Australia 2015: Urban Cruise in Adelaide, South Australia

This is the second (documented) Gravel Cyclist Urban Cruise ride on a CX bike, the first being in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.  Australia and Canada, while fellow members of the Commonwealth, are worlds apart.

Ride date for the Urban Cruise in Adelaide was January 8, 2015.  The weather in the morning had been a bit dreary due to rain, which incidentally, was a huge relief to bushfires (wildfires if you’re Americano) that had been blitzing parts of the Adelaide Hills.  This was the worst bushfire in many years.

I was feeling rather knackered this particular day, and decided to have a bit of a sleep in, and roll an afternoon urban cruise ride with a bit of dirt and gravel thrown in for good measure.  For those who don’t know, Adelaide, South Australia is my home town.  Having lived in Adelaide a good part of my life, I know the town pretty well.  But over time, a lot has changed since I moved to the USA, and this ride was all about checking out some of those changes.

I’ve mentioned this before, but I (JOM) am a longtime railway fan.  So, I decided to scout the roads and paths that follow one of the branch lines to the Adelaide suburb of Port Adelaide.  There is plenty of history associated with Port Adelaide, railways, and shipping from the port itself.

I won’t share my route track, only because it’s possible I traversed some private land, and I don’t want to piss anybody off.  But, along the way I saw:

• Wildlife – Australian Cockatoos, Magpies and Piping Shrikes.
• Railway relics (abandoned signal cabin).
• The City of Adelaide Clipper (undergoing restoration).
• Two large sailboats (tourism and training purposes).
• Two HUGE disused wharf cranes on rails.
• Old factories and storage facilities.
• Tug Boats.
• Boat being unloaded at the dock.

And I suffered my first punctured tyre… thankfully it was the front wheel 🙂

Gallery – Click a thumbnail image to see full size (hosted by Flickr).

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