Day 25: Bike ride Adelaide to Glenelg

Today begins our mini self-supported bike tour in Australia. We'll take four days to ride to McLaren Vale wine region and back, with a day there to tour around the wineries. 

First we have a clean-out-the-fridge breakfast. Fruit, yogurt, granola, coffee. I get a first degree burn splotch on my wrist from making the French press coffee -- the coffee is ground to espresso grind (very fine) while the French press wants coarse. When it's time to press the plunger it sticks, and sticks, and sticks ... until it plunges at high speed and a fountain of boiling coffee shoots all over me. Nahh, only a flesh wound. At least I saved half the carafe. 

Dan and I return their bikes before 9:00 while Kathy and Robbin take our suitcases to our next hotel (1 block away in CBD). It is very hot even at 9:00. 

The Aussies have a things or two to tell fascists (below the no booze sign).

Robbin and Dan leave us to continue their vacation through New Zealand. We'll miss them. They are such great traveling buddies. Not to mention that they are the reason we're doing this trip. Last May Robbin called Kathy to suggest the trip. We wouldn't be here without them. Bon voyage! 

We've packed our panniers the night before, so Kathy and I are out before 10:00 to ride back to the beach. It's hot! But we know the trail is shaded and not that long. We figure to ride to the coast on the River Torrens linear park trail. Then North up to the North Haven point, and back south to River Torrens and beyond to Glenelg.

We hit the coast about 11 (not that far) and turn north. It's beautiful riding along the ped/bike path right over the public beach that stretches miles. Amazing! And hot. Did I mention it was hot??

We see a bird that looks like a very large quail, with a peaked decoration on its head. 

We keep going north past Henley Beach, where we had Greek food yesterday. After a couple miles the shared use path ends and we are dumped onto side streets.  So we keep going. 

Another mile or so and at the top of a hill (there have been no hills, so not a good sign) we see we are being dumped onto the main road. And it's over 100°. Time to bail out. We reverse our path and head back to Henley Beach.

However... As we pass a construction site I hear thump thump thump from my tire. I try to brush it off but it won't go. Now I hear the hissing noise. You know what that means -- puncture. Indeed, I have picked up a drywall screw straight into my tire. Fortunately the bike comes with spare tube, tools, etc. And we are stopped under a shade tree. Ten minutes later I have the tire repaired and the bikes ready to go. 

Not a good sign. 

Nasty! Almost like it was designed to puncture tires. 

But in the meantime a woman drives by, stops to chat (are you okay?), then returns from her home with a bag of ice (for your water bottles, also you can put some under your helmet to stay cool as you ride). Australians are such nice people! Well, the women. The men all drive by without slowing down, including the jerk who lives right across the street and pulls into his garage right past bikers fixing their bikes in 100° heat. Not even a "G'day mate!"

A few minutes later we are in Henley Beach at a Vietnamese restaurant having tofu banh mi sandwiches and iced coffee. Yum!!

Next we ride south past the River Torrens path and down to Glenelg. We arrive at 2:30 for a 3pm check-in where Dave has not arranged early check-in. Argh. But we can rest in the shade while waiting. We finish our water, as it is hot even in the shade. 

Odd building design.

We have to cross a lock as we approach Glenelg.

Wow, this Water Bay Villa B&B is cute. We have the upstairs room with cute BR, large bath, and large sitting room with breakfast nook. So cute! And air conditioned. We lie on the bed to recover. After a while we're in good enough shape to head to the beach. There we hang out, alternating sunbathing and swimming to cool off. It's so hot!

Glenelg beachfront.

Finally it's time to head back, shower, rest, and walk 1/2 mile to Glenelg center for dinner. There's definitely some Santa Cruz vibe here, plus Ferris wheel, arcades and so on. But our pizza is tasty. And the sunset is gorgeous. And many people are out enjoying the water, beach, sunset, and relative cool (90's, I'm guessing) after the heat of the day. We walk home and admit that this was much harder than we expected. Good thing tomorrow is supposed to be cooler. 

Memorial to 100th anniversary of the founding of South Australia, 1836-1936. In downtown Glenelg plaza. 

The sunset everyone is out to see. 

Kathy wakes me in the middle of the night because she's seeing stars. Yes, it's the Southern Cross!  So cool! And I finally see it! Yay!