What a change! When we woke up at 5.30 this morning it was cool…ish, and we laid in bed dozing until 6am when we couldn’t handle the inactivity any longer and decided to get up.
It looks alright here on a cool morning after a light shower, but yesterday afternoon this campsite looked terrible in the 44 degree heat and nearly full sun! The grass even looks greener!
It was so not hot in fact, that we hung around getting packed up until just after 8am, when we went to the bakery and had a coffee. And a pie. Not the best food for cycle tourers, but we were hungry and there was not much else on offer.
From there on in we were in luxury (apart from the crosswind/headwind that kept on trying to blow us into the path of the traffic flying along the road!). There was only 15kms until the first stop, Greenoch, a small ‘hamlet’ with quaint buildings and some wineries.
Then it was only about 10kms to Tanunda via an absolutely beautiful road called Seppeltsfield Rd that was lined with date palms and vineyards. It was also hilly, but after the heat and barrenness of the past few days we were embracing the climbs!
You can see the strong wind blowing in the tops of the date palms.
When we reached Tanunda, we experienced our first free, public, filtered water…
…and saw our first official sign that the Tour Down Under is about to start…
Another 13kms and we reached Lyndoch where we decided to stop and treat ourselves to some wine tasting at a winery. We felt very civilised as we grazed on an antipasto platter and sipped our glasses of reserve Shiraz.
The final 8kms to Williamstown were understandably slow and mellow, and fairly hilly. We were aiming for there because family legend has it that the Captain’s great great great grandfather started the Williamstown Hotel, and the Captain’s grandfather came from Williamstown. We’re not surprised he left.
We made the mistake of not checking if Williamstown had shops, and ended up buying three tomatoes and one onion from the general store because they were the only vegetables on offer, and having those for dinner with rice. It was nice but not quite the veggie fest we were hoping for.
Bring on Adelaide!
