So Europe was awesome. However, since we got back I’ve been itching to get out there and do some touring, Aussie style. Finally jet lag stopped messing with me and I still had a few days off before I had to go back to work, so I chucked a few bits and bobs in the Cruiser and headed off to my usual stomping ground, the Flinders Ranges.
Just looking to do a day trip, get out in the country and have another look at the Bridle Track, which we tried to do on the way up to our trip to Warraweena.
We got going reasonable early and skipped breakfast, as a quick 100km up the main road is Port Wakefield and the cracking Kiplings Bakery, which do a mean egg and bacon pie, or any other pastry wrapped treat you fancy!
A couple of Army lads were tucking in out the front and I pulled up next to their ‘white fleet’ 200 series.
More highway until we turned off to head through the pretty towns of Crystal Brook and Laura. I could definitely live up here, but what do you do for an income? Always the paradox...
Onto to Melrose, about 250km north of Adelaide, this is a cool town. Home once a year to the Fat Tyre Festival and resting in the shadow of Mount Remarkable. We stopped to fill up on coffee and ice cream (and local saffron, who’d have thought!) and I checked out this cool bike shop.
To hire, $65 for a basic hardtail, through full suspension bikes, up to $1oo for a $8000 bike for the day, seems fair enough. Dude made good coffee too! About 10 years ago when I was, ahem, a ‘bit’ younger, and had a bit more of an appetite for pushing my body physically, I did a 3 day unsupported hike in Mt Remarkable NP, carrying all my water as there is no reliable water source within the park. My pack was so heavy at the start I had to lean against a tree to put it on!
So we headed out past Bartagunyah Winery (which was shut, boo. Teach me to come mid-week) and then to the start of the Bridle Track proper, with less time pressure today I intended to have a look around and explore some of the side tracks that I think I maybe should down have gone last time (for SA this is a well publicised track, but once you are on it there are numerous junctions with no real indication for which way you should go. In fact it would be a great introduction to trying to navigate Australia’s less beaten tracks, come to think of it!).
So up the first hill and I took a different direction to last time. We wound back down again to a derelict hut, which the had another track leading off from it (I later read the sign at the end that said DO NOT LEAVE THE MAIN TRACK, but as the main track isn’t exactly well sign posted, sorry, not sorry...).
So we took a drive up here, nothing too difficult but getting reasonable steep. However the track was well defined, we seemed to be heading in a direction that would link up back to where we turned off, and then just as we were on a good angled bit of hill, the track petered out... No clear way forward, I held my door (we were on a bit of a angle) and opened it and had a walk around to see what I could see.
Not much, now it was just sheep/roo tracks. I followed the most logical one and just got to this rock garden.
That big boy hidden in the middle looked right ready to high centre me and a big drop to the left, coupled with the fact the Hi Lift was at home (this is meant to be soft-roader territory) and I didn’t really want to be doing recovery for the rest of the day, meant we were turning around.
I’m not a big fan of reversing downhill on an angle but it was a short step to a place level enough to do a 500 point turn around. Then just cruised back to the hut.
That was a bit more ‘off-roady’ than I was anticipating.
Back on the main track, one way went to private property, the other it turned out, back to the bitumen (how many access points are there for this track?), although not without going past the local troll hideout.
So we headed back to the original track, which meant good views.
It was still pretty green up here.
Came for dirt. Got dirt.
It was about time for lunch. Land Cruiser tailgate lunch. The best lunch.
We had been getting smashed by flies all day long and with no wind the lunch stop was no better. So we didn’t dally and pressed on. Through a few more gates we came across this lady and her stranded dirt bike. “Everything ok?” “Not really, my chain has come off” “I have some tools if that would help?” “That would be great”.
I pulled up and took my tools over to the bike, I let her get on with it as not really being into bikes I haven’t worked on one before and she also seemed to know what she was doing. I made a bit of idle chit chat and it turns out she was a lady farmer out looking for 90 odd errant sheep. The chain had not only come off but got itself well and truly wedged between the drive cog and the frame. We both tried a bit of levering and wiggling but our puny human strength was not match for what the engine had delivered to get the chain wedged up there, the stuck chain also preventing removing the front sprocket. After quite some time of getting every bit of chain free except the stuck part I suggested we undo and remove the swing-arm pivot bolt so we could pull the swing-arm out of the way, as this is what was the chain was jammed against. She was worried that we wouldn’t be able to get he swing-arm re-aligned if we took it off, and after testing the weight of the bike I was inclined to agree (I also didn’t want to be the one to make the bike more incapacitated...).
Remembering I had a jack, I suggested we jack the bike and take the weight off the swing-arm and then just tap the bolt back enough to free the stuck side, hoping there would be enough play in it. She agreed to this. Luckily this worked a treat!
With the chain free, we re-assembled, and she re-tensioned the chain and then she was good to go. She helped me take the tools back to the Cruiser and in that subdued country way thanked me for my help. I stayed to make sure the bike rode off fine and then carried on our way.
I got to the point I thought I had gone wrong last time on this trail and headed in the other direction. This looked promising, two separate trails to allow two way traffic on the hill, great views and I could see the trail following the ridge heading out into the distance.
Then we came across this.
Not wanting to push my luck too much we headed back down the way we did last time.
So the Bridle Track remains an enigma for me. It’s well publicised and well signposted to it’s start, but then it gets a bit confusing. Maybe the short bit we’ve done is it? Seems a bit of a shame as there are plenty more opportunities off it. As it’s one of the few official trails that can be done as a day trip from Adelaide I don’t know why they don’t make more of it and help boost the local economy?
Anyway still a grand day out, and a good reminder that sometime you don’t have to stray far from your door for a good trip.
Footnote: Unpacking the truck I got a bit of a start, putting my hand on the buckle to undo the strap so I could slide out the Maxxys it took a second for my brain to register what was on the buckle, one of our famous Redback Spiders. I had noticed some webs inside my box of tricks when I was getting the jack out but gave it no more thought. I’m not into killing things for no good reason and so got the dustpan and brush and ushered her out.
