(Backup) May 1: A Lot More Climbing, and A Lot More Kangaroos!

May 01, 2018

I was greeted this morning by this lovely sunrise. It was quite chilly though. I decided last night to give my pants a break and wear my wool knicker tights instead, except it was too cold. So, I wore my pants over the knickers, then took them off once it was warm enough. The knickers were a nice change because they don’t fall down like my pants do.

Right out of Victor Harbor I had a pretty long climb. This ended up being the case most of the day. There were some good descents though. I was taking a road called Inman Valley Rd. It was probably flatter than any of the other ways I could have gone. It was actually a very nice road. There were lots of trees, and lots of...KANGAROOS! In all, from one end of Inman Valley Rd. to the other, I counted 38 kangaroos! Funny thing, there was no kangaroo sign (like all the other times I have seen kangaroo signs, but no kangaroos).

Group o’ Roos

Not long into the day’s ride, I came to Glacier Rock. There used to be a tea room there, but it is closed. Glacier Rock is behind the old tea room. Basically, it’s a rock with gouged lines from a glacier that passed through bazillions of years ago. That’s worth putting on the map?

Glacier Rock

I stopped in the town of Inman Valley and had a snack and a drink. The women in the shop were very nice. A woman came in while I was there. She had seen my bike. When I told her I was riding to Perth, she had the usual comment about riding across the Nullarbor, only she asked if I was carrying a weapon. I gave my usual reply of my weapon being my smile. She said that wouldn’t work. She even suggested I get some hairspray that I could spray in someone’s eyes. Now, I have to say, that was a new one! I can see it now...”Before you hurt me, let me fix my hair. A little hairspray should do the trick.” Yeah...I don’t think so...

Yankalilla was at the end of the lovely Inman Valley Rd. I stopped for a snack at the bakery there. From there it was the longest climb I’ve had since Tassie (maybe even longer). There was a brief downhill, then another really long climb. I rode along the Myponga Reservoir. It supplies water to this part of South Australia.

After I turned to head back out to the Coast, I saw kangaroo number 39. This time there was a sign (kangaroos next 6km), but I only saw the one.

At the top of the last major climb I got a tremendous view of the ocean and the long long road down. There were a couple of hawk type birds floating on the air currents. They would hover in one place just fluttering their wings and looking down. Pretty cool.

That big statue is a Buddhist Temple.

I finished the day at Aldinga Beach Caravan Park. There was another caravan park in Aldinga, but I reckon that one would have been right along the highway and therefore more noisy. Here, there is a school group of young kids. It’s noisy, but it won’t be noisy at night.

I’m hoping to spot some more kangaroos as dusk settles. This park backs up to a scrub conservation park. Update: Yep, I saw 6 more kangaroos bringing my total for today to 44!

Hellooo Roo!