My set off was from the Railway Station at 𝑬𝑳𝑰𝒁𝑨𝑩𝑬𝑻𝑯, in the cool of the morning. In windless conditions I was randomly escorted out of town along the 𝑺𝑻𝑼𝑨𝑹𝑻 𝑶’𝑮𝑹𝑨𝑫𝒀 𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒂𝒚 by a man on a BMX bike, who managed to maintain a comfortable warmup speed, as we headed north towards the last large town of 𝑮𝑨𝑾𝑳𝑬𝑹. To the North East, the classic anvil shape of a thunderstorm cloud could be seen rising and becoming higher, as it drifted slowly towards the wine country of 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑩𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑺𝑺𝑨 𝑽𝑨𝑳𝑳𝑬𝒀. Other wise the clouds looked white and fluffy & a gap in the clouds was blue towards the midnorth town of 𝑹𝑬𝑫𝑯𝑰𝑳𝑳. I passed through a very flat cereal growing area & avoided the black looming cloud, which lifted my spirits greatly. 

With the progression of the morning, the proximity of the ocean (about 25 kilometres away) and the warming of the day there was an increasing afternoon sea breeze. I found myself riding comfortably into this wind, as I ventured along the feature-less 𝑩𝑳𝒀𝑻𝑯 𝑷𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒓𝒐𝒂𝒅. Around me was recently haravested cereal crops, an expansive sky above me & a thin seam of distant hills in the 𝑺𝑷𝑹𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑮𝑼𝑳𝑳𝒀 conservation area. I decided to turn off my Garmin screen & focus purely on the changing landscapes. Except for monitoring upcoming hill climbs I stopped looking at the distance remaining, as a means to mentally achieve my goal of 600km. 

Upon reaching 𝑹𝑬𝑫𝑯𝑰𝑳𝑳, I followed John Mill’s track notes and found the Roadhouse, where I met very jovial locals. They asked me where I was going and my reply was 𝑶𝑹𝑹𝑶𝑹𝑶𝑶. In my slightly mumbling state they had heard the word Uluru and reacted with initial disbelief. Continuing Northwards to 𝑪𝑹𝒀𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑳 𝑩𝑹𝑶𝑶𝑲, I was heartened to know that I would soon turn 90 degrees offwind & begin my climb to the high point of 666 metred, south of 𝑱𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑵, at 𝑻𝑨𝑫𝑷𝑶𝑾𝑰𝑬. It was here that the course creator John Mills found me, via satellite pings on my Maprogress Spot Tracker. I actually felt really clear thinking talking to him, which gave me some idea of how I was relaxing into the ride. His course notes regarding water spigot locations, roadhouse hours & fatigue calculations were very helpful on this ride. 

As I roughly followed the valley of the 𝑹𝑶𝑪𝑲𝒀 𝑹𝑰𝑽𝑬𝑹, the hills were becoming closer, the landscape more appealing and I could make out the obvious shape of 𝑴𝑶𝑼𝑵𝑻 𝑹𝑬𝑴𝑨𝑹𝑲𝑨𝑩𝑳𝑬. Memories of mountain biking there in the 1980’s lifted my mood and my pace. The climb from 𝑪𝑹𝒀𝑺𝑻𝑨𝑳 𝑩𝑹𝑶𝑶𝑲 to 𝑷𝑬𝑲𝑰𝑵𝑨 over about 100km, was along an average gradient of 4.50% with brief pitches of 8 percent. Except for some lack of verge on the 𝑵𝑼𝑲𝑼𝑵𝑨 road in small sections, the traffic was low and the road surfaces smooth. Before that, the tourist area of the very pretty 𝑾𝑰𝑹𝑹𝑨𝑩𝑨𝑹𝑨 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒕 took me to 𝑴𝑼𝑹𝑹𝑨𝒀𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑵, a location without many homes and a deserted and dilapidated Murray Town Hotel. It was sad to experience this and I imagined it’s vitality in days gone by. 

The ride into a deserted 𝑩𝑶𝑶𝑳𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑶 centre at an altitude of 400m was disappointing. There were no people, no shops open & in the setting sun fresh food supplies were needed. Without choice I trundled onward, resorting to dry soya chips which dried out my mouth. Fortunately I had good advice about Fluid and Food requirements from Jame’s Litt (State President of Audax) prior to this sojourn. With my 2 x 1 litre bottles always full, my thirst and dry mouth were kept away. 

