It has been great having the Surly’s to ride during our stay in the Adelaide Hills. We have done several great rides from Mylor this week which is 4 weeks after arthroscopic surgery on my knee for a torn meniscus.
We have ridden road bikes around the hills for years, but riding the Surly’s opens up a whole lot of new territory to explore. There are lots of gravel roads and MTB tracks to interesting places, and there are no cars to worry about.
The wide tyres make off-road and gravel riding possible and a triple ring up front means lots of gears for the hills and my knee.
Today we visited the Chapel Hill diggings an old gold mining site between Mylor and Echunga.
We had been planning a trip to Eyre Peninsula in SA for quite a while. It was billed as a great fishing and beach destination that I had never been to, and Andy had not visited in decades.
For two weeks prior to heading to the Eyre Peninsula we had a relaxing time looking after family members’ houses in Adelaide. This enabled Laurie to recover from an operation to repair a torn cartilage in his knee, but it was now time for some more adventures.
We found that the Eyre Peninsula was yet another surprisingly beautiful part of Australia, or South Australia to be more specific. It has a coastline that varies from rugged cliff faces, wild sandy surf beaches and quiet inland bays and lagoons. All are unpopulated, wild and display dramatic colours and vistas.
We were amazed at the variety of country that one can visit, camp in and just pass through. We enjoyed arid coastal vegetation, vast areas of pure white sand dunes, melaleuca forests, sweeping grassland plains, heath coated flood plains and the soft shiny acacias of the Gawler Ranges.
Having a 4wd and not much on board meant we could travel to some extremely remote parts of the region. But without trying it is easy to find a camp spot in beautiful, sheltered locations with no one for miles. This particularly the case during the 4 day COVID lockdown when we disappeared into Lincoln National Park.
The open sea and protected bays and inlets provide a wide range of fishing options, with plenty of Whiting, Australian Salmon and squid amongst other species to be caught, even without a boat.
We were lucky enough to have friends from Alice Springs who have a block with some shelter and water at a central location called Coulta. We stayed there for a couple of days, met the friendly neighbours who took us sightseeing and fishing in their boat.
To see more about this adventure see our page on Eyre Peninsula travels at: https://wp.me/P58Xwm-tT
Andy and Laurie's Adventure Blog 