Author: Grant and Barbara

Nothing as simple as naming a place after a beach. No, it’s from Michael Hicks Beach, British Secretary of State for the Colonies, circa 1878. I’ll need to look is there is a Hicksport. Originally a whaling station, by this time the econimic drivers were wool and grain. Now it’s South Australia’s 2nd longest pier at 772m admired by the 530 permanent inhabitants.

Whilst we remained on the same straight road, the views changed. More pine trees and arable farming. The sea view is never far away in scenery remarkable similar to the North Gower Marsh (looking forward to finding salted lamb).

A diversion to Robe for coffee. I wonder if derobe means we’ve left it behind?

Our first (live) kangaroos doing their marsupial thing. A mob of emus too: as solitary animals they form large mobs during migratory seasons when they are in seach of better food sources. Kind of neat to see these animals in the wild, first seen on Skippy.

Heading into our first rest day – the streets of Beachport will be toured following the tumble weed in the wind.

(Haven’t seen any rabbits yet – I want to give their ears back)….)

Out motel, left onto road. Continue for 144 km straight, turn left into motel. Hopefully a different one.

We’re on the B1, Princes Highway. Designed in 1920 for a visit of UK royalty. It’s hugs the coast, straight and you can see far ahead. So the endurance challenge is what to focus on. Kangaroo road kill, the large lorries that occasionally thunder by. Only one cafe, next to a bit of broken replica oil drilling rig (from 1860s).

Destination is Kingston and it’s 1700 inhabitants.

Interesting day where time merged with tarmac and the trance of the turning pedals.

Yesterday the sign at a bus stops read “don’t forget to hail the bus”. How things have changed: from throngs being encouraged to Hail Caesar, now we honour buses. The connection is roads: today a long straight road for 30 miles or so: maybe the Romans were here too.

The landscape is generally flat and dry. Lots of milk farms. Adelaide City seems distant.

The locals have different ways to express their humour, giving us something new to focus on other than the headwind.

Basically following the Murray River which we take a cable ferry to cross at Wellington.

It starts 2500km inland: only 4% of its water reaches the river mouth near Meningie. Abstraction for farming and drinking water.

Meningie was one an important cross roads and stopping point for paddle steamers. Founded in 1866, it’s 600 population is smaller than the heyday. Abstraction from the 1830s onwards meant the river could not keep the sea out so it changed and silted up.

Tomorrow’s route is straightforward. Left out of motel. Stay on the same road for 149km. Mind the snakes….

Adelaide is nestled on a plain, sheltered on the east by a ridge. So a nice flat 4k to a photo point to mark the start, then 10k of a fairly constant 7% up. Great views over the city through a misty forest. We had supporting music to cheer us on: the bird song was lovely. Through out the day the spring roadside flowers gave a colourful backdrop.

Getting to grips with new road signs. What has a level crossing to do with a cassette I thought? Then I spotted it’s a representation of the flashing lights. Dope. Quiet roads and considerate drivers.

Fast out of suburbia into vineyards then a complete change into more arid farmland. Finishing in Murray Bridge early afternoon.

How do places get names? The river Murray was a key trade route post gold discovery in 1850. A prolonged dispute about where to sight a crossing settled on one place. So a bridge (precast in UK and kept in storage for 7years waiting for a decision) was built, 1879. Murray Bridge. For a while it was road and rail until the second bridge opened in 1925. There’s no info if they thought of changing the name to Murray Two Bridges. So we have water, road and rail and their varying fortunes. It takes longer to read this than walk around!

Good start.

This morning we met fellow riders, support crew and briefed (though she seemed to miss the brief part) on the dos and don’ts. Magpie swooping alerts was a new one: coincidentally the Guardian ran an article on it yesterday. Bags down tomorrow at 6:30 was the shock item. Today’s blog will be brief!

Adelaide’s centre is surrounded, by city planner design, with parks. The Himeji (Adelaide’s twin town) Japanese Garden in one of them is an oasis of quietness – apart from the noisy kids who are having too much fun to worry about such things (quite right too).

Then for a stroll back along an avenue of still to bloom trees. No hiding place for the lorikeets. The cockatoos didn’t seem that worried as they dug for (presumably) food.

A final stroll through some heritage bungalows with fine ironwork and then it’s time to pack.