Walpole to Albany

The big heat has finally arrived! It has been 40 degrees C for the last 3 days! Our only way of surviving is to get up at 5.00-5.30am, start cycling before the sun rises, stop before 10.30 and find a shady spot where we can wait for 4.00pm when the heat is a little less intense.
Leaving Walpole we visited the Valley of the Giants, a place where you can see karri, marri and tingle trees from a tree top walk , a small platform 40 or 50 m above the ground. It was magnificent. The road there though was very hilly and left us exhausted. Instead of cycling on, we collapsed in the near camping site which in fact turned up lovely. It was very quiet, in fact so quiet we were able to see many wild birds and a little quokka, a shy little creature, bottom half kangaroo and top half teddy bear and marmotte. We were very lucky to see one because introduced foxes and feral cats have nearly wiped them all out. Introduced species are such a problem here. Little did we know that the next day would be very traumatic!
We had planned to spend Christmas Eve and Day on the beach. Why not? So we cycled on to Parry's Beach, which looked on the map very inviting and quiet. When we arrived it was idyllic, a pristine white beach and although quite a few campers already, they were mostly happy families and we managed to find a secluded shady site right at the back. After supper (tin of sardines of course... there was no food or water there) we even had an informal country western concert. We felt very happy. But... we were sound asleep when bright headlights, much swearing and a growling dog woke us up. Some horrid people had arrived and had found us in *their* spot -apparently they came here everyday. Well, John used the dog dazer (wonderful piece of equipment!) to stop him biting him (he was a bulldog!) when he got up to go to the toilet!
Anyway, we survived the night and left very early, saw a flock of spoonbills on the way and looked for a more peaceful spot which we found in Denmark, by the river mouth. Spent 2 lovely days there, with pelicans soaring above our tent and 2 skinny dips in a lovely cove complete with small hut. Bliss! Good things always seem to come out of bad things.
Another good thing coming out of bad things has been meeting Gunyar and Dhyana in the youth hostel in Pemberton, where we had to stay because of the pouring rain. Gunyar and Dhyana very kindly invited us to stay in their lovely home near Albany and we have been luxuriating: eating home cooked food, talking and sharing life experiences and sleeping in a lovely caravan in their garden. They also took us canoeing today in a beautiful bay, resting our legs and using our arms for a change! We are so grateful for their kindness.
All good things come to an end, will leave tomorrow (early because of the heat) and head towards Esperance, 480km from here with only petrol stations in between! I can safely predict more sardines and avocados!

Northcliffe to Walpole

Well... survived yet another 100 or so kilometres of wilderness and rain. Stayed in a lovely cabin hut (together with spiders, of course and a mouse who tried to eat our meagre supplies of food) and cycled up and down all the way to Walpole where we splashed out on a WOW cruise (=Wild about Wilderness). We were taken on a boat (luxury!), saw many pelicans again (they are so strange), a sea eagle swooping close by and the guy in charge, Garry, whose family was amongst the first settlers in the area in the 1800's was an authority on the local natural environment and was very very funny. Now going to our next camp: Peaceful Bay, in the Walpole-Nornallup (means place of many snakes...), hoping for some sun so we can use the snorkel we bought yesterday.

Pemberton to Northcliffe

Left Pemberton in the rain, arrived in Northcliffe in the rain... but only 30km and we must be getting fit because we didn't mind the hills at all. Spoilt ourselves again and stayed in a propper campsite. As it happens it was a kangoroo sanctuary so spent most of the time feeding kangoroos and watching the babies poke their heads out of the pouches of their mother. It was lovely!
Now, after a hearty breakfast, we feel ready to tackle the next 100km without habitation of any kind. Even so the next town, Walpole, only has 500 inhabitants!

