A Belated Update From Tewantin Part Three - The Bike Friday Muster and more Nostalgia

Sue and Kirsten left for home on Easter Monday and the 2016 Bike Friday Muster was due to start on Wednesday in the Barossa Valley, South Australia.  I decided to fly to Adelaide on Tuesday and stay there overnight before driving to the Valley in a hire car with my new bicycle and lightweight camping gear on Wednesday.

I had a horror drive to Brisbane and just managed to make my Adelaide flight.  There is only one way to Brisbane from Noosa and there was a holdup on the Motorway which made my journey over
 two and a half hours and I had to park my car.  From then on I had no more problems with a pleasant flight and an easy drive to the cheapest motel in Adelaide,  It was out of the 1960s and a bit rundown but clean and warm.  It was also in Hyde Park just south of the Adelaide CBD which has several good restaurants so I had a good dinner.

On Wednesday I drove to the Valley via Elizabeth where we lived from 1960 until 1985.  I stopped off to buy an inflatable mattress and a nice pillow.  Poor Elizabeth is in a sad state with massive
unemployment.  There was full employment when we lived there.

I soon arrived at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley where Muster was being held and was checked in by my old friend, Margaret Day.

Margaret giving us a pep talk with the Muster organiser Bronwyn on the left.

I put up my little tent and assembled  my bicycle, took it for a test ride and met up with other old friends.  I bought a takeaway meal and had dinner in the camp dining area with Louise and Hugh, fellow Queenslanders who I met at the Muster three years ago.

I clambered into my little lightweight tent with some difficulty.  I am not as flexible at I used to be!

Next morning I managed to get dressed in my cycling gear in side the tent with some difficulty and had breakfast in the camp dining room.  I decided to take the short ride via a bike track to Lyndoch  at the start of the Barossa Valley.  It was a tough little 30Km ride but we stopped at the Lyndoch Bakery, which is well known for its German pastries, and had morning tea before returning to Tanunda.

The Bakery

My new bike is first in the queue

The bike trail is to the left with grape vines on the right

Riding away from the wineries over a steep little hill

More vines

A stylized wine glass at a winery entrance 

I spent the afternoon listening to travelers'  tales from Holland and West Australia and went to the local pub for dinner
.

Steak, chips and salad for dinner

 I took a good bottle of red wine back to the camp and spent the evening chatting with my friends before struggling back into my tent.

On Friday I took the short 32Km ride which was a loop through the major wineries including Seppelts and Tolleys and stopped for morning tea at Greennock.  It had been a hard ride into the wind but a nice ride home.

More travelers tales in the afternoon from Morocco and Germany - Bike Fridays go every.  Dined at the pub and more red wine with friends in the evening before getting into that bloody tent.

Upmarket fish and chips

I got up on Saturday and made decision that my days in a little tent were coming to an end and put it up for action at our Muster Dinner that evening.

My tent's last day with me. Tomorrow it goes to a new home.

Today's ride of 31Km was north via the Barossa Valley Farmer's Market and morning tea at Angaston before returning home via Nuriootpa.  I rode home with Margaret Day and we reminisced about riding together around Adelaide in the1990s.

I packed my bike back in its case and chatted with friends.  In the evening Louise  drove Hugh and I to the Muster Dinner where my tent was auctioned for $150.00 but I was allowed to sleep in it for two more nights.  The auction raised about $3,000.00 for Guide Dog.

On Sunday most of the Muster Attendees packed up to go home. We had a final lunch before saying goodby.  In the evening we had a much smaller group in the dining room but a good quantity of wine was consumed.

On Monday I packed up my little tent for the last time and delivered it to its new owners where it will be used  by their grandchildren.  I said my goodbyes and drove back to Adelaide.

I had decided to visit every house/flat which Margaret and I had lived in in South Australia as I don't expect to be back.  We live in a flat and two houses in Elizabeth.

Our first home in Elizabeth SA

 We lived in the top right flat from June 1960 until November 1962.

Our first house in Elizabeth South 1962-1967

We bought this house in Elizabeth East and Lived there from 1967 - 1975

Then we moved to Woodville South to a 1920s Villa home on a huge block of land,

We moved to Woodville South and lived here from 1975 - 1985

When I left EMI to become a Public Service, we don't pretend to be civil,  I used my payout to buy a home in the Eastern Suburbs which had a huge swimming pool.  Magill is among the top addresses in SA.

In 1985 we went upmarket and move to Magill in the Eastern Suburbs and lived there until 1991

In 1991 the pool was becoming too much work and we had little house built in Ridleyton in the Western Suburbs which we intended to use as our retirement home.
 

In 1991 we had this little home build in preparation for retirement but we moved to Tewantin in 1998

 I returned to my cheap motel in Adelaide, visited some old friends over the next couple of days and took a long drive around my favourite cycling areas in the Adelaide Hills before returning to Queensland on Friday.

Adelaide's cheapest motel

Images of Strathalbyn my favourite SA town