Last wednesday I took the family to the Saint Kilda Adventure Playground where we spent most of the day. Although I brought the drone along I never got it out, so the next morning I rode there with that sole purpose.
After that I head to Mallala. On my last ride there (a short ride along the path of the Ghan from Virgnia to Bumbunga) a friend had told me the silos at both Long Plain and Mallala had been pulled down. I'd snapped the Long Plain one on that trip but not Mallala so I head out there to have a look. Yep, the silo and railway siding has been taken down.
From there I continued with the Ghan theme, but as I had done the dirt from Mallala to Nantawarra on that trip I bypassed it this time taking the straight tarmac through Balaklava.
I noticed the old bridge at Whitwarta for the first time.
The day's selfie is outside some ruins in Bumbunga.
I first knew of Snowtown's big blade when I dropped in on the way to Border Run 2017. It was pitch black then and I vowed to come back in daylight hours. I know I did drop into town once but have no memory of actually seeing the blade, so I made sure this time.
The second drone flight of the day was over some salt lakes at Lake View. I flew over some at Saint Kilda earlier in the morning too.
From there on the Ghan pretty much runs along side the Augusta Highway until Bungama so I didn't stop between there and Coonamia.
Coonamia is the only place you can look out the window of the Ghan train and see it in its entirety as it does almost a complete u-turn. I only know this because in SBS broadcast the Ghan's trip in real time in january 2018. I downloaded the program and last october finally got around to watching it. This is why I had been doing small trips along it's course.
In Solomotown on the other side of that bend I spotted some old Adelaide Metro buses. I don't know if they're used for local or school runs ore are just rotting away.
From there I head home, firstly along the Spencer Highway before turning of to check out Mundoora. These pigs were outside a yard in Clements Gap. I'm not sure if it's a letter box or not.
My only other visit to Mundoora was on my Sym Firenze in early 2015. Back then there was only one sealed road in and that was from Port Broughton. I didn't see anything of interest then and only left with a photo of a town sign. Fast forward eight years and I have a bigger bike, riding on dirt doesn't bother me and I see more things than I did back then (ie that Bridge in Whitwarta) and spotted a few things in Mundoora.
I had plan to continue along the dirt road from Clements Gap through Mundoora to Cream Puff Corner at Wokurna but noticed that the Ingram Gap Road to Collinsfield appeared to be sealed so felt it was my duty to check it out. It is indeed sealed all the way to the Augusta Highway.
That was where the memory card in the Forcite helmet filled up and stopped recording. You can set it to loop record but I turned that off. I now know a 64GB memory car will hold 6 hours and 32 minutes of footage so on long trips changing the card at lunch should see me through a day.
From Bumbunga I turned down Kangaroo Hill Road and followed the course I took in the morning with the exception of Saint Kilda.
I'll do some drone videos later.
