we have deer on the road in SA?!

The Riesling Trail was beautiful, as always. The Rattler Trail was not a highlight; it is not signposted in Auburn, that   could see.

South of Auburn, as the second night began, I saw half a dozen alpacas sitting in a 12 inch pasture. With their necks sticking up they looked like slightly furry swans floating into the night

At Wilmington I turned into an east breeze which was cold enough that even in November, I needed to put on a rain jacket to cut the wind chill. Despite this, the higher night temperatures than the 400 km trip made life much more bearable on the second night, as I returned to Adelaide. That last trip had been torture because of the cold.

I discovered at Willowie that the road to Booleroo is not sealed! ( I had checked.) This meant doubling back, or looping out to Orroroo. I decided to risk the ride which was generally manageable. For a couple of sections I had to walk because the surface was so rough and often too gravelly to ride safely.</p>

It's  hard country out there. I'm staggered they bother with cropping. The country is already dry table-top bare!

I'vebeen playing with a GPS (a gift) and the links to this trip are here:  Adelaide - Jamestown   Jamestown - Home