Lazy days in Busselton

Not very exciting travel journal at the moment as we are just hanging out at Busso in Kerry and Andrew's (Sandy's sister and bro in-law) house which is about 200m from the beach.

I went for a ride with the Geographe Over 50s Cycle Club on Monday as I thought I might at least be able to not get the pasting I received last time I rode with the Darwin guys. 

It turned out that it wasnt quite the relaxing pootle I planned and that the 'A1' group are all on serious road bikes.  The Thorn Raven Tour kept up but I was pretty pleased to get to the morning tea spot.

 Now these guys know how to hold a group ride.  I think the Darwin group need to follow this example and provide a suport car with tea and little sandwiches.

Anyway must dash as we are off to the beach again :)

Breakfast in Busso

Had a lovely breakfast at Goanna Gully this morning

 

  

Mary and Norm's place

Week off in Bussleton

We are spending the week in Bussleton so no trip stories for a bit.  Next week we will head to Northcliffe to see ian and Maree.

Bought a new camera yesterday so will be able to take shots again.

18/2/2010 Ferguson Valley to Bussleton

18/2/2010 Ferguson Valley to Bussleton 115km
Yes you read it right, 115km.  This wasnt the plan when we set off from the B&B we stayed at.  We wanted to get to Peppermint Grove Beach and stay the night in the caravan park which would have worked out to be about 80km.  The problem was that once we got to Peppermint Grove Beach the caravan park had closed down and there is nothing else but houses and a nice beach and Mary and Norm's place was only another 35(ish)km to go.

The weather forecast for the day was cooler than yesterday which was a great relief to us.  We woke up early and made breakfast and naturally because I (Gary) measured the oats we had enough for a complete prison breakfast.  A quick pack of the gear and off we went.  Not far down the road I'm hot and cant believe it.  I'm wearing a sun protection shirt, long sleeves, collar and a sort of heavy synthetic material.  I stopped and took it off and what a difference, almost chilly, so I rode along for a while without a shirt on.  Down the road a bit I put one of my light wool shirts on and was heaps better so I was feeling great.

Not far down the road was Gnomesville, a quaint spot where people donate and display their gnomes.

I arrived expecting a few gnomes around a picnic table but no, they were everywhere, had to be thousands of them some in elaborate displays.

The road we were on was single lane bitumen and winded it's way through the forest with hardly a car to be seen.  We could ride side by side chatting and admiring the views.  This was until we got to Lowden, which is no more than a shop, and turned onto a major road with not much of a shoulder.  Trucks roared by and we cowered each time.  10 km later we pulled into Donneybrook, a pretty little town famous for apple growing.  The first cafe/tea house we rode past had a sign for Devonshire Tea out the front so we pulled in and were treated to fantastic tea and fresh scones jam and cream.....yummy.

We stocked up on more lunch making stuff at the local supermarket and then headed off down a windy little road.  A couple of climbs but we must be getting our 'touring legs' because we felt pretty good even though in our lowest gear just spun up.  Fabulous ride, the forest we all around and little traffic.

Hit Capel after flying down a gently sloping straight and stopped to fill up water bottles.

 

We then headed to Peppermint Grove Beach were as I mentioned at the start didnt have any facilities.  What it does have is a lovely beach

 

and after some very hot days we locked up the bikes and went for a swim.  Very nice.  We than ate some more (seem to be doing alot of that on this trip) and decided to push onto to Bussleton.

Apart from a punishing headwind in places it was a pretty good ride although I think our legs had had enough by the time we got to Mary and Norm's.

18/2/2010 Harvey to Ferguson Valley

18/2/2010 Harvey to Ferguson Valley 64km

Had a camera failure so had to use the phone until we buy a new camera

Reluctently left Anthea and Justin after they spoilt us with an amazing bacon and egg breakfast.  The morning was cool and once we got going we felt pretty good and that showed in our average speed.  It was beautiful riding the back roads from Harvey and there was the slighest hint of a tailwind which was the first time of the trip so far so we felt great.  As we headed down the south west highway we felt great but the temperature was rising.
Today's plan would see us hit the hills for the first time and the first climb was 130m over a few km which tested our legs.  Unfortunatly we met this hill (and the subsequant ones) with increasing temperature and as you climb you lose your apparent wind so we swealtered in 34ish deg C.  Despite the temperature we both felt pretty good on the climb although we both used our lowest gear so maybe I should have spec'd the bikes with lower gearing :)
We stopped for lunch at the Ferguson Valler town hall under the shade of a gum tree as by then we were both very hot.  The thought of continuing on dampening our spirits.  It was a bit unfortunate that the route we chose didnt really have anywhere we could camp so we plugged on.  It wasnt far down the road that we faced more climbs and more heat and we had already covered 55km and the prospect of another 30km to Donneybrook started to seem like a dumb idea.  As we rode along we saw a sign advertising a 'Retreat' so we had a quick discussion on the road and knocked on the door.  A nice mad came out and after enquiring if we just wanted a room suggested he might be a bit expensive at $275 and he was right.  He then rang a mate down the road who was closed but would give us a room in his B&B.  After receiving some quick directions we headed off.  What this bloke failed to mention was the 500m dirt road that was too steep to ride up so we had to push our bikes.  Very hot, very tired, very sore we knocked on the door of the B&B and took a room at $160!!!  Desperate times call for desperate measures so we paid the price as the prospect of a bush camp with no water in the searing heat did not sound like a good alternative.
We had showers and lounged around in the cool room and ate the complimentary Tim Tams with a cup of tea....life was good again.
Cooked our Thai curry on the Trangia outside our room and settled in for the night.  Tomorrow we head back toward the coast hoping to reach Peppermint Beach.  Hopefully the weather forecast is correct and temperatures will be a bit cooler.

