Port Victoria to Point Pearce

Posted on by helenhmk

For today’s reccey we drove to Port Vincent from Wallaroo. After your typical fish & chips lunch and the obligatory walk on the jetty (by heck its cold out here) we cycled off towards Point Pearce.

From the jetty there is no sign we could locate to where the walk the Yorke trail continues. Although truth be told.. there are not many options. We went down a little path near the foreshore which needed up in front of a number of holiday shacks at the local caravan park. Be where if you take this path you end up walking up stairs – which we did.. but there are not on many.

The path to start off is bitumen.. but don’t let this give you a false sense of security about the rest of the ride. The path takes you along the foreshore with picturesque views out to sea. The path directional signage takes you on to a rocky path.. but as a bonus we managed to see 5 pelicans.

After a few turns the trail takes us inland through the Nharangga Aboriginal Lands and Point Pearce. As we were cycling along we saw a large number of holes in the ground. Based on the signage the area is home to the Southern Hairy-nose wombat. Unfortunately we did not see any – just lots of evidence of them being in the area.

The direction we cycled was into the wind. If you have ever cycled into the wind on a sandy rocky track you can imagine how slow the ride actually was. If you had a mountain bike it might of been better for the conditions – but not much. Along the way there are seats and signage about the area. I must admit they look a little like you are waiting for a bus… but I know one is never going to come. As we were cycling there was the fence to our right and lots of shrubby plants on the left. It was so peaceful, with no other sounds apart from birds… oh and us on bikes.

Despite the wind we made it to the mid-way point, and saw clouds get darker, and decided it was time to head back. Unsurprisingly the cycle back to the turn off was only 20-25 minutes as we had a tail wind nearly 1/3 of the time!

Breakfast ride…

Posted on by helenhmk

Cycling is always a good start to the day – so we decided to cycle to breakfast.

Cycling from Wallaroo to Kadina is a mere 8km. The route is simple – as it is along the old rail trail. The benefit of this means the route is largely flat – and easy to find.

AS you can see but he photo the path is pretty wide and good enough for gophers. Just take a closer look at the symbols on the signed post.

There are a few times you have to cross roads – but the sight lines are really good, and there is not much traffic. Along the rail trail there are a number of historical signs, and shelters and seats. The scenery surrounding the ride was farms, run-down buildings, fields.

The weather for the ride was pretty good – as you can tell by the photos it was a perfect morning.

Getting to Kadina is easy.. and getting to the centre of town when you reach the end of the trail is even easier by the large sign which tells you “town centre”. Following the road takes you to the centre of town and the array of small shops and historical buildings.

Thankfully we easily found our breakfast spot – corner of Hallet Street and Taylor Street. Just perfect!

Our early morning ride was just over 18km.

While the purpose of our trip was to scout the “walk the Yorke” this was a simple little rail trail which was worth the diversion.

Bakery review…

Posted on by helenhmk

Bakeries in Australia are fabulous. I may be a world traveller – but based on experience they certainly are at the top of my list.

So far we have visited two… the Ardrossan Bakery and the Maitland Bakery.

The Ardrossan Bakery is easy to locate – as it is I in the Main Street. There are a few seats outside, and over the road there are a couple of park benches under the Norfolk pines which are down the Main Street.

We had pasties, sausage rolls, chocolate doughnut and apricot turnover and sat outside given the weather was delightful. While I generally prefer tomatoe sauce put in the centre of the pastie with a squeezey bottle the usual presentation is the sauce in the takeaway packet you squeeze together and put over your food. Pastie was great, as was the apricot turnover. For me the doughnut was a little more cake-y than I prefer. I’m generally not a fan of large amounts of cream – but the apricot turnover was fabulous – and a real highlight. Not too sweet… just perfect. If you are in the neighbourhood – I recommend it!

The second bakery we visited was in Maitland.

It was late afternoon… and they were about to close for the day. We had just completed a cycle from Port Vincent to Point Pearce and back. The wind had taken a lot of energy out of us – what there was nothing better than a bakery product Again, I tried the apricot turn over and it was pretty good as it was eaten very quickly. You do have the option to eat inside as there are the usual few tables and you can also get a tea or a coffee

Both places are worth visiting if you are on the road and searching for a quick hunger fix.

On holiday… in sunny South Australia…

Posted on by helenhmk

The last time we caught a plane was in January, as we returned from our eight day trip in NZ over Christmas & New Year. It seems so long ago now. As luck would have it we had no holidays planned for 2020.. except for weekend trips to MEL, CBR, and SYD. We had lots of discussion – “we could go to Japan for three weeks”… (although this seems the default plan). Unlike many people who had overseas holiday’s booked and now cancelled, we are counting ourselves as extremely lucky for not reserving a lump of leave for far off exciting destinations. For those of you who are in that position – I can only imagine how hard/difficult/challenging this year is fast becoming.

