Tuesday 30 March 2010 Ealing to Staines

Tuesday 30 March 2010 Ealing to Staines 45km
Still feeling the effects of the colds we acquired on the flight (well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it) we both were not really 100% but had had enough of been cooped up and needed to get on our bikes.  The plan is to ride the Thames Valley cycle route which is a 99 mile sign posted route from Putney Bridge to Oxford.  The other factor is the weather forecast has not exactly been rosey for this week, tops in the low teens to single digits in London and snow predicted a little further north....yikes!!!

Anyway we cashed in our Oyster cards, which by the way are a great way to get around London, bought some metho (for the Trangia) and packed up and headed out from The Kings Arms (a great little pub managed by an Aussie bloke).

The Kings Arms

Our bikes stayed in the cellar, looking after the beer

It was cool and we put our new waterproof gloves on which were just toasty.  There was a bit of navigating to get to the Thames Valley route which we picked up in Richmond Park.  Right here I would really like to tell you about the ride but I was too busy gazing in awe at the houses, scenery and general atmosphere of London.  I was worried my expectations were too high but they have been surpassed by miles by the reality of this place.

Sandy had planned our route to Richmond Park last night using Google Maps and she did a stirling job getting us to the Park.

The park....here we go I'm going to gush about the beauty again, I cant help it, it really is something else.

Richmond Park

We rode down these fantastic trails and then headed out Ham Gate to hit the Thames Valley route proper.  As we left the park we rode next to a forest that I swear I should have had a bow and arrow and been wearing tights.....hang on, I WAS wearing tights!!!!!

It wasnt long after that we hit the Thames and the tow paths, I was mesmerized by the surroundings.

The canal boats, barges, gin palaces and the river bank houses all made quite a scene.

At this point we need to say a very big thank you to Greyson for giving us the heads-up on the muddy tow paths.  Luckily we heeded his advice and put our treaded (and a bit wider) tyres on as the tracks were pretty slippery but with our fat tyres we had no problems. For the bike geeks: Sandy is running Schwalbe Marathon Dureme 26x2.0 and I'm running Schwalbe Marathon XR 26x2.0

Thank you Greyson :)

I would also like to point out that the Thorn's (our bikes are Thorn Raven Tours) with their Rohloff hubs have performed very well.  Today they got covered in mud and grime and still shifted gears like they were squeaky clean......very impressed.

We stopped for lunch outside Hampton Court Palace (as you do) and made ourselves a cup of tea to warm up.

Hampton Court

 After we left the weather started to get a bit worse and we had to stop to put our GoreTex overpants and jackets on.  Riding in the cold rain is not too bad if you have the right gear.

More tow path, more fantastic scenery and I have a sore neck from looking around.

It rained consistenly for then next couple of hours so at about 3pm I had had enough, my throat was sore and my hands were cold (my new waterproof gloves leaked like a seive) so we pulled in to a dodgy looking pub at Staines and got a room.  They offered cheap accommodation and they menat it :)

Update: Just checked ou the forecast, even colder tomorrow, shooting for a top of 6degC!!!!

Friday and Saturday 26/27 March 2010 Still lazing in London

Still playing non-cycling tourist in London.

It's official...."I love London".  There is a vibe going on here that I love.  The history combined with the hip, the super friendly people and the worlds yummiest bacon and eggs.  Actually Sandy and I had our first English Breakfast today and it was great.  We did that because my (what I thought was) hayfever, is actually a cold and Sandy has come down with it too.  We booked another night in the pub to rest up before we head off.

Anyway enough of the moaning, back to London.....

Visited the Tower of London yesterday and it was worth every cent penny.  I love history and to be standing in the very toilet that Henry VIII did his number two's was a very special moment for me.

Lots of other sites that I dont have the words to describe.  We have actually discovered that we dont need to see the big sites as just wandering around is enough.....it's not like you have to go far to see and old building although the pub we are staying in is new as it was only built in 1761!!!.

Parliament Chapel at Westminster

One thing I might say if I can be bold is that we haven't had a descent cup of coffee yet.

The gardens are fabulous

Anyway, today we dont feel so great so we are going to do some laundry and take it easy.

