Port Elliot

We spent a week at Port Elliot last week staying in a house with our friends, the Kelly's. We had a lovely week and the weather turned out to be better than expected for this time of year. We were anticipating wet and wintery weather and spending a fair bit of time indoors but it turned out to be quite sunny for a number of days, so we did lots of walks and some riding along the Encounter Bikeway.

The bikeway runs from The Bluff at Victor Harbour along the coast to Port Ellliot, Middleton and through to Goolwa. It's around 30km and is a mixture of shared paths and quite roads and is great for safe and leisurely riding with the family. We did a few rides over to Middleton to do some whale watching and it was an entirely pleasant experience with some great views along the coast.

Karolle and I whale watching

A bloody big fin

The park at the top of the Stand in Port Elliot

I also did a couple of longer rides on my own. I took my old Repco Olympic 12 down as it's a good allrounder - it's quite comfortable doing slow rides with the family but is also okay on a longer, harder rides. I did a trip to Goolwa and back, mostly sticking to the bikeway, a trip of around 35km. I also did a trip though to Inman Valley from Port Elliot which was a 52km round trip. The main motivation for riding this road (the Inman Valley Road through to Yankalilla) is that it is the final leg of next years Tour Down Under community challenge and I wanted to check it out.

The 2014 TDU routes were announced a couple of weeks ago and looks like it'll be a great week. As it's the first world tour event of the year (and normally stinking hot) the organisers have always made it a relatively easy week for the riders. It's always been a race predominantly for sprinters. However, they included a bit more climbing in last year's race (notably, Corkscrew Road) and it seemed to go down well with the spectators and teams. For next year they've included a bunch of Adelaide's iconic climbs (Corkscrew Road, Menglers Hill, Checker's Hill, the Freeway to Stirling, of course, Old Willunga Hill twice). It should be good fun and, like last year, I'll try and get to some of the climbs and finishes.

As far as the Bupa Challenge goes, I wasn't overly thrilled with last this year's ride. The route was okay but a bit on the dull side and the logistics of heading north of the city for the ride were a little challenging. I'd decided if it was north again, I wouldn't do it. Anyway, it seems my needs have been accomodated as next years Community Challenge ride goes from Unley to Victor Harbour. It's 154km and heads up the freeway to Stirling, then down through Echunga, Meadows, Mt Compass, Myponga, Normanville, Yankalilla, then across to the finish at Victor Harbour. I probably won't do the full ride (it's a bit too long for me) but the Meadows start (110km) sounds good.

Anyway, the Inman Valley Road was great fun - it's beautiful and lush through there at the moment and road is gently undulating and pretty nice to ride on. I didn't have time to make it to Yankalilla so I ended up going about two-thirds the way there and turned back at Inman Valley. It was relatively easy going, which is a good thing because I haven't ridden in the hills for ages and my legs aren't in great shape. The main hill was the climb out of Victor up past the golf course which wasn't too hard. Overall, it was a great day to be on a bike. Here's some pictures to prove it:

 

 

 

 

 

Sad old bastard....

I fear that I may have become a stereotypical MAMIL (Middle Aged Man In Lycra, in case you don't know). The evidence is compelling - I've taken up cycling in my mid to late forties, embraced the full road bike/Lycra thing, turned into a complete coffee snob, and now I have this bloody blog to document it all. As I approach 50, I'm afraid I've become a seriously sad old bastard!

However, there's a few parts of my mamilism that don't quite fit the mould. I don't hang out with my cycling buddies at the end of a ride drinking coffee, nor do I do the team kit thing. Neither of these things really float my boat. Firstly, I don't have a bunch of cycling buddies because, for me, bike riding is a fairly solitary experience and I'm not really interested in riding with a group. Nothing against those who do - it's just not my thing. Nor do I like to promote teams/brands etc. I just wear plain jerseys or those from charity rides that I've done. Once again, nothing against those who don the kit, but it's just not my thing.

I've always had an aversion to brands and labels generally and, much to my wife's annoyance, I've never liked wearing garments emblazoned with logo's or brand names. It's no great ethical stance - I've just never been able to work out why you'd pay lots of money for a windcheater that has a huge Nike logo on it. Every time you wear it you are promoting their brand - they should really be giving you a discount because you are a walking advertisement for their company. The people who restore your roof will happily knock a bit off the price if you stick their sign on your front lawn for 12 months. What's the difference?

The coffee snob thing has evolved since last December, when I wandered into Cash Convertors with my son to look at video games and happened upon a Rancillio Silvia espresso machine for sale for the princely sum of $140. I was aware that the Silvia is probably the most popular machine for home baristas and can make a cracking cup of coffee if you get your technique right. It's also around $750 new, so I didn't hesitate in snapping it up. The guts of it is basically like a scaled down commercial machine - it has a full sized grouphead and a mini version of a high pressure commercial boiler with a 3 way valve so you can backflush it to clean it out. My grinder is just a Breville thing, but I've modified it so the burrs run closer together, giving a finer grind suitable for a decent espresso machine. I suspect I'd get better results from a better quality grinder but, for the moment, it does the job.

Anyway, it took me a while to get the grind, dosing and tamping technique right, but I'm finally getting there and can now pull a fairly reasonable shot. It's certainly equal to or better than the coffee I've experienced in most cafe's. Our weekends now seem to revolve around the frequent coffee ritual. We've also had a couple of holidays over the past three months (to Mannum in April and Port Elliot last week) where we've had to take the coffee machine with us. Sad I know but, as we explained to the kids, if the parents are kept happy (and energised) then everyone has a better holiday.

Anyway, I'm not about to stop any of these MAMIL pursuits anytime soon, so I'm quite happy to be another sad old bastard riding his bike and writing a blog that mostly seems to get read by people in Moscow. I really don't think anyone there is interested in my mediocre cycling story - I somehow suspect all the hits I get from Moscow come from some automated software that scans websites looking for ways to exploit people and do nasty things. Anyway, onwards and upwards.