Cycling Down Under: Nannup to Manjimup...more ups than downs

Saturday 5 March 2016

We set off at 7am.  Stopped to buy some pies and met an elderly English couple who were visiting the festival.  They live in Australia for 4 months each year and the rest of the time between Yorkshire and Spain.  They had cycled north to south of Australia on a tandem and crossed America in the same way.  After swapping stories, we finally got going at 7.30am.

For most of today's journey, we were on the Graphite Road.  It was the same undulating route.  The trouble with heavily loaded bikes is that we can fly downhill but lose the impetus the moment the road turns up.  Generally we were always about 300m short of the crest and this became a slow slog and very tiring in the heat.

The scenery on this trip has been full of wonderful forests and open plains with vineyards, fruit trees and enormous amount of black Angus cattle.  The trees are huge and grow straight up.  Manjimup is a major fruit-growing region with apples, pears and figs.  We stopped at a roadside stand with honesty box and picked up some fresh figs.

Manjimup, in Noongar Aboriginal means place of "Manjin" (a broad-leafed edible reed).  We arrived around lunchtime and were in a bit of a quandary as to what to do next.  The next stage to Walpole had been devastated by fire and the only campground was closed.  The lady at the visitors centre suggested that we take a bus, which was arriving in Manjimup within the hour.  So we headed to the Timber Centre where the bus stop was located and had a snack at the cafe.

When the bus arrived, the driver was willing to take us and our bikes.  We loaded the bikes and were off.  The driver, John was originally from West London and he was a lovely fella.  On our way to Walpole, the bus stopped at Pemberton where the annual Pemberton Classics was in progress.  The drive through the Shannon National Park allowed us to see the scale of the devastation caused by the fires of early 2015.  

On arrival in Walpole, we decided it was not a night to put up the tent, and settled for the local YHA Tingle All Over. This allowed us time to regroup and do our laundry.  We had dinner at the local hotel and enjoyed a bottle of 'clean skin'.  This is where vineyards can sell off odd lots without labels.

This is only two-thirds of the tree!

Honesty box for figs

It was interesting and encouraging to see the regrowth after the forest fires

Sunset in Walpole

Cycling Down Under: Margaret River to Nannup (Meeting Place by the Water)

Friday 4 March 2016

Taking account of the Labour Day long weekend where heavy traffic was expected, we decided not to go to Augusta as originally planned.  Bronwyn suggested that we head due east for Nannup instead.  Bronwyn and Richard fed us an energy-rich breakfast and before we left, Richard handed us a banana on which he wrote: "For David and Irene, after the second hill"!

True, the ride was on a very undulating road with the  Darnell General Store at Rosabrook the only food and water stop.  It was a quaint shop, in a time warp.  We picked up some fresh rolls, ham, iced coffee and delicious mint chocolate cookies for our energy boost. We arrived at Nannup only to find that it was the weekend of the. Nannup Music Festival.  The little town was heaving with people and the campsite was full.  The owner took pity and let us have a big site which had been booked for the next day.  So we heard the music from all sites - there were 4 or 5 in total going on at the same time.  But we slept through the noise as we were knackered.

Darnell General Store

Model in the window

Store interior

Cycling Down Under: Enjoying the Delights of Margaret River

Thursday 3 March 2016

The early start allowed us to make good progress.  We found some very pleasant backroads which took us through the Margaret River vineyards. Stopped for a coffee, sandwich and chocolate tasting at the Margaret River Chocolate Company.  After that, we visited the splendid Vasse Felix property owned by the Holmes à Court family.  One of the wines, the Heytesbury, was named after an ancestor, Lord Heytesbury in Wiltshire.  We had time to see the collection of Aboriginal art at the gallery.  Retracing our steps, we next tasted the wines of Howard Park belonging to the Burch family.  Both of these vineyards belong to a grouping of Australian wine growing families, of which Jim Barry Wines is a member.

We noticed nets draped over rows of vines.  This was to protect the grapes from small birds, now that harvest was imminent.  Generally, there is a need to protect only vines growing near the tree line as the small birds do not venture far from their habitat for fear of their predators.  Such is the abundance of birdlife here in Australia.

We cycled into Cowaramup for a quick lunch.  Cowaramup means the place of the cowara bird, a purple-crowned lorikeet.  Judging from the number of imitation cows there are in this little town, one would think that it is a 'Cowtown'.   It is a clever gimmick by the farmers of the region.

Locating the Wadani Rails to Trail, we had a lovely cycle through the wood to the town of Margaret River.  We had an introduction to stay with Mark's friends, Bronwyn and Richard, at their home.  They prepared us a delicious dinner and we had a really comfortable bed that night.  

The wines of Margaret River are varied and generally of top quality.  There is a difference between north and south of the area and there is evidence of a mix of cepages.  Richard who is a winemaker, and who has made wine in South Africa and Europe, introduced us to an excellent pinot noir made by the Harewood Estate, in the Denmark region.