Thursday 25 March 2010 London

Thursday 25 March 2010 London (0km)
mmmmmm woke up at 1am wide awake, finally got back to sleep at 4am for about an hour, this is not going to be good.  We had a list of things we needed to buy in London before we head off on the bikes again.

The view from our B&B

First priority was some warm bike wear i.e. waterproof and warm gloves as we have pretty much everything else.  We caught the underground into the city and when we got there I felt like a kid at the zoo.  London is a big city yet still manages to possess style and a good smattering of 'oldy worldy'.

 We didnt set out to see the touristy bits as today was just for shopping but regardless I was impressed with every street we walked.

Having an issue with my iPhone trying to get a local SIM card to work so we popped into the Apple store to ask one of their gurus.  I must say that the Apple store was huge and the bloke who helped me was very nice.  Nevermind that the solution didnt work but I think that may be that I need to be connected to the Internet to perform the fix.....can you see the irony there :)  It's a bit of a pain as it means we are using our very expensive Australian SIM to provide limited Internet connectivity.  I spoke to a bloke at an Internet Cafe down the road from where we are staying and he is going to let me take my laptop down to connect to the Internet so I can try and fix the problem.

Did I mention that London is big?

We went into a store that sold tweed flat caps (imagine an MG convertible on a country lane).  Sandy put her foot down and suggested I'd look like the tourists who come to Australia and buy Akubra hats.....they just dont quite look right with their sandals and socks.  The flat cap may have to wait until I get my LandRover.

I learnt a new pedestrian crossing rule today;  green man = walk, red man = walk carefully

Visited the coolest map store I've ever seen and after some foraging came out with the 'UK Cycle Route Planner' and a small British Road Atlas.  We think with these two and asking locals we should be OK. We are now planning our exit from London which I think will take some doing.  Staying an extra night might be in order to get the body clocks fully adjusted and then hit the road on Sunday.  I'm hoping for some sort of meteorological miracle to bring about some warmer weather.

Every encounter with the locals has been extremely friendly, it's not hard to have a chat with people here.  A chap in the map shop we bumped into took an interest in what we were doing and promptly started pouring over the maps to help our cause.  The lady at the tube station spent a very long time explaining how the system works and our best options.  Customer service is alive and well in London.

My first 'tube' ride...OK it wasnt that exciting for Sandy

The cycle commuters here put us to shame, these guys (and gals) ride hard.  They dont ride among the cars, they ride with the cars.  We stayed and watched a steady stream of commuters ride past the window of the laundrette and the pace would rival the Saturday group ride.  Lots of styles of bikes but mostly flat bar road bikes.  The one thing that all bikes have in common is full mudguards.  I thought there would be more internal geared bikes but people it appears, ride for speed not endurance.

Tuesday 23 March 2010 Busselton to Bunbury to Perth to London

Tuesday 23 March 2010 Busselton to Bunbury to Perth to London (18km riding)
It was always going to be a big day, we needed to get driven by Mary and Norm from Busselton to Bunbury at 4:45am to catch the 6:00am train to Perth then ride to the airport and to then board the 3:30pm flight to London (via Singapore).  The night before we watched the Perth news and watched in amazment at the big storms which knocked out the power to over 100,000 homes, all very exciting to watch from Busso.
We said our very sad goodbyes to Mary and Norm and we cant thanks them enough for the great time we had in Busso. And big thank you to Andrew and Kerry for the loan of their house (we replaced the Bombay). Sandy and I were sitting in our seats while we waited for the train to leave and Sandy remembered that we didnt have our camera.  (If you've been reading this blog you will remember that we just bought it).  Then as they called 'All aboard!!!' Sandy remembered we had put it in the console of Mary's car so she dashed off the train with Norm in tow to fetch the camera.  Panting and with the conductor holding the train for her she plopped back into her seat.  We had such a laugh at how close that was.

Let me return to the storms the night before; As it turned out the electricity that was cut powered the signals that controlled the train we were to catch and the power was not fixed until we had sat on the train in the middle of nowhere for an hour and a half. This cycle touring is exciting stuff!.

