Esperance to Norseman

I took the bike over to get the new chain and back wheel. It took them a couple of hours. When I loaded it up to leave Esperance I noticed the chain was taught. They put the chain on but didn't set the tension. Honestly is there a bike shop on the planet that can do anything right? If I'd ridden it for a long time like that the best case scenario would be that it snaps and wraps around the front sprocket, causing a shit load of damage. Worst case is it snaps and locks the back wheel, potentially killing me.

I set the tension, wasting another half hour, then left. I've entered the Great Western Woodlands. I didn't know it existed until today. It is the largest temperate forest on earth, almost as big as England. The trees weren't towering monsters. Most of them today were gimlet trees, which branch off near the ground, so an individual tree kind of looks like it's 5 trees. At least they did at 110km/h.

I'm now at Norseman. It is named after the horse that discovered gold here in 1894. It pawed at the ground and got a nugget of gold stuck in its hoof. Further investigations revealed a significant gold reef. Since then 100 tonnes of gold have been mined here.

Tomorrow I'll be starting across the Nullarbor. Nullarbor of course is an Aboriginal word that directly translates as "this word is Latin". In Latin it means "No trees". I expect it to take 3-6 days before I reach Ceduna and will be without internet in that time. There is half a chance I'll do it in 2 days.

This photo is from out near Hyden. I like it. 

Another day in Esperance

It rained last night and a little today. I got up and did one final chain check. I found that although the tight spot is tight, the loose spot is still really loose. So the chain is knackered. Serves me right for not looking after it properly. I rang the bike shop and they said they can get a new chain in tomorrow morning. I'm also getting a new rear tyre. It's had it after not even 6000km. I won't be buying that brand again. The new tyre is basically a road tyre so should last for a long time. I'm really impressed with the bike shop. The last time I had a chain and sprockets replaced it took almost 2 weeks. This bike shop are going to have it done 25 hours after I called them (by 9:30am tomorrow).

Hopefully the weather clears and I can be away tomorrow.

Whistling rock

Lucky Bay and Cape Le Grande

First things first, I've managed to convince myself my chain is too tight. It definitely doesn't seem it, but the whining noise I'm hearing is apparently a sign of a too tight chain. It's very confusing because I ran into a bloke that I previously met all the way back at Karijini, and he was adamant it is too loose. But if there is one thing I know, it's that most people gain confidence through ignorance. So tomorrow I'll loosen it. It was loose way back at Wickepin so it shall be loose again. My only worry is that maybe it's just stuffed.

Anyway, today I went to Lucky Bay. It is hands down the prettiest beach I've seen. It quite possibly is the prettiest beach on earth. The sand is certified as the whitest in Australia. I don't know who does the certification but it is a job I'd like to have.

It is made from quartz, without any calcites, which makes it so pure white. It also squeaks when you walk on it and makes the water seem to glow blue. The sand is really hard, even when dry. I could ride on it without having to pray or clench my bum, but I didn't as I've already got enough chain troubles. When I kicked it up into a pile it looked like a cross between the most delicious ice cream ever and the most delicious mashed potato ever. I didn't taste it but I assume it was like delicious mash flavoured ice cream.

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay was named Lucky Bay when Mathew Flinders got stuck on his boat close to shore one night in 1802. Usually he'd go out to sea away from the waves but there were too many islands and reefs to navigate. He was in a bit of strife when he came across this bay and sheltered for the night, which proved to be quite fortunate. That night the ships cat, Lucky, fell overboard and drowned, so the bay was named in its honour. That bit about the cat isn't true. The rest is.

After that I stopped at a couple of other bays and coves as well as Le Grande beach. I also went past a mini Stonehenge that someone appears to have built in their backyard. They were charging $10 to go have a look, which quite frankly is outrageous. So I did what people do with the real Stonehenge and took a photo from the road.

Thistle Cove

Frenchman Peak

At Le Grande Beach in perfect beach attire. 

Not a great photo from the road but you can see a bit of fake Stonehenge behind the house. 

Back at camp I went to do a wee. While I was standing at the trough I noticed a bin with a purple bin liner. For some reason this made me think I was in the ladies toilet. Purple bin liners have no business in a men's toilet, after all. Far too nice. It didn't occur to me in that moment that ladies toilets don't have troughs. In a panic I looked around for other evidence of it being a ladies toilet, such as ladies. I was already midstream so I couldn't escape anyway.

