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: