I slept well. It was only a brief stay, but it was great to catch up with Derek & Julia again. Ellie & I will definitely be paying them a visit when we come through here… just not sure when.
Anyway, I headed slightly south-east to get to the hills rather than tackle Adelaide’s traffic (even though it was around 10 when I left). It was a warm one… 32 on departure.
I headed up to Mount Lofty (a great name for a mountain)… lots of twisties I wasn’t expecting.
I started to hear a funny noise again from my rear brakes (again with those brakes!)… a bit like fingernails on a chalkboard. I stopped and had a look but couldn’t see anything. I kept going and it was still there but intermittent. So, not wanting to risk it I road north until I was level with the bike shop that put the tyre on and then headed west to them (ringing ahead).
On arrival the main guy came out and said that the bloke that did the change said that one of the disks pads wasn’t in properly when he did the work (he shoulda told me at the time). They removed the caliper and checked again – and showed me what was now a worn grove on the edge of the pad where it had misaligned. Based on the depth of it I had no reason not to believe them and put it down to the guys in Geelong. I can’t take a trick! They checked it over pretty thoroughly (while I watched) – and even misplaced the pad when they went to put it back together… but fixed it.
The noise will probably subside as it wears/beds in a bit more, but it’s just so damn annoying.
Brakes done – I headed back to the hills and restarted where I left off. Essentially, I just road through the Barossa Valley and then the Clare Valley soaking in the sights and only stopping for drinks and snacks. Given I’d consumed an extra 1.5 hrs with the brakes I didn’t want to waste too much more.
I’d like to come back and do a proper wine tour – ie. let someone else do the driving.
The further north I rode the darker the horizon got. Based on the BoM radar I was pretty much riding straight into a storm. I wasn’t copping much rain, but it was very threatening. The good thing was that the temp dropped down to about 18 within an hour or so making it much more comfortable.
If not for the mechanical delay earlier I was heading for Port Augusta via Horrocks Pass. However, I started to think stopping earlier would be best. As it turned out I think I rode almost perfectly through the only gap in the storm (by chance). I arrived at Wilmington (east of Horrocks) and figured that would be far enough. It was now 5pm, dark, and hoppy-roos were starting to emerge from the bushes. As I pulled into Wilmington it started to rain a bit more, so a quick dash to the caravan park and I was set for the night.