(Note: Map only depicts the Women2Wheels Ride, however our starting point for the day was Victor Harbor)
Distance: 244km
Dep: 9:00am
Arr: 1:00pm
Temperature: 18°C - 35°C
Total distance to date: 1248km
Route:
- Victor Harbor
- Mount Barker
- Flaxley
- Macclesfield
- Strathalbyn
- Ashbourne
- Myponga Reservoir Lookout
- Delamere
- Victor Harbor
Caption: Women2Wheels Network South Australia - amazing turnout!
There is always something exciting about seeing a new place, but even more exciting when it's with a group of people who share the same passion. The plan today was to ride up from Victor Harbor to Mount Barker, the starting point of a Meet & Greet ride set up by Mary and Daria of Women2Wheels Network South Australia. It's a Facebook community of female riders, primarily based in Adelaide. They had adopted this Melburnian a while back because I accidentally tried joining the group, clearly unable to read the requirements that you had to live in SA.
We backtracked through the sweeping bends that we tackled the night before, albeit with much more frequent overtaking required due to the heightened road activity of a sunny Sunday morning.
Caption: Superwomen of Women2Wheels - Mary Knights (left) and Daria Twist (right)
Rolling into Mount Barker, we were greeted by about 20-25 riders who were already waiting for us. It felt a bit like rocking up to a local group ride in Victoria. We instantly felt right at ease, especially because our dear friends Sharka, Laddie, and Larry made a trip out to ride with us. We had crossed the Simpson Desert and Victoria's Little Desert with them, so it was surreal seeing them in road gear that wasn’t covered in sand.
The expertly organised ride took us through tighter, twistier sections of Flaxley and Macclesfield before opening up into larger sweeping bends. There were sections of the ride which make you feel like you were on top of the world, watching the sky meet the ocean from above. The sun danced on the distant waves of the ocean open, and it was so hard to keep my eyes on the road when riding against a backdrop that ancient poets would write about.
Caption: My friend Sharka, who I met when we crossed the Simpson Desert together in 2019.
We took a few short breaks to regroup before heading back out again, with each section even nicer than the last. We swept along a sealevel road just past Normanville and into a foresty bit that made it easy to build and maintain generous amounts of momentum.
The pinnacle was finally coming down into Victor Harbor and seeing distant islands popping out from the ocean. The cloudless sky and the height of the road made it feel like you were having an out of body experience.
We concluded the ride in Victor Harbor where Steph, Daria and I headed back to the hotel to drop the bikes off. Everyone else headed to the pub, where we joined them after we felt human again in regular clothing.
Caption: Coming down from a lookout point at Victor Harbor
Daria said her goodbyes that afternoon before heading back toward Melbourne, and Steph and I packed our bags in prep for tomorrow's southbound journey toward Kangaroo Island.