Beautiful morning

Easter colouring competition at the Margaret River Chocolate Company

At Cowaramup, they take their cowcium seriously

Cycling Down Under: Busselton to Yallingup

Wednesday 2 March 2016

We slept well.  The day started sunny with a light breeze from the sea. There was a lovely bike track which followed the sand dunes all the way to Dunsborough.  However, we decided to turn off before the town and take a cross-country route to our destination.  It was a pleasant ride with a stiff hill on Biddle Road.  We then joined Caves Road and had a fast run to Yallingup.

All the towns and villages around here have names that end with "-up", which in the aboriginal language up means 'Place of'.  Yallingup means place of love.

We found a camp site and set up tent before cycling down to the beach.  There were some big rollers and many surfers.

In the evening, we went to Caves Hotel nearby where the weekly twilight market was being held.  We saw a pair of kookaburras up close.  A light supper of couscous at the campsite before bed as we had planned an early start to avoid the traffic on the main road.

On the bike path out of Busselton

Is someone trying to tell me something?

Commonly called grass trees, Xanthorrhoea plants are also known as balga grass to the Australian aborigines, which is their word for black boy. Xanthorrhoea is important to the Noongar people who live where it grows. The flowering spike makes the perfect fishing spear. It is also soaked in water and the nectar from the flowers gives a rich honey drink. The gum which seeps from the trunk, forms a superglue when mixed with charcoal and roo poo and is an invaluable adhesive for Aboriginal people, often used to patch up leaky coolamons (water containers) and even yidaki (didgeridoos).

Surfers at Yallingup Bay

Lorikeet at the campsite

Kookaburra on an old gum tree

Cycling Down Under: The Australind to Bunbury

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

We had been advised that it was not worth the ride to Bunbury since it was all built up and criss-crossed by fast roads, so we took a train instead.  We arrived in Bunbury at midday after 2 1/2 hours and a very comfortable and clean journey on the train with attentive staff.  The countryside was mainly cattle grazing and they seem to have plenty of water.

The first 20km out of Bunbury was not particularly enjoyable on the Bussell Highway as traffic was heavy and trucks whizz past dangerously close to the shoulder.  We turned off at Roberts Road and chugged along through partly shaded roads.  There was a strong headwind against us. We arrived at Busselton at 5pm.  This was a long stretch of coast with houses, all looking for the magical seaview.  The bike track near the town was good .  We found a campsite where we were squashed in between two caravans.  After setting up tent, we rode to the town centre to Woolies and a Chinese meal, served by Cantonese speaking girls, one from Malaysia and the other from Saigon.

We finally saw the Indian Ocean

The Busselton Pier is 2km long

Cycling Down Under: On the Retro Roo to Perth

This was a Boeing 737 which had its exterior painted to resemble the livery of Qantas in the 1960's.  The bikes survived and we checked in to Hotel Pensione, a hotel in central Perth.  We reassembled the bikes and then went for a walk around Perth which was in the midst of its Perth International Arts Festival ("PIAF") and ended up having a tapas style meal at the Petition.  Over 100 years ago, petitioners would gather in the centre of Perth to lobby for causes they believe in.  They would march down the terrace, lining the building where Petition now stands.  This building has now undergone an amazing transformation and offers a range of restaurants, wine bars, beer bars, all very tastefully done.

We met up with cousin Margaret and her husband, Mike who took us to lunch at their yacht club.  Afterwards we visited a spritely 96-year-old Aunt Dorothy.  That evening was spent preparing our panniers for the departure the next day.

Mike, Margaret and David

Aunt Dorothy and Margaret

Cycling Down Under: Vintage at Clare

We arrived in Australia with the intention of helping out during vintage in Clare. However, we started suffering again from heavy chest colds and seemed to spend most of our days in bed. We did manage to help Peter (Jim Barry Wines) collect cagettes of handpicked riesling and did a bottling run of Cabernet Shiraz for Mark (Mad Bastard Wines). The harvest in Clare looked very good and everyone is expecting to make fine wine.

Mark and Peter in the laboratory

Kinky boots in the 'chai'

Peter, Irene and Gillie with a riesling batch

Wendowree - the oldest winery in Clare

A proud grandfather and the next generation of Barrys

A mad bastard

When we were last in Clare two years ago, we helped to unpack this armoire which Peter and Sue bought from the Marché de St-Ouen a few years back.  This year, we had the pleasure of helping Peter assemble it in Adelaide.

 After Clare, we went to Adelaide and did manage to cycle from Peter and Sue's house to the coast and later on, we took off, fully loaded including camping gear, for MacLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula. It was a good ride down along the coast before heading inland to MacLaren Vale on the Coast to Vines Trail. Found a good campsite and decided to stay for two nights so the second day, we were to ride unencumbered up the iconic Willunga Hill, which features in the pro-Tour Down Under. At the top of the climb, we cycled along the ridge before dropping down to the plain by Penny's Hill. During the race, the riders hit over 100km/h. We were warned by a rider to watch for the kangaroos since sometimes they leap out on the road. Recently a cyclist was killed after a collision with a kangaroo.

Lovely hills surrounding MacLaren Vale

Had a great lunch at the Elbow Room, MacLaren Vale

Seen, on the Coast to Vines trail.  Fortunately, it was meant for the drivers on the road above.