Cycling in Penola: If you don’t like riding up hills, Penola is the place for you. The local tourist information centre has a great little brochure entitled “Penola Cycle Trails” that offers a range of suggestions from 8 to 100 kilometres.
I had some time before our friends arrived from Adelaide so I decided to try out the Penola Short Ride which was described as “an eight kilometre family ride past red gums and vineyards using quiet sealed and unsealed back roads”.
As I headed west from the town onto Weirs Lane I was surprised to observe how broken up the road was – just as well my tyre pressure was not too high at the moment. Then the ride turned north onto Marks Road and the surface improved. At first I passed through open pastures with magnificent red gums lining the road.
Then the fields became vineyards.
Turning east onto Ravenswood Lane, I dropped in to see the large white sculptures on the grass at Patrick’s cellar door, then crossed the main highway between Penola and Naracoorte.
On the other side of the highway was Hollick’s cellar door and restaurant. I could see people eating in the sunshine on the back verandah overlooking the vineyards – it looked inviting.
I turned south onto Old Racecourse Road. Some of the grapes were still on the vines – it was the second half of April and the leaves were turning.
As Racecourse Road continued south I saw this sign.
It’s very hard for a girl like me to ride past the promise of an old cemetery. My short detour was rewarded – the cemetery had an interesting old rock wall.
From there it was a short ride back to town. All together I had ridden 14.7 kilometres and only climbed 11 metres! It seemed quite a lot more than the eight kilometres advertised, but I had done a few kilometres around town before I left, taken the detour down Old Cemetery Road and ridden from the end of the ride to our caravan park, so that probably explained it. I was looking forward to trying out the Penola Red Gum and Winery Ride tomorrow.
Another great wine region for cycling in South Australia is Langhorne Creek.
