havebootswilltrek.com

Because Australia is a trifle big, I split the trip up into seven stages so I would feel like I was getting somewhere. And Stage 1 is done!

1. Albany : 658 Kilometres (from KD Cycles in Rockingham where I bought the computer).
2. Norseman
3. Ceduna
4. Port Augusta
5. Adelaide
6. Melbourne (possibly)
7. Sydney

I haven’t taken any pictures here in Albany so here’s a picture of Roland Rat instead:

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaahhh

Although a detour on the Perth-to-Sydney route, I wanted to do this to get cycle fit, to see how the bike handled and to work out whether there was anything I was missing: there was. Compression straps, a tarp, spare spokes, a few tools and stuff like that. Things that I would stand no chance of getting once I’d left Perth and gone East until I got to Adelaide. It’s been a superb 10 days of cycling. Apart from a single difficult day (100K of relentless hills into Walpole) it was generally pleasant and easier than I thought it would be. I would recommend this stretch to anyone thinking of cycling across to Sydney. Going east directly from Perth means a lot of 100K days almost right from the outset.

One of the problems I’ve had is what to do with my excess stuff – because I was hiking in Europe, I had all kinds of layers that I just don’t need over here in Aus. Also, as I got my bike shipped here, there was all kinds of paperwork in it and instruction manuals that until now I’ve had to lug around with me. In Albany, I met up with the family of a friend and they’ve kindly taken a box full of stuff from me that they will forward on when I get to Sydney. This is good news! Unbelievable as it is, this stuff almost filled one of the rear panniers. The alternative was to use Poste Restante but they only hold things for up to a month unless you contact them.

Despite getting rid of almost a pannier worth of stuff, my panniers are still chocablock full. An oddity indeed.

Thanks to Ian for putting me in touch with his family over here: it was a pleasure to meet them! And also to P+L for meeting up & plying me with coffee and cake.

Until now, I’ve been cycling with a daypack on my back containing the camera, which is heavy. On long days, this has been causing my neck and shoulders to ache and generally driving me insane at times. Fine on the short days, but anything over 70K and I really started to feel it. This is why I was hating my camera. I wish I’d never brought it. It was superb in Africa but lugging it across Europe was a pain. Cycling across Australia with it is also proving to be a pain. I just don’t like photography enough to justify carrying this stuff around. It does nothing for me. Next time I go anywhere except Africa, a small compact camera in a belt pouch will be my best friend. No more of this heavy lens stuff!

In Albany I was able to buy two things I realized I definitely needed: some spare spokes and some spoke tools. Heaven knows what kind of elliptical masterpiece I’ll create if I have to replace a spoke though…!

I’ve also learnt that my rear rack will carry up to 45 Kilos of stuff. My front racks will carry 18 Kilos on each side. The question remains: what will my spokes carry?!

I haven’t lost my mind. What got me thinking about Roland Rat and Button Moon is that there’s a current affairs program on TV over here called Dateline and they were looking back over the last 25 years. He asked: do you remember what you were doing 25 years ago? Yes. Eating cheese pasties from Pat-a-cake in Workington and watching Roland Rat & Button Moon!

I’ve spent a day repacking again so my camera is accessible on the road. Proper photos next time!

[Backposted to 26-October-2009]

I haven’t been getting on with my camera this last week and WiFi has been hard to come by so I’ve just strung this update together… sorry for the lack of quality photos!

From Busselton, instead of going around the coast, I went South to Nannup, Pemberton, Walpole and Denmark. The map barely has room to list all the things to see around the coast so I would rather return here in future and tackle it at a slower pace.

Nannup was a quaint little village surrounded by lush, green hills. It looked like the Lake District on one of its rare sunny days. My camera has been inspiring rage in me recently so you’ll have to make do with these shots:

A lot of the towns have Info bays just outside so you have a chance to call ahead and discover that all accommodation is booked out before you arrive.

