Back to it...

After waiting for the peak hour traffic to die off I head off out of Adelaide along the M1. It's cool and overcast and I'm kitted out with all of my thermal liners and over-pants. It's such a huge departure from the temperatures of the past few weeks but something I can easily get used to.

My plan for today is to do about 500 k's, stretch the trip out over the day, and stick to the coast. First stop is 2 hours south at a placed called Meningie for fuel and a coffee. My stop at the Lakeside Cafe was timed to coincide with Mrs Snappa's birthday luncheon at the Oxford back home in NZ. I sit in the cafe and after an exchange of pictures and the obligatory birthday wishes I head off to a park to do some quick bike maintenance. It's here that I run into the guy that drives the Google Maps Street View car.
 

 

What a job! I spend some time talking to him about his travels and turns out he's a fellow biker. This job allows him to find the best roads to go back over on his bike on his days off.

So, bike and rider refreshed, I head off for Kingston SE, home of the big lobster.
 

Somewhat of a lazy mooch from Adelaide. Just rolled along down the coast road and wound up having lunch in Robe with a couple of guys who flew from Melbourne to Adelaide to return a couple of hire bikes and were taking 5 days to get home.

Apparently they do this often. They have a mate at the hire place that does them an exceptional rate whenever they need to return bikes on one way hire back to Melbourne.

Their bikes had been ridden from Darwin to Adelaide. Although, having just come down the guts I'd have to wonder why you wouldn't just take the train or a bus as it would be more exciting than riding bolt upright in the heat for 3000k's.

Today has been overcast and threatening to rain the whole way. The first full lot of miserable weather so far this trip.  This is the seaside resort of Robe.
 

The rest of the journey through to Mt Gambier was pretty uneventful. That is until I handed the task of finding accommodation to Mrs Snappa. She must have been bored, or wanted a laugh because this is where I ended up...
 

 

 

http://theoldmountgambiergaol.com.au/

So I spent the night in gaol. Not the most comfortable night of the trip. This was still an actual prison right up till 2010. It was a lot worse than what I had expected. As an accommodation experience, it really was no better than an actual prison, other than I had the codes to get in and out of the front gate.

 

...and don't lose it or you won't get back in after 10pm.

The only light that filtered into the room was through a tiny window over the door and in spite of there being other guests about, there was no noise. It was just soooooo quiet. One night was enough to put me on the straight and narrow.

Today's route.