To my left, level with the trough, a stall was engaged. I hadn't noticed it when I walked in. There wasn't a sound coming from it, which suggests either someone paused a noisy poo for me, or it was empty. I noticed a crack between the door and the frame and through it I could see someone looking back at me. It. Was. Awkward. We made eye contact. I couldn't see anything but an eye, but for them the crack was closer so their view must've been wider. I stared straight ahead until I was finished and couldn't help worrying of what the toilet watcher thought of my peeing capabilities.

Knowing I was being watched while shaking was even more uncomfortable. I was thinking, am I shaking too much, or not enough? How long do other people shake for? What does this toilet watcher think of me? Because of all this thinking I ended up shaking way too long. Now I'm wondering did it seem like I peered into an occupied toilet stall then started waving my willy around willy nilly. I don't know who was in there but I hope they took it as a compliment.

That has helped me decide to risk the chain and leave tomorrow.

Hyden to Esperance

I spent today riding. Around 400 km. The only really interesting thing was when I was riding up a hill and suddenly a bright yellow aeroplane launched up from behind the hill right in front of me. It was a single propellors plane on its side doing an almost loop. It was really close and really cool. I think maybe it was crop dusting because it flew back across a field and pulled another turn back towards the hill again.

I also tried to take a photo of some sheep in a field. I startled one and the whole lot took off. So I got a photo of a big flock of sheep stampeding.

I must've looked lonely. 

Esperance seems nice. There isn't a whole lot to differentiate these coastal towns. It has an esplanade and a strip of shops. A few petrol stations and a McDonald's. I'm at a redneck caravan park for 2 nights. Tomorrow I'll day trip to Lucky Bay, about 60km away.

The bike was surging again today. Almost as badly as before. There is also a whining noise coming from somewhere that continues when I pull the clutch in. Maybe from the front wheel. I'll oil the chain again and see what happens with the surge. It's got me a bit worried.

Wave Rock 

Hippo's Yawn

The Whale tail in Esperance. 

Panorama from the top of Wave Rock. 

Wave Rock

I stayed up late last night watching the Deadwood movie. It was OK. It has the best final line ever though.

Consequently I got up pretty late. Around 9:30. I put a hell of a lot of oil on my chain, packed up and left. The oil did seem to fix the problem. I guess the rain over the past week had washed the oil away.

I found a different way out to Wave Rock. I went via Pingrup on a route that took me past a lot of lakes. Amazingly, they were all pink! Every one of them!

I stopped for petrol and while filling up I found a lighter. I tend to lose mine a lot so I picked it up and was about to test it out when I realised that could be fatal.

I got to Hyden at about 2pm and came to the caravan park. It is cheaper than I expected and includes entry to Wave Rock. It's only a couple of hundred metres away. I can see the top of it from here. It is an impressive formation but it is overwhelmingly a rock. It's one small section of a huge granite mound.

I took some photos and then went down to the hippos yawn. It is also a rock, with a hole in it. It does in fact look like a hippo yawning. So much so that when I got there it made me yawn. That sounds like I'm saying I thought it was boring, but it actually did make me yawn!

Now I'm back at my camp. The sites have artificial grass on them. I must say, so long as my pegs don't mess it up too much, artificial grass should be compulsory if there isn't real grass around. So much cleaner and more comfortable. I'm about to go up on top of wave rock for sunset. I have no data here and the wifi is atrocious so I can't upload all of my excellent photos.

Whaleworld

I didn't make it to Ravensthorpe. I ended up spending a bit of time at "Whaleworld", which is what one sign reffered to the old whale hunting station as. I like the thought. With that naming convention Dreamworld is where dreams are slaughtered and Seaworld is where sea creatures are tortured, which is essentially accurate.

Anyway, the whale hunting station was decent. I went on a guided tour and discovered that turning a whale into oil was far less complicated than I thought.

First they chased down a whale with their boat. The boat had a steam engine that ran on furnace oil. It burnt a tonne of furnace oil per hour when it was on a chase. They'd shoot the whale with an explosive harpoon and drag it back to the station while keeping the sharks away with shotguns. Then they'd winch it up the ramp and chop it up. They'd chop its head off with a gnarly looking steam saw that I can't believe I didn't take a photo of. The head made really good oil. Then they'd feed the pieces into three giant pressure cookers and cook them for three and a half hours a viola, they'd have whale oil, amongst other things. There was no mention of distilling it so I assume the oil separates itself out. The oil was used for just about everything and this station produced 60% of the world's supply of sperm whale oil.