At work I keep reminding people of the importance of taking a holiday for their wellbeing – I finally I took my own advice and we have taken a week off.

Originally the plan was to cycle the Yorke Peninsula (walk the Yorke), in preparation for a 7-9 day bicycle ride with some friends from VIC and NSW. Due to a combination of limited planning, wet weather and the general malaise it changed by the end of last week to a couple of days. Given the weather we now think we will return to explore the Yorke further in October/November.

This morning, we packed the Brompton’s into the car along with some clothes and headed off to Tiddy-Widdy beach near Ardrossan. Before you start to complain… the name comes from the Aboriginal name of Titty Witty Titty – and here is the photo where you can read it yourself.

Apparently the area is also well known for death adders. Yes you read that correctly – snakes. Thankfully we didn’t see them – but the coastline along the trail is very picturesque.

The ride is fairly easy, and the yellow markers along the trail at key turning points are well signed. There are many well known marked rides around the world (England…) which are not well signed. The Walk the Yorke trail itself is a mix of dolomite (its mined around in the area) and gravel. Some areas are better compacted than others. Meaning the trail is good for mountain bikes, hybrids, or if you have knobby tyres. Bromptons are pretty good too :)

We continued on the trail through Ardrosson, past the silos, lock out point to the open mine and down to James Well. At the end of the road there are memorials to nine female sperm whales which beached themselves in the area in 2014.

The trail from here gets a little bumpy.. and with the very steep hills walking always comes in as a good second option. At the point below we decided to turn around and go back to Ardrossan so we could pick up a late lunch.

Whenever you see a jetty on holiday – you know we are going to have to walk on it. As a bonus this one had concrete and we could cycle

After getting back to the car we drove further along the coast to check-out the trail. There are some parts of the walk they they recommend cyclists to go on the road – this section looked okay to cycle on. The other option would be to walk on the beach where the trail is….

After this we stopped briefly in briefly in Port Vincent, and headed over to Wallaroo where we are staying for a couple of nights.

Slow tour comes to Japan: Day 5

Posted on by kymdt

Tokyo

Whenever we are in Japan we try to attend Brompton in Palace meets. They are wonderful group of people with a common desire to ride their Brompton bikes. Brompton in Palace used to meet during Palace Cycling, which is when roads near the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo are closed each Sunday to enable safe cycling.

Disappointingly, bureaucratic intervention has meant that Brompton in Palace had to move to a new location in western Tokyo. It is a great shame that Palace Cycling has lost a group of supportive and friendly cyclists. But, I am here to report that Brompton in Palace is still going strong and as enjoyable as ever!

Meeting in western Tokyo opened our eyes to some of it delights that, despite of our many visits to Tokyo, we have never seen including Showa Kinen Koen. On day 5 we rode (and walked) around 17km.

Show Kinen Koen is:

  • a massive national park in Tachikawa.
  • known for its beautiful ginkgo row of trees.
  • the most beautiful in autumn, with the maple and ginkgo trees blushing in fiery red and yellow.
  • located a few minutes on foot from JR Tachikawa and Nishi Tachikawa Stations. 
  • one of the nicest park I’ve ever seen in Japan. 
  • a lovely park with bike and walking paths, a lake for boating, a formal Japanese garden, water parks and, in winter, an outdoor skating rink and Christmas light show. 

Tachikawa Cultural Factory

The formal part of the Brompton in Palace Meeting is held in the grounds of the Tachikawa Cultural Factory.

Tachikawa Cultural Factory is an activity base for cultural creation where professionals gather using valuable resources such as the school building and gymnasium of Tamagawa Elementary School, which was closed in 2004.

Utilizing this wonderful environment and the place of learning of a former school, Tachikawa Sogoya has four businesses: Incubation Center Business, Film Commission Business, Cycle Station Business, and Community Design Business. As a pillar, we will develop a wide variety of programs while walking with people in the Tama area and people who are responsible for the culture, as well as local people, and will disseminate them widely in cooperation with each facility.

This formal part of Brompton in Palace is about meeting people and learning how they adapt and use their Brompton. This meeting also had important briefing about insurance and riding in Tokyo. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand too much of that briefing!

Informal part – lunch and park

Following the formal meet, the group breaks up – some stayed at the cultural factory for lunch others went to good fast udon (I want one of these restaurants in Adelaide PLEASE!). The group that remained then went to Showa Kinen Koen, which as the internet quotes earlier in this post points out is one of the most amazing parks I’ve seen in the world.

The park comprises of a number of different parks within a park, which is connected by both walkways and dedicated bikeways. It is a fantastic place for a family to safely go cycling.

Mayumi is the key instigator of Brompton in Palace. I know that everyone values her effort and dedication to Brompton in Palace. Helen and I thank her for making us feel welcome.

