2011 is another rebuilding year for me ... coming back from recent difficulties and building up my strength and endurance again. There will not be any 1200K randonnees this year, and no extended cycling tours. But if all goes well there will be a lot more riding than last year, including several long rides and several hub-and-spoke tours. I'm enjoying riding again ... cycling gets me out into nature, to breathe fresh air, and to see the beauty of nature.

The rest of this page are my "big" rides this year, complete with a photo gallery of each. The stories are on this page. Please click the links for the photos ...

Easter Weekend - South Australia - April 2011 (Photos)

Thursday night after work - we started driving and decided to drive straight through to South Australia. It gets dark here about 7 pm, so most of the trip was in the dark, and I tried to guess what the terrain was like and what I might be seeing if it were daylight. There weren't many animals around, which was a good thing, but we did see a few rabbits, a fox, and an owl standing right in the middle of the road.

We took a 3-hour nap in a rest stop close to the Victoria/South Australia border, and then ate a number of our apples for breakfast. I didn't realise that there were restrictions on bringing fruit and veg over that border so we had to get rid of a few potatoes and the rest of the apples.

Friday morning - we arrived in South Australia and drove up and down the coast exploring until our cabin was ready. The southern side of the Fleurieu Peninsula is a nice area, with a lot of variety in terrain ... and kilometres and kilometres of beach. We stopped at one beach for a little while, and took photos from a couple other viewpoints as well.

The terrain is deceptive. It looks generally flat, but there are some long, gradual climbs and steep climbs in rather unexpected places. And from one angle, the area will look flat, from another there will be quite a good sized hill in the distance, and drive a little further on and suddenly there's a viewpoint looking down over a valley, and you realise that you're actually quite high up.

As we explored, I suddenly spotted a kangaroo in the field next to the road. We stopped and got some photographs. The kangaroos in this part of the country seem more willing to pose for photographs than they do where we live. In our part of the country, they run away.

We got into our cabin about noon, and slept the afternoon away ... part of the idea of this trip was to rest and relax.

Saturday - Late in the morning we walked from our cabin to the beach, not far away, and played in the water there. It was just a bit chilly, so we didn't go in too much. The ocean is so close, we can hear the it roaring even when we're tucked in our cabin. I love the ocean!!

Then we selected a nice, relatively quiet loop to ride - away from the beaches etc. where all the traffic tends to congregate. I wanted to have a look at the area we selected because it is the mouth of Murray River, the big river that forms a border between Victoria and New South Wales. The Murray is apparently the third longest navigable river in the world, after the Amazon and Nile, at a length of 2756 km. It is continuously navigable for 1986 kilometres from Goolwa to Yarrawonga. It is also the 16th longest river in the world. We've seen the Murray in the Yarrawonga area and wanted to see it at the Goolwa end.

We drove out to a particular town and were setting up our tandem when a cyclist went by. By the time we got on the road, the cyclist had reached his turn-around point and was on his way back. He rode hard and caught up to us.

Rowan was wearing his PBP jersey, and the cyclist asked us if we were long distance cyclists. The Carradice on the back of the tandem and the jersey gave it away.

We got chatting and it turned out that although he has never done an Audax Australia event, he knew about them and was thinking of participating in them. He travelled with his cycling. He was wearing a Round the Bay in a Day jersey, which is a popular 200K event (although not Audax) in Melbourne, he had done a relatively lengthy event about a month ago in the area where we live, and he rode the Alpine Classic route a few weeks after the event just so he could see what the route was like. He showed us around his town a little bit, and then we continued on our way. All up, we did 45.8 km on the tandem.

Sunday - Drove into Adelaide, the "City of Churches". This is the first time I have ever been to Adelaide so it was exciting and interesting for me.

First, Rowan took me up to the Mt Lofty Lookout, a beautiful view over the city of Adelaide. I would definitely recommend going there and taking in the view! We took a look through the gift shop, and picked up a Bike SA route guide.

When we got into Adelaide, we found a place to park and then spent the next several hours cycling and walking around Adelaide's city centre area. I enjoyed that, and fortunately it was very quiet there ... everyone must have been out of town at the beaches.

