Adventures in Retrospect

Distance: 62km Elevation gain: 764 metres. From the town of Dwellingup to the Lake Brockman Tourist Park A bit over 6hrs in the saddle from 7am to 1pm. The initial plan was for a 30km day but I arrived at the hut campsite at 9:30am because the trail was smoother than expected. Felling good I pushed on to Lake Brockman. Not long after leaving the hut, the trail turned to the more typical pea gravel and progress slowed. The last 32km were more difficult and took 3.5 hrs, also because of the hill climbs involved. I took it easy and drank lots of water and kept cool by drowning my shirt in the odd creek crossing. Suspension bridge over the Murray River. One of 3 tunnels on the Alcoa Mining lease. Creek crossing - nearly came off...it was deeper than I expected My bed tonight, a tent of sorts at Lake Brockman Tourist Park. 

Distance: 70km Elevation gain: 899 metres.  From the town of Jarrahdale to the town of Dwellingup A bit over 8 hrs in the saddle from 6am to 2:30pm I ignored my own advice and rode 70km today in over 30 degree heat and I have totally cooked myself.  I arrived in Dwellingup totally busted - dehydrated, hot and nauseated.   Our group of 4 left Jarrahdale about 6am this morning and at 9:30am arrived at North Dandalup Dam about 30km into our day.  The other three lads decided to ride on the road to Dwellingup (25km on tarmac) and short-cut the remaining 40km of today's Munda Biddi.  But not me - I wanted to experience the trail so I said my goodbyes and went bush.    Maybe I'll heed my own advice from now on. I've decided to spend an extra night in Dwellingup to recover and have a rest day tomorrow. Example of Pea Gravel - this is common on the trail and is a real energy and morale sapper.  It slows you down, makes it difficult to steer and is almost impossible to ride up a hil...

Distance: 53km Elevation gain: 580 metres.  My revised expectations on daily distance is now somewhere between 50 and 60km. Any more and I'm kidding myself.   First night on the trail and it was a lot cooler than I expected. I should have packed a warmer sleeping bag.  I wore several shirts, long pants and socks trying to keep warm. It was another challenging day on the bike today.  I met up with 3 other gents (Ian, Owen and Adam) heading south and we travelled together some of the time today.  There was a diversion off the official Munda Bikki trail today due to planned back-burns of the forest.  This meant 19km on road (dirt road with pea gravel) instead of the trail.   Good to avoid the fires and the wide road was somewhat better than the twisting mountain bike track over rocks and tree roots. However whenever a car or truck went by it meant a coating of dust.  Lots of fun !! We arrived in the small township Jarrahdale around lunch time and were all exhausted.  The heat, hills a...

Distance: 63km but only 43km on the trail. There was a 20km ride first thing this morning to get from my motel to the trail head. Elevation gain: 860 metres. 560m on trail and 300 metres to get to the trail head. Day 1 of the trail was a revelation for a number of reasons: - I'm not fit enough - Pea gravel is like riding through soft sand and it sucks - this is not a wide and gentle rail trail and is instead narrow, twisty, rough and rocky. This is a mountain bike trail ! - my estimates of my average speed were wildly optimistic - there is a LOT of elevation gain/loss along the trail. The first night on trail was at the Carinyah trail hut. Start of the trail Typical trail shots Carinya hut for the first night Tent inside to keep flys and critters away

 The day has finally arrived. The bike was packed in its bike box and I'm on my way to Perth to cycle 1,000km along the  Munda Biddi trail from Perth to Albany.   I plan to take a few weeks enjoying the experience and will try and post every day or so along the trail.    Today involved flying to Perth and catching a cab to my motel in the suburb of Midland where I spent the afternoon reassembling my bike and getting all the gear stowed away.  I had three bags for the flight to Perth: - Bike box with bike and a fair amount of gear (28kg),  - Corona beer carton filled with extra gear, no beer (6kg)  - My yellow dry-sack bag for carry-on the plane with yet more gear. I had some comfort when I spotted the bike box on the tarmac about to be loaded onto the plane.  The luggage arrived safely in Perth and I found a cab large enough to take the bike box to the motel in Midland.  The main reason for going to Midland was to purchase a ...

We cycled 55km of the Great Taste Trail starting from Kohatu and travelling anti-clockwise through Spooners tunnel and down the valley to Nelson.  It is a fun ride, especially on an e-bike.😀. We hired ours from Gentle Cycling and they were a very informative team, driving us from Tahunanui Beach to our starting point far up the valley.  Here's a 90sec video on the Relive App. https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOdpwzE8kO It was overcast and raining during the drive up to our starting point but by the time we unloaded and finished our safety briefing the rain had stopped.  And it remained dry for the rest of the day.  Spooners tunnel, at 1352m long was very cool!   The pies for lunch at Wakefield bakery were excellent. Perfect temperature and held their shape to the very end.  Side note, a mate recently suffered blistering burns to his hands after a molten party pie incident so please "Check your temps".  A short boardwalk at the end, along the beach, was ver...

We hiked the Queen Charlotte Track over 5 days in October. It's officially 71km but felt further with side trips and the hill climbs.  I mistakenly thought it would be lovely and warm along the hike but even with the sun we had cold days and nights.   With the wind chill the 'feels like' was below 5 degrees most mornings and rarely got above 15 degrees by midday.  We used the water taxi each day to transfer our big luggage bags between lodges so we only needed to carry our day packs on the hike.  That was nice.  In retrospect the night at Lochmara Lodge was a detour that we didn't need.  It was a 4km side trip each way and 200m elevation change.  I would recommend staying at Mistletoe Bay on night 4 or just pushing through to the finish.  It would make for a long and difficult 4th day.   Day 1 Ships Cove to Furneaux Lodge We started in Picton and took a ferry to Ships Cove first thing in the morning. Lots of history about Captain Cook at Ship...

Picton is the gateway between the North and South Island's of New Zealand and was the takeoff point for our hike along the Queen Charlotte Track.  This is a harbour town that depends on tourism generated from the 50 or so cruise ships that call into port each year.  In the distance, covered in clouds, are the mountains that form part of the Queen Charlotte track.  Should be a good hike. On Friday, before we started the hike, we took a cruise on the Queen Charlotte Sound along the "Mail Run" that occurs every Friday afternoon to deliver mail to the remote homes dotted along Sound.  This was a fantastic way to see where we would be walking and to catch a glimpse of the North Island as we peered out from the safe waters of the sound across Cook Strait.  You can see the windmills if you look carefully.  We were very lucky to have calm waters and clear blue skies.  Apparently a 6 meter swell is normal if the winds pick up. Below is one of the last sheep farming properties on t...