Slow Tour comes to Japan: Day 4

Posted on by kymdt

Ikidane Cyclist Hostel to Onomichi

I say Hostel. You don’t think gourmet breakfast, do you? Well let me tell you Ikidane Cyclist Hostel had a great breakfast. The perfect start for any cyclist doing any part of the Shimanami Kaido. Please note the shoes left outside of the sleeping quarters.

On this day we were completing the ride from Imabari to Onomichi and then taking a Shinkansen to Tokyo. Onomichi is:

  • a quaint town located along the Seto Inland Sea.
  • known for the Temple Walk, a network of paths connecting 25 temples.
  • a famous sightseeing place that is characterised by a townscape that is brimming with a retro vibe.
  • probably most well known as the small port town at the starting point of the Shimanami Kaido.
  • nicknamed the “Town of Hills and Cats”.

Our route was 45kms and is shown below.

Morning of discovery

The blue line is the official route, but some times going off-piste provides rewards. This is certainly true this day. I found it hard to limit the pictures in the gallery below. Because we:

  • discovered a mikan inspired toy capsule vending machine on the side of the road.
  • were alerted to the possibility of a close encounter with a wild boar.
  • were encouraged to have a beer by a portly statue.
  • became reacquainted with Cafe Via, who you might remember lost their Tokyo cafe in the recent typhoon.
  • discovered a famous korokke artisan.

This was all before lunch!

Lunch

Again Takero used his local knowledge and language to find a unique lunch spot just a little bit of the blue line. On Innoshima island went to Manda Fermentation an international company, that unsurprisingly, specialises in fermentation.

Manda Fermentation at its headquarters has a garden, foot bath, store and cafe. I personally believe that all cycling routes should have a foot baths to revive cyclists tired feet.

We had lunch in the Cafe and a tried Manda’s amazake. Wikipedia tells me that amazake is a traditional sweet, low-alcohol drink made from fermented rice. It is part of the family of traditional Japanese foods, made using the koji mould, that includes miso, soy sauce and sake. I say oishiii!

Onomichi

On the way to our final destination we came across the wonderful 70 Cafe with a beautiful view. At that point, I seriously contemplated resigning and opening a cafe…. It can’t be that good all year round can it?

I thought the name of 70 Cafe was because there was about 70kms to Imabari. But, its named after the owner’s pride an joy – the Toyota 70 Landcruiser.

It is surprising to learn that after all those amazing bridges the “New Onomichi” bridge does not have a lane for cyclists! But it does not matter because there is a frequent and cheap ferry service that is available for pedestrians and cyclists. When we arrive there was a small market along the foreshore. The foreshore does have a converted warehouse with food, accomodation and wonderful local goods.

We didn’t have enough time to explore much more of Onomichi as we had to catch the train. Perhaps next time we visit!

Takero, arigato-gozaimashita. Helen and I look forward to riding with you again.

Slow Tour comes to Japan: Day 3

Posted on by kymdt

Imabari to Ikidane Cyclist Hostel and Cafe

Day 3 saw us start from Imabari on the Shimanami Kaido. Once again no GPX file is required because all you need to do is find the blue line and follow it. Although, we did take a nice quiet detour along the shoreline.

The Shimanami Kaido route involves seven islands, six bridges and one ferry. The islands we visited were:

  • Umashima
  • Oshima
  • Hakatajima
  • Omishima
  • Ikuchijima
  • Innoshima
  • Mukaishima

We decided to complete the route in two days. Staying at the Ikidane Cyclist Hostel and Cafe on Omishima Island.

Kurushima Kaikyo Bridge

O.k. you say its a bridge, so what? Well, I respond that the bridge is 4105 metres long , it crosses a beautiful part of the world, and has a special cycling lane! This is certainly one of the highlights of the ride – and it was the first thing we did out of Imabari.

Just to emphasis how good the bridge was we took a 7km diversion up and down and a mountain (o.k. maybe it was a big hill) to get some good photos for you.

Lunch

We had plans to visit a special pizza restaurant, but our hilly excursion meant that we were running a little late. Fortunately we called ahead to find out that were out of pizzas in any case!

Quick consultation of Google found a lunch place that was open. When we arrived it look like a run down cabin. But as the doors opened and classical music poured out a gentle woman greeted us. On the menu was one item only – Keema Curry. The setting was perfect. She prepared our curry and collected cut herbs from the garden for our curry and our drinks. We sat outside enjoyed to good food, good weather and good company.

To Ikidane Cyclist Hostel

Fortunately the rest of the ride was not as hilly or as hard as the first part of the ride. The Ikidane Cyclist Hostel should be renamed Cyclist Heaven. It only opened in May and provides great facilities. Most importantly, it offers wonderful food! It is, in my mind, closer to a ryokan and than a western hostel.