The hills started outside of Busselton and have been relentless ever since. I mean: relentless. Yesterday, from Northcliffe through to Walpole, was a 100K day. Up. Down. Up. Down. The entire day in high heat. The first 90K’s I did in a leisurely 6 hours but then all of a sudden I reached my limit. I was exhausted. It took me almost 70 minutes to finish off the last 10K and limp into town. Tough day! One of the longest ascents was right at the end just before I got into town from where there is this lookout. Me and my camera weren’t getting along at this point:

Most of the route was through the Karri Forest (trees that grow up to 200ft high) interspersed with the occasional farm and fields full of dumb, staring cows. With hindsight, I can’t believe I got through 400Km’s of treelined roads and only managed to take this shot:

Pretty much pleasant cycling like this for 400KMs with bigger trees on each side

One of the places I stayed along the way was a place called Round Tu-It, a caravan park and animal sanctuary. Although I’ve seen a few wild kangaroos over the last week whilst cycling, they’re skittish and tend to bound off quickly (they’re seriously fast man!). The ones at the sanctuary were very tame though:

They also had Alpaca’s which look like Llamas with a bad case of mumps:

Over here, some farms rear Alpaca’s solely for their high quality wool.

Despite the one long, difficult day, the hills have been fun and they keep you on your toes. You see them coming. You prepare for them. You exert yourself, you get over the top and then you descend at life-menacing speeds. But I’ve noticed a lot of the time I find myself cycling against a small incline. Not enough to really see, but enough to know it’s there. Hard work.

When you’re hiking, fatigue and hunger come on slowly. You feel a bit faint. You know you need food but you can kind of put it off. Then your stomach complains but you manage to keep going. When you’re cycling, it’s a bit different:

09:51:01s – I’m cruising along at 30kph, I feel great, I can keep doing this for hours. OH, YEAH, BABY! Bring. IT. ON!
09:51:02s – Oooh… ooooooh shit, man. I’m… I’m… knackered. I’ve no energy. I can’t … I can’t even turn the ped… peddles anymore. I’m going to die.

The only answer is to eat a quantity of food that is an affront to every mal-nourished person on this planet.

I discovered how difficult snakes are to spot today. I was cycling along the highway on the white line to let a Landcruiser pass… as I looked ahead I saw a huge black snake sunning itself a few feet off the road. What to do?! If I swerved to avoid it, they’d be picking bits of me out of the Toyota’s radiator by now. If I’d braked, I’d probably have stopped right next to it. So I just whizzed past. It stirred as I past, about three feet from my panniers, but that’s it. I’ve no idea what kind of snake it was, but it was black, about 2 metres long, had a thick body, and looked terrifying. I was very glad not to meet its acquaintance.

Camera problem solved. More on that next time.

[Backposted to: 20-October-2009 due to lack of WiFi]

The last few days have been superb and I’m getting well into the whole cycling routine. You’ll have noticed I am not updating the blog as often as I did in Europe. WiFi is hard to come by here so you’ll have to put up with bunches of updates in one go.

Busselton is another stunning seaside town in Western Australia. One of it’s claims to fame is that it has the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere:

Western Australia had its first scorcher last week: the mercury peaked at 36 degrees Celsius. Not bad for a spring day! The good news is I didn’t really feel the heat when I was cycling… it’s only when I stopped I realized I was in a furnace. This is ideal because there’s much more of that kind of heat to come!

After taking it easy for a few days, I decided to up the ante and get in a 100K day from Mandurah to Australind. All was going well until about 40K from the end when suddenly my right knee started to ache… and then throb… and then it felt like it was burning and being twisted in a vice (think of “The Rack” off the movie “SAW” and you’ll know what I mean!). I felt sick to the stomach… a cyclist needs their knees! It was fine when I stood, fine when I stretched, but even simulating the cycling motion off the bike caused the same pain. I had no choice but to just take it very slowly in a low gear, rest for a while at all the roadside stops (Emu pies are good, by the way) until I got into Australind.

What I should probably have done at that point was gone to see a doctor or a physiotherapist. An educated, registered professional with letters after their name who spent many years studying physiology and anatomy and with decades of experience and wisdom to offer.

Instead, I went to http://www.google.com.

From what I could find out, the pain is common where pedals are used with clips that are too close to the frame. So I adjusted my feet and riding position slightly and lo-and-behold – touch wood – everything has been OK for the last 400K. I think part of the problem was I was pushing too high a gear on the bike… I’ll keep an eye on it, but so far it hasn’t caused any more discomfort than the occasional niggle.