We started by selecting and following Bike SA's route guide for a route around the city centre ... and we ended up seeing parts of Adelaide I don't think we would have seen otherwise. We were taken on all sorts of little back lanes, across a parking structure, and here, there, and everywhere!! The route was classed as "easy", and it was relatively easy to ride in terms of terrain and distance, but it wasn't particularly easy when it came to road crossings and trying to find the little lanes we were supposed to be on. We gave up about halfway around ... partly because we decided it was too challenging following the route, and partly because we were distracted by an Austin Healey car show.

We stopped for a bite to eat, and then decided to follow the MUP (Multi-Use Path) along the Torrens River. The area along the river is very pretty ... Adelaide is full of parks which are lovely. We don't usually ride MUPs, and I was reminded why not. However, we put aside any desire to ride faster than 10 km/h and rode the MUP as a way of seeing parts of the city without getting lost.

Back into the city centre, we checked out the Rundle Mall - mainly walking - and some other parts of the city centre area.

Although we only cycled 19.35 km, the whole trip took several hours. It was, however, an enjoyable several hours exploring a city I've never seen before.

On our way back to our cabin, we drove through the town of Hahndorf, a little German tourist town just outside Adelaide. That's a place I'd like to visit again on a day when there are fewer people around. It appeared very charming.

Monday - We were up early to take a ride on an old steam train in the morning. I like things like that ... they keep a part of history alive and allow us to slow down and take in the things around us. The track goes inland a little ways from Goolwa, but after Middleton, it returns to the coast and the rest of the way into Victor Harbor is along the beautiful blue ocean.

We had hoped to take an afternoon cruise as well, but it was booked solid so we decided to drive to the other side of the peninsula to see what it was like over there instead. We went all the way down to Cape Jervis to have a look across at Kangaroo Island. We had thought about going over there too, but discovered that the prices were quite high for the ferry trip and so contented ourselves with a look from afar. Then we followed the coast up to Normanville.

I thought that the Normanville side of the peninsula would be the one with the large waves, but it wasn't. The ocean was very calm there, probably a bit better for swimming. But I liked the beaches on our side of the peninsula better, with the big waves and the roar of the ocean.

On our trip back across to Victor Harbor, we stopped in at Glacier Rock, a small attraction of geological significance. This large boulder is an erratic, and shows signs that there was once a glacier covering that part of the world.

Then we spent almost an hour at the beach near our cabin walking in the waves. I could get used to going down to the ocean and walking in the waves several times a week. It was a beautiful 23C out there, with blue sky and sunshine. A gorgeous mid-autumn day.

Tuesday - We decided to attempt the Encounter Cycleway along the coast between Victor Harbor and Goolwa. Because we were staying between the two towns we decided to ride to Victor Harbor first, and then to Goolwa.

The route to Victor Harbor was quite busy, and not that easy to follow. They need more signs to indicate where cyclists should go to rejoin the path when the route takes them off the path and onto the road. And the path needs to be wider to accommodate the number of different users - faster cyclists, slow cyclists, walkers, joggers, children, dogs, etc.

The scenery along the route, however, was beautiful because it follows the ocean.

Because we were frustrated with the bicycle route, we opted to use the highway all the way to Goolwa, which was, I think, the better choice. It has a shoulder and because it was Tuesday afternoon and a lot of people had returned home from the weekend, the traffic wasn't too bad.

We wandered around the wharf area in Goolwa for a while, and discovered a steamboat there. I didn't realise that there were also steamboat cruises in the area. That's something to keep in mind for next time.

We returned to our town following the cycleway and that part of it was quite good with long straight stretches on either the path or the road - not so much weaving in and out and back and forth. As well as being easier to follow, there were also fewer people using it at that time of the day. In no time at all, we were back at our cabin.

All up, it ended up being 42 km along the beach. The ocean was beautiful!! And the weather was great!

Wednesday - We were up early and packing to go. On our way out, we stopped at the beach one last time to look at the ocean. I felt sad to leave. I do wish we lived a little closer to the ocean.

And then we followed the same route back as we had taken when we came out, only this time I could see what was out there. The terrain goes from being quite flat, once you leave the peninsula, to low hills, to higher hills as you get closer and closer to where we live on the edge of the Great Dividing Range.

We were home in good time to get a good night's sleep to start work again on Thursday.

We both liked that area of South Australia very much and have already talked about returning there again.