Cruising North: Tumby Bay to Cowell

This will be a very short post as there wasn't a lot to distinguish today's ride. Dianne and I were actually last to leave this morning. I guess the comfort of our bed and the knowledge that we had a relatively easy ride ahead of us and that conditions were only going to get better throughout the day made us feel like there was no rush. We were still away by about 7:45 as I noticed that it was only five to eight when we were about ten minutes up the road.

Traffic on this side of the Eyre Peninsula is much busier than the western side. I wonder if that's why drivers are just not quite so friendly or considerate as they seemed to be a couple of days ago. Car drivers didn't seem to give us as much room and the road trains - of which there were hardly any on the other side of the peninsula - weren't as consistently kind as we've experienced up to now. Not to worry: we still arrived in one piece.

Morning tea was at 45 kilometres. Jacquei, who had got away first, was chatting with Kathy when I pulled in with Jim. Di rolled up next and Pete pottered in right behind her. We were all together for a change.

Collis nominated the 90 kilometre mark for lunch. Di and I found ourselves just approaching that point when Collis pulled past and said he'd find somewhere just up the road. He did and we pulled in after him, with Kathy following in her van immediately behind.

I took this photo of Di and my bikes on a post marking the driveway where we stopped ...

Our bikes like to hang out together ...

Jacquei soon arrived, then Peter and Jim. Once again we were all together, which is a pretty good indication that members of the current group all ride at a pretty similar pace.

With the chance of a shower still in the air but conditions fine it seemed we all weren't too interested in lingering over lunch. Di and I were first on the road but it didn't look like the others would be far behind.

The last 25 kilometres into Cowell made for pretty quick work, with a nice gradual downhill run to finish.

Here' a graphic showing the detail of today's ride ...

Tumby Bay to Cowell

My computer - which is not GPS so perhaps not entirely accurate - showed a greater amount of ascent and descent, putting it at just over 500 metres but it was still a very flat ride overall.

And here is another showing roughly the ground we've covered so far, although the numbers are bigger than shown on the map. We have now covered 3130 kilometres ...

Perth to Tumby Bay

Cowell is a lovely, well-preserved little town. There are two large pubs with the more attractive being right near the water and just around the corner from the caravan park ...

Franklin Harbour Hotel with Di in the foreground

We are about to go in and have a cold drink and some freshly-made hot donuts when I stopped for this photo. Behind me is the Post Office. Please note that this is a place that still has phone boxes(!) ...

Cowell Post Office

Anyway, over to the pub we went and duly ordered a couple of cold drinks and some donuts. While we were waiting for the latter to arrive, Di shot this silly little video which I thought I should include ....

Even the Cowell Police Station, which is just around the corner, is in a lovely old building ...

Cowell Police Station

Main Street has a number of lovely old places, including the Institute ...

Another fine Cowell public building

The last photo I've got for you at the moment is this lovely cottage, which is also just around the corner from the caravan park ...

Another lovely Cowell cottage

Were Peter around, I'd also have a photo or two of him shucking and eating oysters with a bottle of Coopers Best Extra Stout in hand. As he's not, that will have to wait for later.

Postscript

Peter did eventually turn up and was keen to get on with our little oyster and stout fest. We got the shucking gear out and set to it. While we were shucking Di took a little walk down to the foreshore and out onto the boardwalk amidst the Samphire and low-growing mangroves that are in the area. She took this lovely photo across Franklin Harbour ...

Franklin Harbour at dusk

Pete did most of the work shucking - it seems he has had more recent practice (I haven't shucked an oyster in about 40 years!) - so managed to get about four open to every one I did. Eventually we got there and this was what we ended up with ...

A nice little feed of Franklin Harbour oysters

There is some talk that the oysters here at Cowell are the best South Australia has to offer and were pretty keen to find out just how good they were, but before we did we had to have a little toast ...

Cheers, Pete!

The three dozen oysters I paid for turned out to be thirty-eight, so Di got a dozen and Peter and I ended up with a baker's dozen apiece. Peter, the oyster connoisseur amongst us, was mightily impressed with both the size and taste. We declared that they must be at least amongst the best that are produced in this fair state, so along with Coopers Best Export Stout, which is also amongst the best stout in Australia, we thought we'd done pretty well.

After this warm-up, we wandered back to the hotel where it was $12 curry night, with three different curries on offer. We had a great feed in a pub where the atmosphere was terrific - just what a pub should be like. I took a few photos with the iPhone but they didn't really turn out very well so I'm not including them here. Suffice to say however, that the old foundry bellows, horse collars, old photos and art works about the place made for a very warm and welcoming environment.

All in all, although today's ride was good (in that it got us another 115 kilometres along the coastline) but not brilliant, our great afternoon and evening here in Cowell meant that the day was a stellar one in the end.