Myponga is just a few miles north of Normanville and that's where we planned to watch the Tour Down Under cyclists going through. We had time to kill so we went for coffee and doughnut/Danish Wedge at the local bakery, from where we planned to walk up to the corner where we knew the tour would be passing in a couple of hours. In the end, we just drove our car up to the junction and checked with the parked police car that it was OK to park there - "as long as you make sure it's well off the road when the cyclists come past, mate".
I wasn't quite sure exactly when the Tour would pass this spot. I knew they were scheduled to leave Glenelg at 11:30 am and that's just over 40 kms away, so I had told Kelly that it would likely be between 12:30 and 1:00 pm when they passed, but I was anxious not to miss the moment. We tried sitting at a few places, but one of them was near a dried up underground pipe and there was a bit of a stench there and it was plagued with flies, so we moved away. Some of the other Tour watchers told me 12:50 would be when it happened, so we had tons of time and went back to the car for a while. I kept going back to check, however, and eventually a flotilla of 20-30 advance promotional cars came racing through, tooting their horns and cheering:
We assumed the cyclists wouldn't be far behind but we were wrong - it would be at least another half hour. Another local gave me a good tip to stop me from continually jumping in and out of the car needlessly - "when the cyclists are getting near, the first thing you will see and hear is the TV helicopter coming over the hills". Good tip, but actually before that there was a procession of police motor bikes and cars, each a few minutes apart. I guess there were as many as 15-20 motorbikes and 10-12 cars. Bit of a holiday day out for the boys in blue, methinks.
Not long after the scheduled arrival time, the cyclists eventually appeared. The leading group went past so fast that I barely saw them - certainly I never got time to photograph them. I was wrestling with Jo's camera and trying to remember how it worked (mine was low on battery) and my eyes were focused on the large peloton behind:
Now I was standing off the road on the gravel but I nearly got run over as some of the group, who were incredibly tightly packed, were forced off the tarmac and whooshed inches by me.
Behind this was a fleet of back-up vehicles with spare bikes, wheels etc aboard, followed by ambulances and even more police cars. We joined the procession north-eastwards for a few miles before they turned off and we carried on to Willunga on to McLaren Vale, then McLaren Flat, where we'd arranged to meet Kelly and Miller at the Currant Shed for lunch.
We were a little late in arriving - it wasn't that easy to find - but Kelly and Miller were happily playing in the lovely garden there and we sat down to join them:
We had a glass of wine and some bread in this spot and then sat at our table for our meal.
Kelly asked us if we needed some guidance or to follow her back to Semaphore, but we thought we would manage - and we did - eventually. We had a couple of stops first of all - firstly for some take-away beer at Ekhidna's (https://ekhidnawines.com.au/) cellar door, then later to re-fuel Kelly's car, which we'd had use of all week.
We had beers in the back garden and awaited Chris' arrival home after his first full week's 9-5 regular job for a few years. Chicken, salad and, of course, wine for dinner.
You'll be pleased to know the family Huntsman spider is still alive and well - although she (we think it's female as it appeared to have eaten the previous one) had moved to a new, more prominent, position high on the lounge wall - but it's nowhere to be seen this morning. Cue dramatic music.
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