Bromptoneering or bust

Every organised bike ride plans for a rest day. Sometimes people ride more on the rest day than they do on a normal day.

This ride was no different! But to make sure we actually scheduled in a short 15km ride from Hillocks Drive to Marion Bay and then offered a option to riding into Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park.

There we so many options – we explored Hillocks Drive (by car). We also cycled to Meehan Hill Lookout before even getting to Marion Bay!

We arrived at Marion Bay in time for lunch, but all we wanted was Golden North Icecream! No photo from me because I ate it too quickly. Everyone was keen to take up the optional ride – a nice easy trail through the National Park to Stenhouse Bay and then a doodle back on the bitumen to Marion Bay. If you’re lucky Helen will share her Emu photographs with you.

The GPX route gets you to Marion Bay and beyond. But I can’t say that has all been ridden and proven today. Give it a go, but with you risk assessment brain on. Day 5 – Hillocks Drive to Marion Bay

This was a new adventure for us – we hadn’t checked out this part of the ride. It was pretty simple however, follow a couple of dirt roads (Greenhill Road and then South Coast Road) for around 46 km along some of the least populated areas of the Yorke Peninsula.

Perhaps because of its isolation the ride was quite pleasant with next to no traffic and fewer corrugations compared with the previous day. It was not enough to save our companion from having a tyre blowout. Without the support vehicle it would have been another 20 or so kilometres of walking. There wasn’t much chance of getting that going.

A word of wisdom, just because Google doesn’t show a bike shop on the Yorke Peninsula doesn’t mean you can’t get tyres. Your friendly sports store in Minlaton might have some? Perhaps the hardware store? Or even a Hardware store. In any case, the support vehicle managed to buy tyres and bakery goods and meet us again before the end. Amazing eh?

There are NO shops along this route, so you need to plan. There are only a few shelters so you need to plan to stop at them!

The GPX is available from Strava – Day 4 – Port Moorowie to Hillocks Drive

This is where cosmopolitan Yorke Peninsula ends and the rugged south starts. There were two public toilets en-route – but under construction much to the dismay of my fellow cyclists.

We planned to deviate from the Walk the Yorke cycle route at a couple of spots because despite the intentions of the Yorke Peninsula Council for all intents and purposes these sections are unpassable for most cyclists. The path from Sultana Point to Heel Road and the path along “Diamond Lake Road”. We took road route alternatives, which are on our GPX files.

Having said all that, we even deviated from our own GPX so we could check out the wind farm visitor centre.

This is one of my favourite parts of the tour. It is very exposed and very beautiful coastline supervised by the modern 1980 brick Troubridge Point lighthouse. Along this segment we met Brian who rode with us for while – even though his extra electric horse power meant he had to cycle very slowly to keep up with us.

Not only are there no toilets but there are no places to eat lunch. So we brought our own supplies of snacks and had lunch at a delightful shelter between Troubridge Lighthouse and Port Moorowie as recommended by Brian. Vivienne’s Anzac biscuits are the best.

Hopefully Helen can find a photo of our lunch spot and post it tonight!!

Tomorrow will be a big adventure – roughly 45 kilometres along a route we have never ridden or driven. What could go wrong. Today’s GPX can be downloaded from Strava – Day 4 – Port Moorowie to Hillocks Drive