What we looked at for two hours :)

So an hour and a half late into Perth, Sandy and I had to turn our leisurly ride to the airport via a nice coffee shop into a bit of a race.  Shortened time frame combined with, huge headwinds (left over from the storm), we had a very tough 17km ride.  We got to the airport in time but had not eaten anything since we boarded the train and that single scone had run it's course so we were both a bit wobbly while we disassembled the bikes to put them in boxes.  It was great to get into the Qantas Lounge and have a shower after checking in.  We then ate and had a small G&T to calm the nerves from the stressful morning.  As it turned out we had plenty of time as our flight was delayed by an hour :)

At checkin the lovely lady noticed that we had pre-purchsed our excess baggage and that I had made a bit of a booboo by buying 10kg for each of us rather than just 10kg.  The lovely lady then gives us exit row seats for the whole trip to London.  Doesnt that sound great?  You actually pay extra to get the exit row seats nowdays.  I will try and describe an exit row seat.  The exit rows on the A330 are over the wing (and therefore engines), beside the toilets and therefore the bulkhead that they use for the baby cots. You also dont have a seat pocket in front of you to store your stuff.  So imagine, and you may need to close your eyes for this, the middle row is full of young babies (I am not kidding), people going to the toilet every 30 seconds must stand on your feet while they wait and you cant hear the movies because of the engine noise.  I tell you all this so that if ever you get the urge to ask for, nevermind pay for, an exit row seat.....DONT!!!

The leg to from Singapore to London (Kerry and Andrew we said hello as we flew over your place) was not much better.  The 747 had almost the same layout with exactly the same number of babies.

Fast forward to what felt like an eternity to our arrival at Heathrow.  It was pretty chilly when we arrived with a slight drizzle so the hour we waited outside for our taxi was a bit frosty.  We decided that we would catch a taxi/van to the B&B we had booked and after two attempts we got one that could take our bikes and got to our little room for the next fews days.  Had to have a bit of a sleep and then we headed into Ealing to buy some things we needed.  I, having never been to the UK before, was, and still am, in awe of the beautiful buildings, bridges, etc and I'm pretty sure we are not in a particularly special part of London.  Bought some tea bags and some yummy biscuits and put the bikes together as we brought them boxed from Heathrow.  The day turned out to be lovely and it warmed up so that I didnt need my 58 layers of clothes.

Afterwards we went out and I had my first English pint in an English pub that was built before Capt. Cook sailed to Australia....very cool.

Damn it's cold!!!

We've arrived at Heathrow. Just trying to work out how to get us and
the bikes to the B&B

19 March 2010 Nannup to Busselton

19 March 2010 Nannup to Busselton 70km

Not much to say, day six of this leg of the tour and we were pretty glad that today we end up at sea level. We started at 80m elevation, undulated up to 145m then undulated back down to 0m into Busselton and the up hill components were not as nasty as the previous days.

We forgot to take any photos today so I'll put on off the campsite and me updating the blog

Now we have a couple of days off before we fly to London on Tuesday.

Thursday 18 March 2010 Fonty's Pool to Nannup

Thursday 18 March 2010 Fonty's Pool to Nannup 57km
The word of the day is 'undulation'.
Bit chilly during the night, had the beanie on to keep my head warm.  This does not bode well for our upcoming UK trip next week :)
Did the usual morning routine, made porridge, cups of tea, packed up........

.......hung out the washing.
Fifth day in a row of hills and my legs were letting me know, Sandy kept the pace on the front the whole day.....dont tell Aaron from Cyclezone.
We started with 7km of dirt road in chilly and still conditions

The dust took ages to settle in breathless conditions

Stopped on the way and had a look at...

One Tree Bridge

We arrived at Nannup and blew the budget on a hamburger.......you can only eat so much tinned tuna.

Wednesday 17 March 2010 Northcliffe to Fonty's Pool

Wednesday 17 March 2010 Northcliffe to Fonty's Pool 62km
What a great time with Maree and Ian (and Garth and Harrison, the little cuties).  Gladly drank the bottle of wine I'd been carrying for two days.  Woke up to a beautiful day although a bit chilly in the morning it climbed to a perfect riding temperature.  We were both a little nervous about todays ride as the previous three days were pretty tough but it turned out really well.
Northcliffe to Pemberton was nice, up and down but nice with not much traffic on the narrow road.



