Week 13 – South West WA

Hi everyone, another “catch-up” blog. Sorry to keep you in suspense…..

I left South Fremantle after bidding Tim & Shani a fond farewell at about 7:30am on Sunday morning. Today’s ride will take me down the coast towards Bunbury where I will be doing a lunchtime talk tomorrow. I have decided to ride to Binningup – a distance of approximately 135km – which gives me a mere 35km to ride into Bunbury the next morning. I will be taking the scenic old coastal route rather than going down the newly opened freeway.

By the time I reach the turn-off for Binningup, I find I am travelling pretty well and so I opt to go the extra distance into Bunbury – this will take the pressure off me in the morning and save me taking a shower in the morning. I reach Bunbury around 5:30pm, book intothe caravan park on Koombana Drive, put up my tent, have a shower and head into town for dinner.

After a good night’s rest, I pack up camp and, leaving my bags with the kind folks at the reception, I head into the library, where I will be giving my presentation. Everything goes well and the South-West Environment Centre even takes a video of my talk to help spread the word even further. One of the participants at the talk is my billet for that night, Ian, and he gives me good directions on how to find his place at Gelorup. Susan, my contact at SWEC, suggests that I might like to take the coast road rather than the highway as, by using a bike path through a Tuart forest, I can get right to Gelorup. This sounds good to me so I head back to the caravan park, get changed and pick up all my goods & chattels and head off the very large distance (14.8km) to my next night’s accommodation where I am greeted once more by Ian.

He shows me my room and gets me a cup to tea before his wife, Helena, and daughter, Jules (Julia), get home. They have a lovely place on about an acre of land and are making great headway in creating a beautiful garden under adverse conditions. After dinner, with their other (adult) children, Fiona & Graham, we continue our conversation and even have a game of “Pass the Pig” (apparently of New Zealand origin) – this is a game of nerve & chance and Ian proves himself the one with nerves of steel & willing to take the chances, taking out the first 2 hands. I can’t quite remember who won the last but I know it wasn’t me!

I head off the next morning, after doing an interview with a newspaper journalist from Bunbury, bound for Busselton with advice to take the forest tourist drive. In due course, I took the turn-off and travelled along a lovely forested road (Tuart Drive) for about 15km before rejoining the highway just before Busselton proper. I got in before noon and tarted up to the local paper to get a story then went to the environment centre to touch base before heading off to my home for tonight. I am staying with a Simply Music colleague of my wife, named David, and he has left a key out for me.

I settle in, have lunch, a shower and then head back into town for my ‘gig’. The folk from Busselton make me most welcome, the presentation runs well and I head back to David’s place where he prepares me a delicious meal. (For breakfast in the morning, he has even gone to the trouble of buying in, especially, a breakfast cereal that I might enjoy. How good is that!)

We chat for awhile before heading off to bed. The trip to Nannup tomorrow is inland and so I can expect a bit of climbing to be involved.

I went back into Busselton to attend to some business and, by midday, I set off for Nannup in overcast conditions. The climbing begins soon after leaving Busselton. It is very pretty country I am riding through but the wind is starting to buffet me a bit.

to be continued…..