Day 268, Tuesday, 22 December, 2009

Distance travelled – 62.4 km
Avg speed – 20.1 kph
Max speed – 44.9 kph

Riverton to Adelaide

Today our focus was to ride all the way into Adelaide. Originally we had thought to stop two nights in the Clare Valley but for the last couple of days the weather forecast for tomorrow has been a very hot 42o. Not keen to be riding on such a hot day we have been trying for the last couple of days to be in a position to get to Adelaide earlier than planned. Therefore, when it was suggested yesterday that we ride to Riverton we were very open to the idea as it got us closer to Adelaide.

Except for a few steep climbs our run to Gawler was mostly downhill and with a very much improved road surface and sealed shoulder we found it a relatively easy ride. We stopped at one point to talk with an Australia Post Contractor dressed as Santa and as we made the descent we got our first views of Adelaide in the distance across the flat Adelaide Plain.

In Gawler we were flagged down by a local interested to find out where we had been and where we were going. He and his wife had also toured on bikes and we think he was looking for inspiration for another trip. It was nice to have the interest in our journey and the café recommendations for lunch were most helpful. He suggested we not ride into Adelaide along the Main North Road and over lunch we decided to take his recommendation and catch the train. Feeling a little guilty to be using a train we decided not to go all the way into the city and got off at Islington. From there we found it easy to find the roads with the cycle lanes and arrived in North Adelaide just before rush hour. As we crossed the Main North Road we were pleased we had not ridden from Gawler, as the road was extremely busy.

Catching an unfamiliar train with our trailers did concern us a little as the station was unmanned but we found the conductors to be most helpful. The train we caught had a space specifically for carrying bikes, which as it turned out was exactly the same length as our bikes and trailers. It seemed we were meant to catch that train.

Having ridden all the way into Adelaide last year we have since been able to rationalise the use of the train for 30km to bypass the traffic.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

How many water bottles are we carrying? (This is not all of them)

North of Gawler

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