DAY 86 - CRYSTAL BROOK SA

CRYSTAL BROOK SA

DAY 86

PORT BROUGHTON – CRYSTAL BROOK

51.96 km

Total Time: 09.40 – 17.40 (8h)

Time on Bike: 3h 10m 52s

Max. Speed: 36.2 km/h

Av. Speed: 16.3 km/h


8 hours is an inordinate amount of time to be on the road for 50 kilometres.

I can explain.

Trundling along this morning minding my own business in the middle of somewhere, I could see some strangers on the road, way up ahead.

One, then another and then maybe 3, so pulling closer I stopped to talk.

These people, as it happened were a group of volunteers, spending their Sunday morning bush loving within the Clements Gap Conservation Park.

Within 5 minutes, another vehicle arrived and behind this, a small convoy full of more bush lovers.

Amongst the rush was an invitation for me to join them all for a barbeque lunch, so long as I didn’t mind waiting around for an hour or so.

Thanking them kindly, I pushed on with some ambivalence but no sooner paused metres ahead for some photo time.

The incline to the Southern Flinders is about as worthy of photo time as anything gets, so it wasn’t as if I was stalling for time or anything.

Still, 20 minutes later and that lunch invitation was fresh enough to warrant a gentle coast back down the hill to take it up.

And this is what became of my afternoon.

A 4-hour impromptu barbeque luncheon at the foot of the Flinders Ranges with 30-odd strangers is not such a terrible use of a Sunday afternoon.

By 4 pm however, 20 kilometres of hill and dale remained to Crystal Brook and it was time roll again.

Good food had mixed with wine and beer for the duration and I must stress drink-riding is not something I endorse, it’s just that sometimes…..

I am alive and well made it to Crystal Brook this evening.

My Flinders adventure now awaits over the next week or more ahead.