We've been looking forward to this week-end for quite a few weeks though at times we were close to cancelling mainly due my front tyre, and the possibility of rain. Not to mention the cold as we live a few k's from Yongala which is usually the coldest place in SA.
Rather than ride over Friday we braved the crisp cold morning air and left home about 6:40 am this morning. Who in there right mind gets up at 5:30 am anyway? My usual bedtime is 2:00 am so I had an early morning and was in bed at witching hour (midnight) and Heather was in bed at the ungodly hour of 9:30 pm.
All I needed to do before we left was wipe the bike down, (lucky we had a frost free night) set the GPS up and put a few needed items in the top case. I thought about the seat cover but left it off as we weren't sure if it would rain or not. To reduce the wind chill factor we usually put our wet weather pants on when we need to leave this early in winter.
Both Google
http://goo.gl/maps/sBWbY and my GPS suggested about 3 hours for the 196 k ride over. We took 2.3 hours arriving at 9:00 am. Marty (TouriSTs) must have just got off of his 1300 as we pulled up. Talk about timing, couldn't have done that if we tried.
We spent an hour and half in the café, (getting warm) before we parted ways with Marty. Rather than risk the extra k's we headed back towards home while Marty headed south. I took this photo of Marty and Heather standing next to the bikes. Sorry, no Ozstoc shirts as it was to cold for them.
Before leaving we had a walk down the main street and took this of the from across the road.
Heading back home we took the indirect route via Wallaroo
http://goo.gl/maps/2xqfW and over to Kadina where we added $20 of fuel, called into Woolworths and found something to eat from this café.
We ate lunch in Victoria Park and while there I took a couple shots.
This has seen better days.
The Royal Exchange Hotel
And the dining room.
A Rubbery guest of the Hotel
And Heather
We stopped at Crystal Brook (100 k from home).
A little of the rail history.
And the bike needed some relief
And the funniest thing we saw
Arrived home just after 3:30 pm, not quite 9 hours for the 401 km round trip and about 5 hours riding time.