Sunday 19 October 2025 – Hawker to Adelaide
One final thing that we did in Hawker before going to bed last night was to take our binoculars and find the darkest part of the town so that we could do some star gazing. And a beautiful, clear night it was too and we could see the whole Milky Way above us. Spectacular! There’s far less pollution in the Southern Hemisphere, so looking at the stars is always great.
There wasn’t much to Sunday, Don, our driver was prompt in picking us up and we were on the road back to Adelaide by 8:30am. Bikes in a very different position to where we wanted them to be….
We took a different route back and went through many of the small towns we’d have been cycling to on the Mawson Trail. And the Flinders Range was never far away giving us some great views. We stopped in Melrose, a vibrant mountain biking area, for a break and a coffee and were soon back on the road. We also went through Crystal Brook, which we both remembered from our first tour of Australia in 2019 – mainly remembered for the excellent pie shop there, of course!
Before we knew it we were deposited back at Adrian’s and all was well. Our short lived expedition to the Mawson Trail was over and although we were disappointed, we were safe and unhurt (apart from our pride!). We had a lovely afternoon and evening with Adrian and his two sisters Marga and Linda (pictured below) and picked through what happened during our trip…
The more we have thought about it, we prepared our equipment well, but not ourselves! We didn’t really do any training and to expect our bodies to be able to do this extreme exercise without good training was rather stupid! This was our main downfall.
The official description of the trail says that it is easy to medium. There was even a picture of a cyclist on the trails a large blowup bed and pump on the back. This, in our view, had made it look easy. However the reality is that is a serious undertaking, which we didn’t take seriously enough.
Regardless of the reasons, we have learned a lot and know what not to do next time we plan a cycling trip. You’d really think we’d know by now! Interestingly, we now think that we were a little lucky on our first tour as the first 3 weeks were on relatively flat ground which gave strength to our legs before we got to the hills of Norway. It could have all been very different….!
Monday 20th October 2025
Didn’t do a huge amount other than go to the shops for food and I made a curry for dinner!
Tuesday 21st October 2025
We decided on the way back to Adelaide that it would be silly not to make the most of our time there and to stay for a week before heading back to Sydney. Although Adrian would have been fine with us staying at his place, we decamped to a cabin at a campsite near to the centre of the city so that it was easy for us to explore. Other than cycling the 15km to the site and stocking up on groceries for the week we didn’t manage much more for today. But it had rained most of the morning anyway so we didn’t feel like we had missed out on much.
Wednesday 22nd October 2025
Though we have been to Adelaide before, it was a flying visit in 2019 so this time would give us much better chance to get a proper feel for the city. Our campsite was right next to the Linear Park, a long thin park with walking and cycling paths, that follows the Torrens River right through the city. We could walk into the city centre in about 30 minutes, which was very convenient. More on the Linear Park later as we used it a lot during our time here.
Thursday 23rd October 2025
Took nearly-naked bikes all the way along the Linear Park to the mouth of the river and the sea.
A very enjoyable ride. Once at the sea we turned north and stopped for a coffee. The Australian’s are the kings (and queens!) of the coffee shop. No chains here, they’re all independent outlets and they are everywhere, so it doesn’t take long to find somewhere to stop for a brew!
We didn’t really have a destination in mind, so decided just to keep going north until we’d had enough or could go no further. The beaches were beautiful and there were stunning dunes with interesting plants covering them and a very convenient bike path which just kept going!
On the other side of the path were very posh houses. Unlike in the U.K. all houses in Australia are different, never the two the same. It does tend to make things look a little untidy, but they were definitely big posh houses! Also along the route there were numerous piers sticking out into the sea. Just boardwalks with a shelter at the end. When we got to Semaphore we decided to have our lunch on the boardwalk there. Walked our bikes to the end, found a spot to sit down on and watched a few people fishing whilst eating lunch. Everyone said hello, it was really lovely.
