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.
No comments:
Post a Comment