Once underway it was another brilliant, cool, clear autumn morning, and I set about the 75km lunch target of the infamous (in wine circles) town of Clare.
It was a nice ride on a B road without any hassles, the hills a mix of shades of browns and reds from recently ploughed earth. I was keen to push on to Clare to get a better breakfast than my leftover fruit which was all I had left in Gladstone..oh except for muesli bars as always!
After a few hill climbs and some decent descents with it, on I rolled into Clare to hit up a bakery I'd read about. Conveniently the bakery was right next to an entry point for The Reisling Trail...a very nice and very well maintained bike path that connects a lot of the local vineyards and other points of interest.
What an amazing ride this was! Hard packed dirt zipping through glorious vineyards and farmlands. Had I not had further to ride, I would have stopped to try some wine, but I was actually pretty content just enjoying the cycling. Also I was pretty filthy looking after a month of cycling and may not have been a very pretty sight for tourist's trying to enjoy a wine tasting.
But this was cycling heaven...
Just the kind of cycling to enjoy after dodging road trains on highways in blustery winds. I was grinning from ear to ear.
The Reisling Trail (which is also part of the much bigger Mawson Trail) connects up with the Rattler trail at the town of Auburn, and this takes you to the next settlement of Riverton without having to ride on a road.
I will post a better map once home, as well as a gpx file.
Riverton was my target for the day. I'm now really close to Adelaide and could easily finish tomorrow, but will hold another day for a special treat on my final day!
It looks like my run of clear skies will come to an end sometime tomorrow, with some rain forecast. The Barossa valley is a mere 60km from here so I will ride a half day over there and look round if I can vaguelly smarten up enough to not get kicked out.
Distance today: 120km
No comments:
Post a Comment