May 2nd, 2011
Strathalbyn to Adelaide
Distance: 72km
Total distance: 2470km
Only 70km to ride today but I have a feeling it’ll take a long time. Adelaide Hills will be the reason why. But on the bright side, the weather this morning looks promising. Looked like the rain has stopped for good. The road out of Strathalbyn was kind of cruel. I was faced with a long and steep uphill. It took me 2 hours to merely cover the 14km to the next town, Macclesfield, where I had an early light lunch of milkshake and Arnott’s biscuits. The road after that continues uphill with very little downhill, and this goes on all the way to Crafers, a further 35km. But not before I passed some of the most picturesque road I’ve ever ridden!
After Mylor, I took on a small road called the Aldgate Valley Road, on the recommendations of a cyclist forum. This 5.5km was truly a joyful climb! It wasn’t steep and the road runs next to a creek. The shady and colorful trees, the singing birds, and the road half-covered with autumn leaves all made this the most enjoyable climb ever!
After Aldgate, I followed the short 2km road to Stirling but it was narrow and the traffic was heavy. So I hopped onto a shared footpath that led me to Stirling. The footpath had some of the most insane steep path I’ve ever seen. At one point I loose traction when my rear wheel was on a paint strip, had a momentary panic there.
There wasn’t a direct road from Stirling to Crafers unless you use the freeway but bikes are prohibited. So I checked my GPS and found a small road across some residential area. Again, here I met some crazy steep climb. When I finally got to Crafers, I was a bit lost trying to search for the bikeway to Adelaide but with a bit of luck, I eventually found it. I wish there were more signs there!
Here comes the scary part. The 10km downhill road from Crafers to the tollgate was downright insane and spooky. It was so steep I was extremely nervous riding down the whole time. This is the equivalent of the downhill road from Genting Highlands in Malaysia. When going downhill, I passed some roadies doing the climb and they looked like they are strugling much! That gives you an idea how steep the road was. Also, the 50km of this morning’s ride was almost entirely uphill, and the subsequent 10km downhill from Crafer to Adelaide would bring me back to a similar elevation I started at Strathalbyn.
Anyway, the downhill continues after the toll gate straight into the CBD but I branched off to a city ring road and found a bike path. The bike path was quite pleasant until it brought me to a cemetery. What the heck? A cemetery in the city was weird enough but a bike trail that runs across a cemetery too? I continued riding into the north-west suburbs of Adelaide and finally reached my friend, Mun Khin’s place (my host in Adelaide).
This officially marked the end of Leg 2 and we had a fantastic Malaysian meal at Kopitim in chinatown! Thankfully I had no leg sore this time, so I’m hoping to stay for a few days here in Adelaide to have a look around at this foreign city. If all goes well, I should be starting Leg 3 on the coming weekend!
