Adelaide Hills

Today we're heading to Adelaide. It's an early start and the weather is superb. There are nasty looking clouds on the ranges up north. However all along the coast there are clear blue skies. It's a great day for riding.

This is a 350km stretch along flat and straight highway. I ride the bike like it's been stolen and soon leave Dave behind. The landscape blurs past and I get a flashback to the ending scene of the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. I wonder if Kubrick got inspiration for that scene while riding a bike. Probably not.

Just outside of Adelaide I stop for fuel and wait for Dave to catch up. It's not yet lunch so we decide to check out the Adelaide Hills. I feel a bit sorry for Dave, stuck in his cage, because this is motorcycling heaven. The Adelaide Hills are covered with long winding scenic drives. Occasionally a climb will put you up high enough to admire the view. There are plenty of other bikes joining us today. I guess this is a popular destination for all the weekend riders from Adelaide.

We make a brief stop at the Barossa Reservoir which has been nicknamed the Whispering Wall. The dam wall is shaped such that if you talk at one end your voice is heard clearly at the other end. It's vaguely amusing for about fifteen seconds but then the novelty wears off. The ride to the dam was well worth it though.

Our next stop is Hahndorf, an "authentic" German village, and the cheesiest place on earth. There were several stores with names prefixed Ye Olde, I kid you not, but sadly not a single Coffee Shoppe among them. There are some buskers who sing off-key, a whole store devoted to fortune telling and tarot cards, and of course a bunch of pubs selling Ye Olde Authentic German Beer. I look around in horror and fortunately Dave concurs so we get the hell out of Hahndorf.

It's getting late so we head into Adelaide. BMW has gotten us accommodation in a swanky apartment in the middle of the CBD. I park my bike, covered in dirt and weighed down by camping gear, next to a Jaguar. The apartment is sheer luxury, possibly the last luxury I'll experience for a while.