In the 70s crude oil prices made running the station too expensive so it shut. They'd killed 21000 sperm whales at a rate of 1000 whales per year, which was the requirement to remain profitable. I wanted to suggest that if they continuously killed 1000 whales per year that it would suggest it was a good example of a sustainable industry.

She also said that the sperm whale population has been growing at a rate of 12% per year since 1978 when whaling finished. According to the compound interest calculator, for every ten whales in 1978 there are now 930 whales. In another 40 years that will have grown to 86,500 whales. Just before the turn of the next century those 10 whales will have produced 8 million ravenous sperm whales. They breed like rabbits! I for one am terrified.

I mustn't be calculating that correctly.

This is a pygmy blue whale skeleton. It is 22 metres long. The non-pygmy variety reach 35 metres long. 

Their best boat. It had a top speed of 35km/h.

After Whaleworld I headed for Ravensthorpe. I didn't make it. I'm at Jerramungup. It's not a bad little caravan park and was only $13. I needed a shower and to charge stuff. The weather today was nice and it isn't as cold here as closer to the coast.

The bike has been running like an absolute dog. I tightened the chain back at Wickepin so I'm wondering if I overdid it. It is surging, especially in 3rd gear. It did a similar thing last year and I had to get a new chain. It does look like links are frozen and there are tight spots. I have oiled it again so hopefully that fixes it. I'll also loosen it a little.

I did notice while stopped at roadworks that the bike was hunting for idle, which is when it changes the idle speed constantly. It usually does this when it is warming up. It's been between 5000 and 6000km since the oil change in Katherine so the oil should be good. It may be because the fan was coming on but I doubt it. So I really don't know, which isn't that strange of a position for me to be in. Perhaps it needs some whale oil.

Shelley Beach

This morning was overcast and cold,somewhat ruining this spectacular beach. I spent most of the day reading. Quite a few people came here today. They were either fishing or looking for wildflowers. There are a few orchids which get the old ladies hot and bothered. Two saffas parked up right next to me and had the dumbest conversation about evolution. They were trying to figure out why all the bees decided to get nectar and why the flowers decided to put pollen on the bees legs. They couldn't work it out so they decided it must be wrong. I wanted to tell them that at no point in evolution did anything make a decision to do anything, but that would require talking to them so I left for some peace.

I went for a walk up to the end of a beach but couldn't find an easy way to the next beach. There was a goat path but I'm not a goat. I sat on a rock and watched this guy with a paraglider attempting to take off. He'd get the parachute bit up in the air but I think he couldn't get it to lean forward where he wanted to run. It kept falling over backwards. I was fascinated, mostly because it seemed that when he did take off he'd most likely crash spectacularly. Eventually he gave up.

Not much else to report. The ranger came round but I laid low until he left and he didn't seem interested in collecting money. Also my new mattress has been outstanding! Only took 4 failures to get that right!

I'll head off tomorrow. I'm thinking a big day to Ravensthorpe. Then out to Hyden to wave rock, back to Ravensthorpe and along to Esperance. A day or 2 there, then up and across the Nullarbor. I suppose I should visit Adelaide, then to the Great Ocean Road, then up to the Murray, follow it for a while, then I guess Canberra, maybe stop in at Bowral, go through Sydney as quickly as possible to Newcastle then home.

Not sure how long that'll take but I reckon I'll be home in time to do some work before Christmas.

This is Walpole. 

Peaceful Bay to Shelley Beach

I woke up to clear skies this morning right up until the moment I was about to pull the tent down. Then it rained. Can't be packing away a dry tent. It continued to rain for most of the day while I was riding.

I stopped at the treetop walk not far from where I camped. The treetop walk seems to be the thing to do near Walpole. The trees were mostly Red and Yellow Tingle trees, with a few Karri trees. The Karri trees have the Tingles for height, but the Red Tingle is far mightier. It has a massive trunk that stays massive the whole way up and then splits off into a heap of huge branches (as trees tend to do). The base has a circumference of up to 25 metres!

The treetop walk is 40 metres high and the trees still tower over it. So really it should be called the midtree walk.

That tall one is a Karri, which must be 50 metres tall, which I will point out is 1/20th of a kilometre tall. 

I don't want to bang on too much about trees. They're just really impressive is all. Definitely a have to be there thing.

