Back in January 2004 Martin Wright, one the club’s most
sociable regulars at the London Meetings, royally entertained
a packed Crown Court with tales of his marathon cycle ride to
Australia! Many in that audience will remember his great
photos, distinctive narrative style and his thirst for
adventure. Well Martin is at it again – this time he’s go
back to the land down under to ‘pick up his bike and have a
look round’. I think too many cold winter nights provided the
motivation to get back on the road! This is the second in an
occasional series, based on Martin’s emails, and charts his
offbeat approach to the road ahead.
21st June: Arrived in DENMARK early this afternoon after
a great few days of cycling to reach here. Even with
the bloody wind in my face it was still enjoyable. Less
traffic and big bloody road trains to deal with and of course
less of the grey ghosts towing their bloody caravans!
At any caravan park you are likely to see grey ghosts
arriving during the course of the day and some of them are a
real source of amusement. Most of them cannot reverse
their caravan into a bay so drive around the park looking for
a way to drive in – sometimes they have to get other people
to move vehicles or get another driver to reverse the caravan
for them! I think anybody towing a bloody caravan
should take a driving test to prove they can reverse into a
space. If they can't do it they should f*** off
around Australia on a bus or better still stay at
home… My bicycle is in good shape now I’ve had a
few minor repairs completed. Should be in Perth in
about in about one week and will write again from
there…
20th July: Have finished with the south west corner and
am now heading along the west coast. Am at present in
Kalbarri, a small town about 500kms north of Perth but will
have to get a move on now as I will need to be in Darwin by
mid September as my visa will be at an end and I will need to
fly up for a renewal. I spent far longer in the south
west corner of the country than I intended – the weather was
not at all good but the area is so beautiful I stayed an
extra day almost everywhere I visited. The big tree
country around Walpole is breathtaking – I visited the tree
top walk which gives a real idea of just how big these bloody
trees are. At Pemberton I climbed the Gloucester Tree,
which is used as a lookout for bushfires and at 61 metres
above ground you can see for miles! Don't climb it
if you are afraid of heights as one or two people went about
10 metres up, became stuck and it took a while to bring them
back down. Nannup was wonderful and I stayed at the
'black cockatoo' backpackers which was run by an
interesting man whose fridge told his story… It was
here I met the three young ladies who teased me somewhat and
left me very frustrated. Visited Augusta for a spot of
whale watching which was breathtaking and tried to hook a few
but the line kept on snapping…
1st August: Reached sunny Exmouth on Friday. The
journey up to Carnarvon and on to Exmouth was delayed by
unseasonal heavy rainfall, which left me with a few short
days of cycling. As a result I had to camp wild or stay
at rest bays, which were usually full of caravaners but I did
meet a few interesting and generous people along the
way. On arriving at Nerren Nerren rest bay I was
approached by an Aussie man, John, who presented me with a
can of whisky and coke. After putting up my tent John
called me over to sit under his caravan awning where I was
given another drink as we chatted about Aussie rules football
or aerial ping pong as I prefer to call it. The next course
of cheese and biscuits along with nibbles and dips ensured we
then got on to talking about cricket, whilst soon after
John’s wife Heidi appeared and presented us both with steak,
sausages, vegetables and mashed potatoes; totally
delicious! Somewhat better than the two day old sausage
sandwiches I was going to eat…
The following day I was held up by rain yet again and was
plied with coffee from a 72 year old lady who has been
travelling around Australia for the last five years with her
pet shitzui. For the next couple of days this lady
passed me on the road and at the next rest stop would pull up
and have a cup of tea ready for when I arrived.
I finally arrived in Carnarvon last Sunday and found that the
roads were flooded in places and I had to wade through 18
inches of water. At the caravan park I met a Dutch
couple and together we visited the pub for a few beers –
luckily they served Guinness, which was a welcome relief from
the Aussie beer. The ride onwards from Carnarvon was
again interesting! I’d camped in the bush one night and was
woken first by a truck pulling up at around midnight.
Soon after I was woken by voices and a torch shining on my tent – after this there were no more disturbances but I did
not sleep at all well!
Visited Coral Bay, a beautiful beach resort but the caravan
park was expensive and noisy.
The next day took me to the very flat and uninteresting
countryside of Exmouth, which is thankfully surrounded on 2
sides by the Gulf of Exmouth and the Indian Ocean. On
the ocean side is the CapeRangeNational Park and the Ningaloo
Reef. Yesterday I took a bus to Turquoise bay and hired
a snorkel, mask & flippers and visited the underwater
wonderland. I saw a variety of colourful fish -
some big, some small and some which frightened the living
daylights out of me! I saw a turtle, a manta ray and a
bloody great big leopard shark – indeed I spent far more time
swimming than I realised and a great day was topped off by
sunburn on my back.
Another rest day today and then tomorrow I am heading back to
the highway and on to Karratha, which I hope to reach by next
weekend. Should have more news by then…
Which countries are represented by these flags? For the
answers, see at the end of the eNews.
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