Back on our bikes and we went as far as we could, basically to the end, which is the port entrance. Not a huge amount there to be honest, but we did make it all the way. I had dropped my phone off to be fixed in the city and had to pick it up by the end of the day, so we didn’t have a lot of time to time hang around. Pretty tough going on the way back as even though there were no hills, we had a stiff head wind to battle against which is like a never-ending hill! In all we covered 70km.
Friday 24th October 2025 Morialta Conservation Park – 50km
We weren’t really sure where we were going to be honest, except that we got on the Linear Park path again, but this time headed inland. As it turned out we went as far as we could, which was the end of a park! Again this was a really lovely ride up into the Adelaide hills. There was a sign which said 500m to the trail end, which we thought would take us to a bridge across the river to connect it to the main road. But no, it literally just stopped in the middle of nowhere! We backtracked and crossed at the last bridge on the path and headed into the hills, but stopped soon after as there were a few large trucks on the road and we didn’t fancy tackling them. While we were there we did spot a sign for the Mawson Trail, so this was where we would have arrived at the end of the trail! [Actually, since being in Adelaide we have seen signs for Mawson Ave, Mawson Road, Mawson Lakes shopping mall, etc, so it felt like Adelaide was rubbing it in just a bit,]
Adrian had suggested the Morialta Conservation Park as a place to visit and as it wasn’t too far away that was our next destination. Parked our bikes, had our lunch and then headed off for a hike into the hills.
Beautiful place with some excellent trails and stunning views of waterfalls which, as we’d had some rain, were flowing well.
Almost got lost a couple of time and wished we’d taken a picture of the map on the information board, but we really enjoyed the whole area. On our hike we heard something making loud grunting noises, like a pig, in the bushes but never saw anything – we nicknamed it grunty mcgrunt-face and later found out that it is likely to have been a koala! I think we have heard this in the past and should have known, but it is still weird to know that something so cuddly makes such a weird noise!
Saturday 25th October 2025 – Downtown Adelaide
We had a lunch date with Adrian and Kristy in the city – so we headed to Madam Hanoi’s for the hawker menu (the name wasn’t lost on us!). Great food and a laugh a minute!
After the meal we went to 2KW, a rooftop bar in the centre of town. Great views, especially when it started to thunder and lightning all around us. Only when it got too wild were we driven inside! Finally we went to Maybe Mae, a secret bar in Peel Street – had to use the keyhole to find the door to get in!
Sunday 26th October 2025
Martina wanted to see the choral service in the cathedral and I didn’t! So, Martina went to the service and I went for a wander. At the Adelaide Oval, their local cricket stadium, there was a basketball competition underway which gave me something to watch while I waited. Turned out to be excellent watching!
We had a final wander through the city, stopping for an obligatory coffee along the way, before going to the Museum of South Australia. We’d been here before and remembered it as being very good and we weren’t disappointed a second time around. Really enjoyed the whole section on First Nations people. Absolutely fascinating annd informative with some excellent aboriginal art on show as well.
Monday 27th October 2025 – Marino 60km
Back on the Linear Park route and back to the coast. This time we headed south along the coast which to be honest wasn’t as impressive as it had been in the other direction last Thursday. All very modern buildings, which just isn’t our thing. In amongst the modern buildings there were a few really old really lovely colonial buildings that looked a little out of place, but were our favourite buildings on the route. The weather was pretty cold and wet, almost like being at home! We made it as far as we could go on the bike path at Marino and then just turned around and headed back with the wind pushing us along!
Martina went to the Botanic Gardens for a visit later in the afternoon while I stayed at home to write the blog!
1 comment
Comment by Adrian 'Amazing' Adelaide
Adrian 'Amazing' Adelaide 30 October 2025 at 7:47 am
loved this blog guys. had an ‘AMAZING’ hehehe time with you guys and hope to see you soon. I really hope despite plans not going 100% that you enjoyed Adelaide.