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 :)