AUSTRALIA Page 1 - Western Australia - October 2006.

Australia, the adopted homeland of both Mal and Lee. The only continent under one government and the country we both love. The picture above is the “skyline” of our city, you can click on the picture to get a larger image. Perth is one of the most isolated regional capital cities in the world. There are so many things to say about our country that I simply do not know where to begin...

This is the first day of what is to become an incredible adventure. Little do we know, that we will endure extremes of all kinds, which as I write, is still not finished. Credits to those who helped, will now appear in a separate section.

DAY ONE OF MAL AND LEE's CYCLING ODYSSEY

Bunbury to Busselton (22-10-2006) Approx 35 Km dead flat strong headwind

We started our trip in Bunbury. It was not our intention, however I had some of my grandchildren, my Daughter and Son in Law and they wanted to take us to Bunbury because of the “traffic”. At the “big roundabout” we turned left and headed towards Busselton. At the first Rest area we pulled in and took the bikes from the van, and the rest is now our trip's “history” 

The road from Bunbury to Busselton is very good for Cycling with wide paved shoulder “inside” the white line.

Dropped off about 1:30PM and arrived Busselton at 6:10PM – Stayed at the C/van park near the beach only a powered site available at $23.00 Pleasant management, very good facilities. 

As it was our first day I took Lee to the local Thai restaurant. The food was poor and expensive. Awoke the next day refreshed at about 05:30am packed up (about 2 ½ hrs) and left for Margaret River. Catchya Later....

Busselton to Margaret River (23-10-2006) Approx 57 Km's Mostly flat undulating terrain strong headwind.

The first maybe half was good road then it became a nightmare.. VERY heavy traffic and no shoulder + main roads in their collective wisdom had put corrugations in the white line at the side of the road... The potential for one damaging the trike was huge.. we were forced off the road many times and car drivers seemed “manic”, conversely the trucks were the most considerate.

Arrived Margaret River at about 5:30pm and decided on a c/van park.. Cycled to the top of town (quite steep) and on to the c/van park.

$18.00 per night with poor facilities. Quite a large park but only two washing machines and ONE dryer (And huge queue's) . M/R is a yuppie town and everything seems overpriced... However, despite all, our spirits are high and we will push on... Catchya Later....

Margaret River to the Blackwood River (24-10-2006) About 55 K's Some hills strong headwind occasionally a head/side wind

What a difference a day makes... The roads are a huge difference – still no shoulder but so much less traffic... We decided we would stop at “Wichcliff” and have a breakfast.. I had some calls to make and whilst we had a strong signal we decided to take full advantage. Once again pricing is designed to trap.. In Perth many places offer a “full” breakfast from $5.00 (Midland Market) - $10.00'ish Here you need to “assemble” a breakfast Bacon $X amount and mushrooms $x amount tomatoes $x amount get the picture? After we assembled a very modest breakfast and two coffee's we were $30.00 lighter.

We pushed on to Karridale were we “turned left” heading for Pemberton. The people at the store in Karridale were very pleasant and helpful.. I hope you will stop there if your in the area as they really deserve it. We left Karridale and cycled to the Blackwood River on Route 10 We stayed at the camping grounds operated by the shire

The sign says $5.00 The ranger collected $5.00 Per person – Maybe I should have read the small print! Catchya Later....

Blackwood to Pemberton (25-10-2006)This is a two day ride for us... Day One. About 40K with no wind to start then side wind.

We are both tired today and cannot get too far without stopping.. We met our first cycle tourist today, a young guy from Melbourne. He had flown over to tour the south west on his two week holiday.... Didn't get his name..

We stopped at Nillup for breakfast which was good value, Nice people.

A bit further down the road we met four people from Italy that had been travelling for three months... They were robbed in Darwin and Margaret River (At a Tavern in town.. We talked a little about crime in our respective countries. It appears that “Naples” has more.

I told them they were lucky the thieves were not caught as the final insult would come when our “judiciary” let them off. We continued on and took the new road to Pemberton ignoring Nannup (it would have added 70k's to our trip 1-2 days). We bush camped along the way about 60K from Pemberton. The bush camp was nice, quiet and secluded.

We still need to learn an “effective” way of bathing with minimal water and maximum effect. Bathing is probably the only reason we have for using C/Van parks. With adequate water we can wash and dry our clothing in the bush. Catchya Later....

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