In the setting sun, my joy was watching the bleached day, colour transform into browns and purples and the Corellas flocking for their night time rest stop. In the dark, the road to Orooroo unmasked the beauty of the Milky Way and Mars could be seen as very bright red, in the clean cooling air. Eventually it was to cool to 10 degrees on the first day of summer, with a moderate wind chill from the night time headwind. 

The arrival to 𝑶𝑹𝑶𝑹𝑶𝑶 again had no food provision but with about 1700 calories of onboard food there was no problem. The town was completely adorned with Christmas lights & a small group were drinking on the hotel verandah. I kept riding, not wanting to decline the offer of beer.

Turning off my lights for a stop made the whole sky very commanding but my natural fear of the dark gave me very brief waves of anxiety. The constant strobe effect of my headlight created tired eyes & the illusion of my Garmin screen drifting. With all the hours sitting on the bike, my legs were wobbly at brief rest stops & I fell several times. Paradoxically, once back on the bike I rode straight and true!

At the 377 km point, I arrived at the 𝑱𝑨𝑴𝑬𝑺𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑵 Commercial Motel at about 00:40 hrs. The manager had left the door open and during previous phonecalls he seemed to understand the need of a long distance rider & had been very accomodating. He had a very bicycle positive mindset, with a relaxed country outlook. The room was very cozy but I had a broken 3 hour sleep, due to the quilt being very heavy upon my tight, aching legs. I woke up to a very cool morning but knowing that the heat gradient of inland country is rather high, I didn’t wear the thermal clothes and warmed quickly. This area has many windmill farms and they became my way to assess wind conditions and they didnt go beyond 28rpm. The journey to 𝑩𝑼𝑹𝑹𝑨 was scenic and undulating and gave me a great sense of joy. It’s downhill sweep from 𝑯𝑨𝑳𝑳𝑬𝑻𝑻 to Burra was simply joyful.

Burra, itself is a really nice town with lots of coffee shops and cafés. It was a pleasant stop, people watching as the sunday cafe crowds filled the streets. With 160km only to go I ended up forgetting my tool kit, some electronic gear & clothing. I was easily 50 kilometre down the road before realising. Without a puncture repair kit there was a possibility of being isolated from anywhere with a puncture. My biggest dread was not completing the ride. Quickly, I changed my mindset to  “yeah! I can walk home!” and the comforting belief that “nothing really matters”. This seemed to free my mind and I pedalled onward without concerns. 

Once reaching the the 𝑭𝑨𝑹𝑹𝑬𝑳𝑳 turnoff to 𝑪𝑳𝑨𝑹𝑬, the ride was through the wine regions & I 𝑓𝑒𝑙𝑡 very close to home. I had last ridden this sector at night, so it was a revelation to see the rolling hills down to Clare – It very much looked like the Adelaide Hills. As an Old School Bike Tourer, I just went into traveller mode and then enjoyed the 23 km downhill from Clare to 𝑺𝑨𝑫𝑫𝑳𝑬𝑾𝑶𝑹𝑻𝑯 The roads here had ample verges and very fast bitumen surfaces, the only annoyance being the horizontal rumble strips separating me from the vehicle lane. Attempting to ‘bounce’ back into the verge became very difficult at times.

For most of this “bike-haul” the roads were very empty and the road surfaces very smooth. All vehicles overtook with great care. Beyond 𝑻𝑨𝑹𝑳𝑬𝑬 though (near Gawler) the traffic became very fast and continuous & the 𝑮𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑺 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝑱𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 had rough surfaces as well. John’s advice regarding this was very helpful to this tired cyclist. At least I had a fast and long downhill to Gawler. Because of the puncture risk’ without a tool kit, I nursed my bike to Elizabeth railway station, very much wanting to complete this great “Open Sky” ride. 

I would like to thank the AUDAX club for their course design, the field notes & the messages of support. Hopefully I did this ride with Audacity.

BIKE STATISTICS:   

Total uphill pedalling time: 13:47:48 hrs. 

Elevation gain:                  3088 metres.

Maximum height:                666 metres.  (93% of Mt.Lofty)

Required calories:              18107 Cal.

Average speed:                  24.20 kmh

Elapsed time ave:               17.68 kmh

Wattage ave:                      92 Watts.

Water requirement:             24.50 litres

max. sun temperature          34.00