17/2/2010 Waroona - Harvey

17/2/2010 Waroona - Harvey 34km
South West highway from Waroona to Yaloop 

 

then back roads to Harvey. 

 

Cross winds most of the way and not too hot. Not long before we got to Anthea and Justin's we had to knock our speed down to 40 for road works

 

Just after the 40 sign there was a detour sign with two choices so we had to ring Anthea to check which one was quickest.  She led us down a beautiful little dirt lane

We arrived at Anthea and Justin's idealic country house. 

 

We had a great time catching up and playing with their beautiful kids wandering around the orchid and eating lots of fantastic home cooked food.  After a couple of beers Justin suggested we go and get some of their wine made from their own grapes.  We grabbed torches and headed off to the big shed.  I'm not much of a wine reviewer but that one we could have run our Trangia stove on!!
Dinner was amazing and Justin cooked a self-saucing pudding in their new slow cooker...very nice indeed and much need calorie replacement.

Day 4 Keysbrook to Waroona

63km 33deg C

Naturally after our first 'real' riding day yesterday today our legs would have preferred to stay in bed. Day 2 for me on any tour or hike is tough, day 3 sometimes tougher but normally day 3 is good so I look forward to tomorrow.

We had brekky with Mike and Fran and said our goodbyes as they both went to work leaving us to lock up the house and promising not to forget to give the dogs some pig's ears. Yes you heard it right, dried pig's ears. Anyway we had a great night to Mike and Fran and will try to not leave it so long between visits.

Rather than riding down the South West Highway, which is very busy, 

we kept to the back roads to get to Pinjarra and saw very little traffic. Had a rest in Pinjarra, made a cup of tea and bought a pie from the bakery. 

Pies are not the best performance food but they're yummy. While sipping our tea we had to decide whether to take the highway or the back roads again. The problem with the backroads is they would add 10-15km to the trip and our 'day 2' legs really didnt want to add any unnecessary distance. The turn off to the back way was about 5km down the road so we had a chance to evaluate the shoulder on the highway before making the decision. As it turned out the shoulder was a metre or more wide and the traffic really wasn't that bad (yes Franny, you were right) so straight on we rode down the main highway which turned out to be a great ride if you like head winds and 33+degC heat. It wasn't that bad but we were pretty pleased to get to the caravan park at Waroona.

We offloaded our panniers and then took a small ride back to town for me to buy a book and a snack (chocolate milk) and then back to make some lunch. Now we sit in our groovy Thermarest chairs relaxing.

 

Tomorrow is a very easy day to get to Harvey to visit Anthea and Justin.

Day 3 - Perth to Keysbrook

71km and 33degC.  Set off from Jeff and Dee's place

and found our way to the freeway south and it had the best bike paths

we've ever ridden on.  Bit hot but there was a nice wind.  Stopped at a shopping centre to stock up on food and then hit the road again.

 Had lunch in the shade of one of the underpasses on the freeway.  We calculated that we had about two hours riding to go and we only had just over one bottle of water each.  As it was pretty hot we had been drinking alot more water than we expected so we started trying to work out where we could find more water as the section of the freeway is out in the country.  Sandy went for a walk to the end of the tunnel and looked down the side road and saw a service station about 1km away.  No water problem now :)

Carried on the freeway path until we got to our exit and then rode on quiet country roads until we got to Mike and Fran's place.




Pretty hot day and we were glad to get off the bikes as first day of touring is always a bit tough....well it is for us.

Day 2 - Rest Day

Ha after a 33km ride we need a rest day, no actually we needed to buy some more gear while we were in Perth.  Walked for miles aournd the city sourcing clothes and some camping gear.  How we manged to fit the extra gear in the pannier still surprises me but we did it.

Stayed with Jeff and Dee another night and drank a magnificent white.

Day 1 Darwin to Perth

33km riding which included riding from our old house in Darwin to the Darwin airport and then riding from the Perth airport to friends house.  Arrived in the dark using a mudmap we made while we waited at the Darwin airport. We had planned the route from the airport to Jeff and Dee's online following the Perth Bicycle Network but our hand-drawn mudmap turned out to be just a tad short of detail.  Once it got dark we were pretty happy to have the Garmin GPS to give us turn-by-turn to the house.

Had a great night with Jeff and Dee.

We havent left home and......

......already we're eating two minute noodles from the Trangia.

The Plan: Perth to Bussleton

We fly into Perth this Saturday, spend a day shopping in Perth on Sunday and then ride to Busso via bits of the Munda Biddi MTB Trail.



View Perth to Busso in a larger map

The track on this map doesnt really follow the Munda Biddi Trail but it's sort of close. We also want to stop and visit some friends on the way.

It's official...we are squatting in our house

The last of our furniture went today.  We're keeping the little folding ladder for cleaning the house and will give it away before we go, in the meantime it's our new desk.

The Europe Plan

The plan so far, and it will most certainly change and the big rule we have is: If we stop having fun, we come home.


View The current plan in a larger map

We fly into London, boogie around the UK then catch a ferry to France from there we sort head to Italy via whatever we want to see.  Then catch a ferry to Croatia then head to Moscow via Romania.

Having said that we really want to see Norway but there are no ferries that run from the UK directly to Norway so we'll work that out when we get to the UK.