Just before the Hostel is a the local Cyclist Sanctuary with food, gifts and orange juice. You might not know but this region is famous for mikan (oranges) and salt!

Slow tour comes to Japan: Day 2

Posted on by kymdt

Tobishima Kaido

A beautiful 42 km ride following a blue line across seven islands. There was no need for GPX file. There is useful information on the Kure Area Travel Report website.

The islands

  • Shimokamagarijima
  • Kamikamagarijima
  • Toyoshima
  • Osakishimojima
  • Heirajima
  • Nakanoshima
  • Okamurajima

Our starting point was Nigata Station – it took two trains from Hiroshima. A rapid service and then one stop on a local service.

To get to these seven islands we crossed seven bridges.

We also had a few tunnels to save our legs we benefitted from some tunnels. But a tunnel is always easier than riding over a hill.

Ate lunch at Marichan’s – her Okonomiyaki was sugoi oishiiii!! We required help from so locals to find the narrow lane that it was located on. We’ve taken a photo of lane to help you!

We took a short detour to visit an old Edo era village with many of its original buildings intact. Interestingly, it also had the bike used by the first Japanese person to ride around the world. At least, that’s our memory of the information at the site! We will stick with that.

At the end of the ride, we took a ferry to our overnight accommodation and the starting point for Day 3 of the Slow Tour – Imabari. Imabari is:

  • the second largest city in Ehime Prefecture
  • home to the Shimanami Kaido
  • shipbuilding town with a beautiful castle and an attractive old commercial district
  • one of the largest production center of towels
  • a city on Shikoku Island, Japan
  • home to Imabari castle.

Slow Tour Comes to Japan: Day 1

Posted on by kymdt

Hiroshima

We arrived in Japan from London at Tokyo International Airport (HND) walked briskly through immigration and customs to the arrivals hall where we met our friend, Takero. We promptly pulled out our pre-prepared cycling luggage – two Brompton Bags and two small panniers and our bikes ready for our flight Hiroshima.

In Haneda we took advantage of the luggage delivery service – which meant our big bike bags and our other suitcases would magically arrive at our hotel 4 days later and appear in our room! Awesome!

Perhaps what is more amazing is that the Japan Airlines transported our bikes without any protective bags to Hiroshima without incident. They carefully placed our bikes in the boxes shown above and added some protective bubble wrap. Here are our bikes in Hiroshima. It is a caring service.

Hiroshima is:

  • the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan
  • is located on the broad, flat delta of the Ota River, which has 7 channel outlets dividing the city into six islands which project into Hiroshima Bay
  • an industrial city of wide boulevards and criss-crossing rivers along the coast of the Seto Inland Sea
  • a bright, modern city with a sad history: in 1945 it was the location of the world’s first nuclear bombing  

The Route

Hiroshima is a convenient location for getting to the Tobishima Kaido and Shimanami Kaido. These two blue-line cycling routes are the the objective of our journey.

After at an awesome Okonomiyaki lunch – Hiroshima style, I did however plot a loop ride that took us past many of the interesting spots in Hiroshima.

Lunch

Hiroshima is a mostly flat city. So included what seems to be the only hill. Up there is where the art gallery is! Some photos from the ride are below.

Hiroshima Peace memorial

We came across some fellow travellers from Lithuania, they’ve been doing an epic ride over a couple of months in Japan that had bikes that matched ours.

Hiroshima Castle
Memorial Cathedral for World Peace

Preparation for the big day ahead

Getting ready for the big ride the next day meant plenty of carb loading! Remember no gyoza, no life!

The weather has been perfect….

Posted on by helenhmk

… for cycling in Japan and catching up with friends. We spent three days cycling the Tobishima Kaido and the Shimanami Kadio, which is in the inland Sea of Japan near Hiroshima with our friend Takero. The views like the picture above were stunning… and the roads were great (sorry England, but here they are maintained). We had a great time and value the time spent. Namma bieru mitsu onegaishimasu (hiragana does not work in the blog so you get bad Japanese)!

We were also fortunate to catch up with some of our Brompton friends at the hi-monthly Brompton in Palace meeting. It was great to see all the bikes, enjoy fast food udon, and visit a park which you can cycle around and see many things – including bonsai, traditional garden and open spaces. It was a great day and we value being able to attend! Thank you Mayumi! For more information search for Brompton in Palace on Facebook.

We also spent time with our non cycling friends Gaku, Ryoko and Shota seeing their Tokyo and getting to visit our favourite shops in new locations. Gaku planned a great day involving seeing an exhibition at Tenozu Island of Channel called Mademoiselle Privé – about fashion and her inspiration, and a great lunch – It’s always interesting seeing Tokyo from the perspective of people who live here.

Kym and I really appreciate the time spent with us – we look forward to seeing you all again soon.