Industrial Riding

March 21, 2024

Mawson Lakes to Outer Harbor

Before I could get pedaling again I had a few errands to run in Adelaide.

Having waxed lyrical about the beautiful buildings of the Barossa, I thought I'd better acknowledge one of Adelaide's beautiful buildings.

Late in the afternoon Roger dropped me back at Mawson Lakes, ready to finish the last bit of the Stuart O'Grady/Port Adelaide bikeway and spend another night at home rather than in the tent. I'd love to say this was an exciting ride but really, it wasn't. The suburbs quickly gave way to industry: salt fields; rubbish dumps; freeway interchanges; all the loud and dirty business that grows around a port.

The path followed Dry Creek behind brand-new suburbs with barely-established gardens,

and followed the narrow spaces between the highway and the Dry Creek salt fields.

The Dry Creek salt fields were previously owned by the Ridley Corporation, which ended salt extraction there in 2014. The site, part of the non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying industry, was subsequently purchased by Buckland Dry Creek Pty Ltd (BDC) which continues to extract salt from the fields.

Adelaide city was visible beyond the salt, with the Adelaide Hills in the background.

Industry continued beyond the salt pans. I pedaled past squadrons of pelicans coming in to spend the night in the quiet(ish) wetlands below the motorway.

Beyond the freeway lay a mountain of landfill: a stiff headwind made the going tough but kept the landfill's stench at bay. In no time at all (well, in an hour or so) I was up on the bridge over Port River with a fine view of the big ships moored at the docks.

In the interests of completing a circumnavigation of the Le Fevre Peninsula, I hung a right on the far side of the bridge and followed the bike path through the cement works. The Adelaide-Brighton Cement works in Adelaide could have taught their Angaston department a thing or two about dust mitigation: the whole place was squeaky clean, no need for breath-holding at all.

Just a quick puff of smoke to catch the evening sunlight.

The Osborne Naval ship-building yard did not allow people such as myself to pedal their bicycles through the site, forcing me to detour out onto the road and back again. I considered a detour to Pelican Point as well, but I was running out of light and I'd already seen a whole heap of pelicans back at the freeway wetlands, so I kept on going toward home past the Outer Harbor railway station, past the cruise ship terminal (no cruise ships there but one due in very early tomorrow morning), and almost right past my own street so focused was I on pedaling. Arriving home, I was very flattered to have made it onto Dog's list of People Who Don't Get Barked At.

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off for an early night. I've officially joined the cruise-ship spotter's association and have to get up early tomorrow morning to catch the next cruise ship as it comes in to dock.

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