David's Journal Entry

Today seems very likely to be the shortest day of the whole trip, on paper it was a mere 38km. The sinuous bike path route made it rather slow though and although such infrastructure in cities is to be celebrated, one can't help but feel more cyclists should be involved from the inception. That being said it was an easy and straightforward ride. The benefits of being in a big city (our first capital since Darwin, some 30 days and 3000kms ago) were immediately apparent as we roamed around, popping in and out of stores, looking for bits and pieces, although the only important item a new, high quality, front tyre for Doug, was nowhere to be found. 

Lunch gave us an opportunity to catch up with some acquaintances, in the form of Alison and Stuart, with whom I had almost worked...missing them by a single year in Malaysia, it was lovely to catch up and chat about similar experiences and what mutual friends are up to now. They generously paid for our meals too!

In the afternoon, Mike and I decided to retire to our accommodation, keen to take advantage of the apartment complex 'billiard room' which we had recce'd earlier in the day. With a bottle of wine and glasses in hand we entered the room only to be confronted by the vision of a seeming hipster, with a pen at the ready and a contract on the table, surrounded by a large collection of people of Asian origin all dressed in business attire and looking somewhat menacing. It was immediately clear they were not there to play pool. Given the isolated nature of the room, which was only accessible via the complex cinema, which itself was only found via a non-descript room whose entrance was in the recesses of the 3rd floor of the car park, something seemed amiss. A polite apology for interrupting their “business” transaction and a hasty retreat followed. 

Instead, we visited the beautiful Original Cooper's Alehouse, where we enjoyed a couple of pizzas and an IPA or two. Suitably fuelled we headed back to the apartment to finalise the plan for tomorrow. We are both somewhat fearful as each of us is fully loaded and we have a significant day of climbing ahead. Try as we might to find an alternative route there is none, the Adelaide Hills and a vertical kilometre of climbing await.