28th September 2011 - 6th October 2011 (Perth)
Shane drives me over to his folks place with my bike and gear in the back of his ute. I meet Barbara and Brian who are kind enough to let me stay in a room of their house in North Perth.
Brian drives Barbara to work and I tag along for the ride. We have coffee and croissants next to the river.
He drives me around Kings Park also.
Other things I did while in Perth include...
Bell Tower
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| View from the Bell Tower |
Kings Park / Botanical Gardens wildflowers walk
Ride Cottlesloe to Fremantle
I leave at 6am and ride from North Perth to Cottesloe and then onto Fremantle. I catch the 9:30 am Rottnest Express with my bike across to Rottnest Island.
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| Lake Mungo |
Hyde Park
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| Carpet |
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| Reminds me of Melbourne |
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| Beware killer duck and swamp hen wants to get in on it too |
Swan Valley
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| Vines in the Swan Valley |
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| Whiteman Park |
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| Sandleford Winery where I bought a nice rosé |
Swan River (Guildford to Perth CBD)
Rode this route on the way back from the Swan Valley
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| Swan River Guildford |
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| Across from the racecourse |
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| Suns going down; cities still a few kays. |
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| Horrible McMansions for the cashed up bogans |
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| Nearly there |
Friday 7th October 2011
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| Go Cats |
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| Leaving Perth behind |
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| Freo old buildings |
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| Laneway |
Left Perth after lunch, heading along the bike paths to Fremantle. Fremantle appears to have a area much like CERES in Melbourne with vege plots and a bike shed selling recycled bicycles (i.e. awesome). I investigated a wild camp option in the park next to the golf course in the afternoon before heading into the city centre to buy food at the Fremantle market and take photos of stuff.
Visited the beach, the roundhouse and the green lighthouse. There are lots of old buildings around. Waited for the sun to go down before heading to the wild camp.
After I set up my tent, during which time, disturbingly I could hear someone coughing, a homeless guy walks towards me and I'm just standing there with my arms crossed waiting to see what he's doing and as its dark he only sees me at the last minute and then mumbles "Oh" and walks off. I guess my bike was shiny. Guess what! In cities it is harder to hide. While I'm getting into my tent an owl perches nearby (about 2 metres away) and watches me. Can't hide from it either.
Saturday 8th October 2011
It rained a little over night but only lightly, and as I didn't have the mozzie dome fly over the top because its easier to see if anyone is near your tent at night with just the netting, I just used my lightweight fly as a blanket whenever it starts spitting on me. This works out OK in the very light rain. Far too lazy to put the fly on the tent. I probably don't get a great sleep because every sound you're worried its someone trying to flog something because its a city. I much prefer sleeping in the bush outside of a metropolis, even if its a small one. Much more peaceful. Other animals aren't as troublesome as humans.
First off I ride to the sheds to have a better look at this big ship I saw last night with all the lights on. It is the MV Ocean Shearer. I quick google tells me its the largest livestock carrier in the world and "[s]pread across its 12 decks it can carry 125,000 sheep or 23,000 cattle, or a combination of both. Fuck.
I hang about in Fremantle until after lunch (vegie chicken rice i.e. fake meat) and head off on the bike path along the coast through North Coogee and then Coogee. Unfortunately, due to a residential estate development the bike path is interrupted and as I'm not a local I don't know how to get around this so I have to ride on the road for a while, but other than that the bike path network is excellent. Hopefully they'll tidy up the mess at some stage, or at least improve the detour signage (hint: don't leave it up to developers to do the signage).
I get to Woodman Point regional park around two-thirty in the afternoon and check out the beach and jetty, scope a wild camping spot, then in the picnic area I grab a table and do some eating and reading. I cook dinner on one of the free electric barbeques, watch the sun go down over the Indian Ocean and then head to the wild camp to set up the tent. I put the fly on this time as its definitely going to rain by the looks, and I'm unlikely to be found.
Sunday 9th October 2011
I open my eyes and straight away it starts to rain. I hate this. You feel like you have the switch to the clouds in your eyelids. I need to pee so I can't wait for the rain to stop, especially when you don't know if it will, and the sound of the rain doesn't help the urgency.
I pack up everything inside my tent, and all will power to get moving while its pouring is lost. I just lay in the tent for an hour and a half reading and listening to the radio. Finally I decide to get moving so pack up my tent while its still raining. So I pack up the wet-tent-covered-in-sand because its a wet-tent-I-rolled-up-on-the-sand and as soon as its occy'd onto the bike it stops raining. I flip off the sky. No really I did.
I fill up water bottles back at the park and head off south again along the bike track, but it ends and I'm back on the stupid road which is busy with no decent shoulder. I stumble upon a bike path that leads me past Lake Coogee which is a decent sized lake with lots of bird life. Then I cut through the rural suburb 'Munster' (teehee) and ride up Russell Rd past Thomsons Lake. I stop near here at the Hammond Park IGA and grab some food (breadrolls, ginger tofu and avocado) which I sit on the concrete outside and eat with Prado driving soccer mums looking down on me like I'm trash, making me laugh out loud. I make a roll up for lunch later on and I eventually find a place to discard my rubbish, the supermarket dumpster. I steal a nothing wrong with it onion from the overflowing with edible food bin. For some reason this supermarket doesn't have a single other bin in the place.
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| Kwinana Freeway cycleway |
I get onto the Kwinana Freeway cycleway which runs on the western side of the freeway, between native vegetation in full flower at the moment so its really nice. You can still see the freeway, and how awesome Perth is with its trains up the middle. They've got it sorted out haven't they? Cycleways up the side and trains up the middle of the highways. This is called not putting all your commuting eggs in the one basket. I have no idea why anyone within 10 km of Perth CBD bothers to drive a car in winter/spring if not the whole year.
Due to not having a decent map and having to rely on the signage, I ride on the cycleway through Medina/Kwinana (west on Thomas Road) without wanting to. Medina and Kwinana is bogansville suburbia from what I can tell. In a few kilometres I was passed by a trail biker riding on the cycle path at about 70 km/h and then about 20 quad bikes tearing up some sand and apparently also driving them on the cyclepath judging by the sand all over the cyclepath in one part which I had to walk my bike through. At Kwinana Beach there are tools on jetskis. Basically, all the unnecessary petrol sucking recreation you can find in almost every 'burbs of Australia, all of which I hate for the noise pollution it creates alone. File it under people with ride on lawn mowers and chainsaws on Sundays for their quarter acre block, and those goddamn leaf blowers every bastard owns these days.
From Kwinana Beach I ride on to Rockingham along the water. Then onto Golden Bay and Singleton.
Wild camped behind a child care centre in Singleton, sleeping in bivvy bag behind some bushes and with bike hidden behind some wheelie bins. It was going to rain so I went to investigate whether there was a awning I could sleep under when the security car drives past right as I'm standing suspiciously outside the child care centre! Timing. I quickly run back to bivvy and get in and hide while the car goes around the block and comes down the driveway where I am hiding behind some bushes.
The security guard gets out of the car and flashes his torch around a bit then takes a leak somewhere. I wasn't game to peak out of the bivvy to see where he was incase the whites of my eyes got me busted. He drives off. My heart is beating like crazy. Close call.
It's still going to rain and its windy so I can't just sleep under my fly as its blowing around like crazy. I decide to go sleep in the park on one of the tables covered by a shelter. So I roll my 'swag' into a roll and occy it onto my bike and ride over to the park. So I guess I'm in my bivvy on the table for a few hours before the sprinklers start in the park. I hear them going off in the distance and go back to sleep. Then I hear one start closer and its spraying like a fire hose on the next sheltered table over from where I am trying to sleep. I go back to sleep for about 5 seconds and then my subconscious wakes me up with the thought that maybe I'll be next. So immediately I go from being asleep to racing against time to roll up my swag and wheel out of this park with its sprinklers of certain death (I mean, certain drenching by high pressure, which on a cold windy night feels like the same thing). I just get my roll onto the bike when the sprinkler beside the shelter starts. It's pointed away at this moment but its going to swing around. I go to wheel my bike in a panic and its rear wheel is D-locked to the frame so won't move. I get my keys out and fumble with the lock and finally wheel off my bike just as the sprinkler is about to get me. I get away with only minor splashes. It is a little after 4 am.
I didn't get enough sleep that night for some reason. I go to the beach and there are no camping signs everywhere so I just lay my head on a table listening to the radio in the dark, waiting for the sun to come up.
wildcamp dawesville channel
Wednesday 12th October 2011
Bunbury
Packed up and had a walk around Leschenault Peninsula Reserve. Then rode into Australind where I had morning tea. Continued the ride into Bunbury by lunchtime. Freecamped in the Tuart forest off the Tuart Forest Walk up the southern end of Bunbury at the end of Ocean Drive.
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| An amazing Tuart tree |
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| Missed the click over JUST! (I'm getting worse) |
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| I found a beanie so I gave it to this bloke |
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| Downtown Bunbury |
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| A funky cafe mural. |
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| Sunset at Bunno, Bunvegas. (Bunbury) |
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