After that I rode in the rain to Shelley Beach. It is down an excellent dirt road and around a couple of headlands. It was a nice ride in. I got here and the place is perfection. The rain even stopped. Glowing blue water and white sand. You can camp right on the edge of the beach. Even better there was nobody else here. Even better than that is that the ranger comes to collect camping fees, but the ranger didn't come so it's free.

I set up and went into Albany, about 30km away. I got a battery charger for my ecigarette and went to bcf for another mattress. They gave me a different, more expensive mattress as a replacement and so far it is staying up. It's also bigger and thicker while rolling up to nearly as small. So I'm pretty happy with that.

I might stay here for a couple of nights. There is another beach over the next hill I'd like to walk to. If the weather warms up, which it is supposed to do soon, I might never leave.

Busselton to Peaceful Bay

Google said there was a 0% chance of precipitation this morning so I got up in the bitter cold to pack up and leave. I had thrown a fair bit of my stuff out of the tent when it started to rain. If google had said 1%, or any fraction greater than zero, it'd be fair enough, but it said 0%. And it was wrong. Don't be so arrogant google.

I went around to Cape Naturalist lighthouse. It was $5 to get into the "lighthouse precinct". I paid the money. It was a tall round building with a light at the top. It wasn't even good by lighthouse standards.

There was also a viewing platform that was probably the best I've seen. It was made from beautiful hardwood timber. Unfortunately the view was of some scrub.

I went on a nice ride along Cave Rd. I didn't visit any of the caves. I also skipped the town of Margaret River although I did see the river of Margaret River. It was a little trickle.

All day the rain came and went. About 15 minutes on and 15 off. I checked the radar and it reckoned it wasn't raining as well. Sound like google has the radar people on the payroll.

I eventually came to the Karri Forest. Those trees are really something. I believe they're the second tallest growing species after the Californian Redwood. It was impossible to get a sense of the scale but I tried.

I went along a dirt road through the forest but to be honest the trees around the main road were probably more impressive.

After that I went down to Augusta. I went for a ride around and had a late lunch but couldn't see a reason to pay a lot to stay, so I made my way here to Grasstree Hollow. I'm the only person here. There is a van campground called snotty gobble just down the road. The name reminds me of school.

I spent this afternoon setting up in breaks in the rain. Then I tried to get a fire going in the rain. I thought it wouldn't work but it did. I also think I fixed my ecigarette. I couldn't get it to charge because the metal bit has fallen out. I could sort of wiggle the cable and it would charge for a second but as soon as I let go it would stop. So I have glued the cable to it. I don't know how long that will be successful for. I'm sick of stuff breaking.
...

I most definitely didn't fix the ecigarette. It pretends like it's charging. The numbers go up and everything. But it's not charging. I'll have to buy another one when I get to Albany.

Last night it rained quite a bit and continued on into the morning. I waited it out and didn't get away until around midday. I went to Pemberton. On the way I'd noticed a sign for the Bicentennial Tree and the Gloucester Tree. I didn't think much of it but then thought I should go to the tourist information and see which is the best tree to visit.

The person at the tourist information centre was a bit of an enigma. On first viewing she seemed to be a lady based upon the clothes and hair, but then the voice was distinctly male and the conversation sort of was too. At one point she said "f@#& that shit" which I wouldn't really expect from an older lady at a tourist information centre. I definitely felt like I was talking to a bloke. So I'm not sure if there was some transitioning happening and if so which way. I'd guess she was abandoning the male gender. I was wondering if I should ask her her preferred pronoun, but then if she was just a broad shouldered, deep voiced lady or a long haired bloke who likes purple cardigans she might get offended. I ended up deciding she was a lady because the clothes were something she clearly chose and they seemed like ladies clothes to me, although I'm not sure if clothes are allowed to be ladies or men's anymore.

I think the important thing to remember is that it really isn't important. She told me the Gloucester tree is the tree to see and also warned me about moss growing on the road amongst the Karri forests. So I went to the Gloucester tree. It is an old fire lookout. Metal pegs have been hammered into the tree and a hut placed at the top, 50ish metres up, where a bloke who was definitely a bloke would sit and keep an eye out for smoke. I arrived about 30 seconds after a tour bus, which was annoying.

