Arrival in South Australia

The Barossa Valley to Tamworth Charity Bike riders finally made it to Lyndoch today after a few hiccups and a close call with a semi trailer.
Two blown tyres, a forgotten piece of luggage and the semi trailer incident made it a testing start to the ride which officially begins at 6am on Saturday morning with a 82km ride to their next stop.
After leaving Tamworth just after 7am on Wednesday the first drama occurred after passing through spring ridge it followed an innocuous cb radio call from ride captain Rick Lavers, to the Service’s Barry Walton saying “at least we got through Spring Ridge this time.”
Rick was referring to a previous eight day charity bike ride for the Service, where the group’s bus broke down at Spring Ridge.
Intriguingly a few kilometers on and the back tyre on the BBQ trailer being towed by Keith Lockhart’s Toyota Landcruiser blew out.
A quick re-fit of the spare and the group made it to Coolah where Steve Billett at Valley Motors organised a new tyre for the group.
As it turns out Steve is originally from Tamworth and played city and northern division representative rugby league player.
He also did the bike riders a great deal on the new tyre, charging us just over cost price.
Steve also promised to attend the bike ride function when the ride returns through Coolah later this month.
The second hiccup occurred early yesterday morning when John Whitehead, motellier from the Highway Inn at Hay, advised ride coordinator Barry Walton that someone had left their bag behind.
Barry returned to meet John 35km south of Hay on the Newell Highway.
Barry was then able to catch up with the rest of the convoy at Renmark.
From there the group travelled a few kilometres before the replacement tyre on the BBQ trailer also punctured.
Back the group went to Renamrk where they were able to purchase a new tyre but unlike Steve Billett they didn’t do us a good deal at all, in fact they charged us full price.
Then it was a relatively 200 odd kilometre strip into Lyndoch. Where the group also linked up with the Kurri boys who had been riding around Tasmania. There was also a surprise in the form of Westpac Rescue Helicopter Service chairman Cliff Marsh and General Manger Richard Jones, who were there to greet the riders and wish them all the best at tonight's kick-off dinner.