While the Tour Down Under was officially cancelled this year, it forged ahead in a new format, the Adelaide Cycling Festival. With the border restrictions eased, we were lucky enough to head over for Maker 2021 and to host a gravel ride with our partner in Adelaide, the Treadly Bike Shop.
On our drive over we decided to stop in Wotjobaluk country at the town Natimuk, for a stretch of the legs and a little 30km mixed surface ride to the peak of Djurid, or Mt Arapiles.
With the mess that 2020 was, it was a long time since we had five Curve Crew riding around together in someplace new. Even though the ride was short, the scenery was stunning and we had a hoot just mucking about on our bikes.
Out of Natimuk, Jesse Carlsson had scoped out a little MTB singletrack that ran along the dried out creek bed, and then on to some lovely wide-open gravel roads that took us to Djurid / Mt Arapiles. While we could have spent more time on the trails around the famous climbing area, we opted to climb the peak to look out over the country below. We bee-lined it back to town via the purpose-built bike and walking trail to get back on the road and headed towards Adelaide.