You can tell I found the 'video' option on our camera :)

More riding through forest

We make a point of getting right off the bitumin when there are oncoming cars or trucks.  Got to Pemberton and had a yummy devonshire tea at a cafe.

 Chatted to a cyclist from Perth who was most intrigued with the Rohloff hubs on our bikes.
From Pemby we headed to the back roads via Big Brook Dam and we hit the steepest hills of our trip so far.

Made lots of use of 1st gear today.  Big Brook Dam was great, we had a quick rinse off and then set off again with the road turning to dirt, and pretty steep dirt which saw us pushing our bikes up one of the first dirt hills.

Had a look at 'The Big Tree' (yep that's what it's called on the map) which is a big Karri tree.

A little further down the road we turned onto Big Tree Road and it looked pretty dodgy.  The grader had been through recently so the surface was very loose and the first hill was a beauty which meant more walking.  I got to the top and then went back down to help Sandy with her bike.  At this stage we had about 8km of this road and we were getting even mnore worried but all was OK as things leveled out a bit and the road surface became firmer.
Very glad to have the GPS today as the back roads on our paper map dont really match reality very much and at times we were concerned about where we were heading.  The GPS maps are crap but better than the paper ones we have.  By the way when there is mobile coverage the Google maps on the iPhone are better than the maps I paid lots of money for on the Garmin.
Anyway after a bloody hard slog we got to Fonty's Pool springing out of the bush onto the bitumin for the last four km to the caravan park.

The campsite at Fonty's

Had a swim and some well earnt snacks.

That's Sandy lounging in the pool

Tuesday 16 March 2010. Beedelup Falls to Northcliff

Tuesday 16 March 2010. Beedelup Falls to Northcliffe 44km
Not too many km but not one of them was flat.  As soon as it was light enough to see we quickly packed up and left our stealth camp site sharing a museli bar for breakfast.
We rode to the Bicentenial Tree, which is a bloody big karri tree, for our 'real' breakfast and as we rode in it was chilly and damp and very peaceful.

As we started unpacking the Trangia a ute drove in and the guy appologised for disturbing our peace.  "No worries" I say but then he tells us that they have 24 school kids on their way for breakfast.

We had a laugh and moved out of their way.  This was all good except they cooked bacon and eggs......luckily we had porridge :(
Now the point of this little trip to Northcliffe is to visit Maree and Ian.  All good except I had forgot to ring them to let them know we were coming.  As we left Busselton two days ago I remembered but by then we were out of mobile range so thought 'no problem, we can ring tomorrow'.  This was not to be as there was no mobile coverage until we got into Northcliffe!!  We rang Maree and apologised for the short notice :)

Monday 15 March 2010. Sues Bridge to Beedelup Falls

Monday 15 March 2010.  Sues Bridge to Beedelup Falls 76km

As we'd had a couple of weeks off from loaded touring, and no cycling at all for the last week, our legs were a bit sore this morning.  We packed up, filtered some more water and hit the road by 0800.  Nice cool morning but lots of hills so our sore legs did a bit of complaining :)  Now if I dont mention the March Flies anywhere in this story then please note that now.
We trundled down the last of Sues Road and about six loaded log trucks blasted past us going the opposite direction.  That they were on the other side of the road is good but we both knew that a loaded truck going one way turns into an unloaded truck going the other way and sure enough about an hour later they came so we kept a weather eye on our mirrors and got off the road if it looked dodgey.
We stopped every hour of so to have a stetch and a bite to eat.  At one stage we had a nice tailwind that saw our average speed creep up.  Lovely forest all around and no sign of human habitation anywhere.  The plan was to stop near the Donnelly River Winery to have lunch and buy Maree and Ian a bottle of wine.  As water has been a bit scarce we decided to cook our main meal at lunch so that we could stock up on water during the afternoon if the opportunity presented itself.

We had a yummy lunch and while we sat the bloody March flies were out-staying their welcome.  A lovely bottle of wine found it's way into our panneirs and off we set after scabbing a couple of bottle of water from the salesperson.

Did I mention the March Flys!!!!

On the map there was a little camping symbol at Beedelup Falls and it was only another 20ish km so off we went.  More hills and our legs werent not getting any fresher.  After finding the turn off to the falls and knowing we couldnt ride much further today we discovered a 'No Camping' sign!!!!!  The bush for miles around was too think to pitch the tent so we kept on to the falls car park to make the descision on where we would stay.