Heritage
The Australians are now very keen to conserve what remains of the pioneering era. The settlements were mostly associated with logging in the south west. There are several small local folk museums illustrating what life was like. Logging here commenced at the turn of the last century, further new settlers from the uk were attracted to emigrate to Australia when there were insufficient jobs for soldiers returning from the 1st world war. The governor of western Australia was keen to encourage the growth of dairy farming to reduce dairy imports. The group settlers as they were called were often allocated virgin forests to turn into pasture. Many were unskilled and unprepared for such a back breaking task. They were given temporary accommodation first in tent and then in corrugated iron shacks and worked in groups of about 20 men, cutting their quota of trees, digging wells and building wooden homes. Children had virtually no schooling or proper clothing. No soil tests were carried out. Some land was just not suitable for pasture. This, coupled with the depression of the 30's, meant that many gave up the struggle. Only about a third stuck it out, the rest returning home often with only the clothes they stood up in.
In some rural areas, these early settlements remain much as they were when first established with the addition of tarred roads, schools and shops etc. The pioneering spirit is very much still in living memory and often gives a strong sense of identity to many small rural towns.
There is no mention of the early clearances of Aborigines from their land. No one that we have met, bar Penny, a young Brighton born Australian artist that we met yesterday, spoke of Aborigenes. The Aborigenes that survived the European diseases were forced into domestic labour, their children forcibly taken from them, not to mention sexual and other exploitation. It is something as yet unresolved...

Margaret River to Pemberton

Well, it's a tough ride! After surviving the monstrous road trains, the huge red ants, the spider under my saddle (Nicole's) and the permanent head wind, we have encountered torrential rain and have given up trying to make our budgwet work and totalling up the kilometres: today have been staying in a Youth hostel at Pemberton to try to recover our strength and our spirits!
579km to date. From Margaret River, we camped wild in two lovely spots but it has been a struggle with a strong head wind for 3 days. In fact, I read today that in the South West corner of West Australia, hot easterlies from the desert are prevallent during this season Why didn't we read this before we set off from Perth? we could have cycled easily the other way round! Also read that rain in the coastal regions are not that rare... ah well! The wind, hilly terrain and not much food (there were no town/shop for over 115km meant that we arrived yesterday in Pemberton pretty exhausted albeit exhilarated by the magnificent karri forest we cycled through. Karri trees belong to the eucalyptus family and can reach over 60 metres, maturing at 250 years.
Pemberton was the centre of the local timber industry, logging now much reduced. Logging commenced around the 1900's and increased when British people arrived after the 1st World War on what was known as group settlements schemes. The new arrivals were faced with practically no resources to transform the forest into pasture. Their strugles to survive make our cycle ride seem like an afternoon jaunt! Pemberton still retains its neat rows of boarded timber bungalow much as it was after the settlement.
Close to Pemberton, one of the giant Karri trees was climbed by a logger with spikes on his boots and a huge leather belt around the tree. The tree was topped, the top 20 or 30 feet chopped off by the logger swinging his axe almost 200 feet from the ground on a make-shift platform of planks he hauled up, and dodging out of the way as the top of th tree toppled to the ground. Horizontal iron spikes less than a metre long were then driven into the tree to from a giant circular staircaise to a fire look-out at the top. it is still there today and we both climbed the 61 metres to get a wonderful view over the tree tops to the coast and its dunes.
Hoping to make the 30km up to Northcliffe tomorrow if the weather improves.

Bunbury to Margaret River

Phew! Australia is not a country for cycling! Distances are vast... we cycle and cylcle on and on in the heat only to find that we have only covered a tiny distance on the map.. very disheartening.
Cycled through Busselton yesterday, a lovely town by the ocean with a 2km long pier (it took them 90 years to build!) and actually cycled on a cool peaceful pretty cycle path for over half an hour. It was divine. Then next on the road to Margaret River. It's a bit like cycling by the side of a motorway but a narrow motorway... horrendous.
We stayed at campsite yesterday, did our washing and had the first shower for 3 days at least (won't tell you the exact number...). It was wonderful! Margaret River is a lovely place with many vinyards (they are called wineries here) and a wonderful beach with absolutely stunning surfing... apparently: we won't go there, it is all downhill and then only accessible by 4x4 as you have to go through dunes... John doesn't want to swap the tandem for a jeep, ah well!
Must go on. Am slightly worried because on the map there aren't any roadhouses, shops or water taps for over 100 km. And it is hilly!!
Must go or John will have a wobbly because we haven't left early.