Very nice forest

We arrived both knackered and hungry and decided to wait until dark and just pitch the tent under one of the picnic shelters and hope the ranger doesnt come along.  As a token gesture we bought a $10 day park pass and had our story clear if the ranger did turn up but these little legs were not climbing the massive hill we rolled down to get into this place today, I'll worry about them in the morning.  The falls are right in the middle of the Karri forest and a Karri tree is a bloody big tree that photos do no justice.  As we sipped a warming cup of hot chocolate, beautiful wrens hopped around the bush next to the picnic table...very peaceful.

Gathering water for filtering

I sure hope tomorrow my legs improve as even though we only have 45ish km to get to Maree and Ian's I know there will be heaps of hills and because of the water problem we are carrying a few extra kg.
We waited on the picnic table for the visitors to leave trying not to look like we were going to stay the night but I'm sure it would have been pretty obvious.

Our stealth camp spot :)

Sunday 14 March Busselton to Sues Bridge

Sunday 14 March 2010. Busselton to Sues Bridge 65km
After a small delay we did the sums and worked out we could still squeeze in the trip to Northcliffe.  We were home from Perth in Busselton Saturday afternoon and hit the road Sunday morning via the corner store for some supplies.

What cycle tourist can 'not' stop at a bakery?

Unlike our cycle trip to date the clouds were out and it was a cool not quite crisp morning - perfect cycling weather. As for the ride we headed out towards Nannup, turning onto Sues Rd and just kept pedalling - a few undulations, jarrah forests and pine plantations.  We stopped at Sue's Bridge, a lovely bush camp along the Blackwood River, for a spot of lunch.  After consulting the map, assessing Gary's chaffing and the prospect of a bath in the river we decided to pitch the tent and stay the night.  We didnt realise when we left how remote this leg is so luckily we have a water filter and purification tablets as we had to get water from a dodgy tank.

Our camp site in the trees

The Blackwood river

Sues Bridge

Beef strog minus the beef, sour cream, onion....bloody beautiful

Pondering while off the bikes

We're in Perth on an errand for the next few days so no cycling for us.  While cruising my favourite cycling websites and blogs I came across this quote on the EcoVelo site:


"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle."  Ernest Hemingway

Lunch at the Colonial Brewery

Norm was telling us about the Pork Ribs they serve at the Colonial Brewery and we just had to try them.  One condition I (Gary) put on this quietly was that I had to ride there in a vain attempt at balancing my current calorie intake and expenditure.
Norm tells me 'it's a 40km trip'.
'No problem' I say '40km round trip makes for a nice day with a lunch thrown in.
'40km each way' Norm retorts.
mmmm 80km round trip is a bit longer for a lunch but we'll be right as by now Sandy and Mary have both agreed to join me.
So off we set yesterday into a howling head wind and a steady climb from sea level to 130m.  We stop for a photo which we tried to set the camera on timer for but the wind kept blowing the canera over.

So we had to settle for me taking the shot.

Anyhow off we trundle into the wind, so much wind that riding up the hills (made worse by the wind) you cant even look forward to the downhill as on the up-side we are on the lee of the hill and as we crest the hill hits us at twice the speed and we have to peddle down the other side lest we slow to a crawl.

So after 2 1/2 hours we make it an average of about 17kph....hard work.

Lovely cool day which was the only nice thing that could be said for the southerly wind.

Beaut lunch and Norm's recommendation for the Pork Ribs was on the mark as they were spot-on. And if I wasn't riding home I would have enjoyed more than the one Pale Ale that I had....bloody beautiful.

This time we could get the camera timer to work without getting blown over.

Mary joined Norm in the car for the return trip so Sandy and I got to revel in the tail wind on the way home.  Our average spend nudged 25kph without too much effort which on our lovely Thorn touring bikes is not too bad.
Overall a pretty tough day on the bikes given that we've been a bit lazy lately but it felt great.

Still lazing around Busselton

No big news as we are still hanging out in Busso relaxing.  The only thing I'm concentrating on is carbo loading for the next leg of our trip :)