Rockingham to Bunbury via Jarrahdale

Australia is a BIG country!!! After cycling up the hills to Jarrahdale only to find that the Munda Bidi mountain bike trail was really for mountain bikes (covered with little spherical stones which would have been deadly on the tandem), we joined the South Western Highway to make some progress south. It was TERRIBLE! These road trains that we had read about really do exist and are as dangerous as they sound: 2 or 3 trailers, huge and very very fast. The highway was in some places very narrow with no cylcing shoulder to ride on. It reminded me of India... we literally had to get off the road when we heard these monsters approaching from behind.
Apart from that we have found some lovely wild camping spots, picked our own oranges for our breakfast, saw a flock of pelicans, black headed ibises, pink headed and black and many other kind of parrots and last night went to sleep with the sounds of frogs croaking in the river next to our tent.
We are now on the old coast road past Harvey, much quieter and civilsed riding, hoping for some camping near the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately I have forgotten my swimming costume and still have my cold! John though can't wait to dip his toes. Must go and clock up some more kilometers before tonight.

Perth to Rockingham

The lovely start was too good...
Flight to Perth fine except for John who fainted twice! and nobody had mentioned "blood" or "needles"! I think it was because we were trying to save on buying lunch at airport, hoping we would get fed on plane and then plane eventually left 2 hours late. By that time of course we were ravenous...
At Perth we were told tandem was still in Dubai. Apparently missed the connection. When we eventually collected it after a night spent on benches at airport it was in such a state John had to use his ingenuity to mend a broken mud guard and crooked bits everywhere. We ventured out of the airport only to find that we weren't where we thought (the international airport is at the other end of the domestic airport) and after much meandering, cycled along the Swan River, found Perth and a delicious and cheap Japanese lunch, bought maps and zoomed down to Freemantle before dark. Excellent cycle paths! Put tent up and went to sleep. Parrots squwaking everywhere, even noisier than the Isle of Wight seagulls, Anna! Next day I had such a rotten cold-couldn't breathe move eat or anything, tandeming was out of question so we stayed put until this morning.
Anyway... we are here now, passing through Rockingham, quiet little town by the Indian Ocean, having left Freemantle this morning at 9.15. We are hoping to cycle another 30km to Jarrahdale where a mountain bike (!) track starts.
Best bits so far:
Seeing a pelican and 2 black swans on Swan River. The huge black and white parrots flying around the campsite. The songs of birds in the morning. The organic supermarket - I wanted to buy everything, John let me buy a delcious jar of honey. And the absolutely wonderful flowering trees and strange grasses and the blue of the Indian Ocean.
Worst bit: my cold...

Barnes

Left Odessa 9.30 this morning with Patrick and Robin waving good-bye... no water left in sky after these last few days of torrential rain, sunny ride on cycle path to Cowes and arrived in Southampton 1 hour early! Our pound train fare to London wasn't a hoax. Still can't believe it! So far so good... Jo and Des from Barnes welcomed us with hojicha tea (delicious roasted Japanese tea) and Des's home made bread,life is wonderful.

Icy rain

15 days until our departure to Australia. Latest plans: flying to Perth with the tandem and returning from Melbourne in February. However, instead of cycling around West Australia coast and taking the train across the desert to Adelaide or Melbourne, John has suggested we cross the Nullarbor Plain. Despite the 1841 explorer John Eyre's description of "a hideous anomaly,a blot on the face of Nature,the sort of place one gets into in bad dreams", this sugestion has caught my imagination. Perth to Adelaide: 2700km., approximately the distance London-Moscow. And 2000km across the desolate Nullarbor...

Frost and rain at the moment are preventing us to get tandem ready or to get any training. So far have cycled only once, just over 25km Newport - Freshwater and back, a couple of Sundays ago... will definitely need to get fitter if we are to cross the Nullarbor Desert!

Sunset at Beaulieu

Peaceful river...the lull before the storm. Lesson learnt: never move anchor during the night while there is a strong current.