It is possible to climb the tree and one guy did. He looked to be in his 50s and I heard the bus people refer to him as a young man a few times. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to climb it or not, but the decision was made for me when the bus people started climbing 4 or 5 metres up for a photo and getting themselves all congested. I waited for a little while hoping one of them would fall. It really was slippery (and raining) so it would've been dangerous to go up there. I took the safer option and got back on my death machine to zoom through the rain at 110km/h on a moss covered road.

I got to Walpole which seems like a nice little town that doesn't mind gouging the odd tourist. $58 a night to camp, no thanks. I continued on to Peaceful Bay which is a bit more reasonable. The rain has stopped and it is living up to its name. It's really cold though. Tomorrow I should get to Albany quite easily.

Busselton tent day

It has been raining all day so I've had a tent day. I watched all of Derry Girls. It is pretty good. I also went to McDonald's to buy 15 cheeseburgers as they are only a dollar today. Unfortunately it is only one per person at that price. So I bought one cheeseburger and 14 hamburgers. The hamburgers are $1 all month.

Best tent day ever. 

Wickepin to Busselton

I headed east out of Perth today. It didn't take long. Perth runs in a thin strip along the coast. The ride out to Wickepin was really nice. My gps found a nice hilly route through the green fields.

I got to Wickepin and not much was going on. It is a one street town with a pub and a newsagent/cafe with an assortment of rural businesses. There is a big shed whose occupants will fix anything (according to the sign), a "rural supplies store" that has big bags of compost and pet food in the window, and a "clip and oddment" store. I don't know what they sell.

I pulled up at the newsagent for lunch and across the road was A.B Facey's house. It was bigger and nicer than I remember from the books. I'm rereading it but haven't got up to the part where he's in this house. I asked the lady at the post office about it and she told me she has the key. I asked her for a look and she gave me the key and I went over to have a look around. It was a pretty nice house. Maybe he was a bit fortunate. Although when the depression hit he had to essentially pack his stuff and walk away from it.

After that I went on the heritage trail. It was a really nice ride in the afternoon sun, but there wasn't much heritage remaining. A tiny slither of the Inkie Pinkie school remains. That's the school where he was enrolled to fill out the numbers, but never attended as he was busy being treated like shit.

The next spot was the old house his uncle built when they first moved out here. It was half still there. That was cool. In the book they were deep in the bush and slowly built this place up while they cleared the bush. They survived on possums that they'd sell for the skins. The fact that it has survived is amazing as it was made of branches. The road goes right next to it.

Just up the road was the site of a little town called Gillimanning. It is no more. Apart from a memorial there is nothing to hint that a town ever existed there.

The heritage trail looped back on a dirt road. I went straight past two farms from the book and backtracked to find them. There was nothing to mark the significance of them. They were just fields.

I went to the final spot and discovered that I'd gone to the 7th spot on the wildflower trail. The 7th spot on my trail was where the house originally stood. It was a ways to the south so I'll go there tomorrow. FYI the 7th spot on the wildflower trail is a flower-less cemetery.

I'm now at the Wickepin hotel. I blew my new mattress up and it went down quicker than the last one. I'm going to have to find a bcf. Hopefully I can make them feel bad and give me a good mattress as a replacement. They must know these mattresses are garbage.
...

My new sleeping bag is as good as my mattress is terrible. So warm and big!

Today was the best day of riding I've had. My gps found an excellent route along back roads and country lanes, through forests and over hills. It wasn't too twisty and not too hilly, but the landscape was spectacular. This must be the prettiest part of Australia.

I'm now at Busselton. There are a series of church campsites side by side along the beach just out of town. There is a Mormon, Catholic, and Anglican camp as well as an ominous sounding camp for the "ministry of abundant life". That last one sounds like it comes with complimentary koolaid.

I thought the Mormon one might be full of wives, the Catholic one full of kids (because of their views on contraception, not for the priests), the Anglican one full of bitter, man hating divorcees. Abundant Life, ironically, I assume to have an abundance of death. So I'm at Camp Grace. It is just Christian. I like the way the different denominations have come together in the spirit of cooperation to carve out a little tax haven for themselves.

This isn't related to anything. It's a guy on facebook who is doing a ride from Rockhampton to Perth who has made my packing look tame. 

Rottnest Island

Yesterday I went through my stuff and discarded a lot of it. I've given up on the fishing rod and have sent it home. I also ditched coolant, air filter oil, various straps and my Bluetooth speaker. It has lightened the load quite a bit. My new sleeping bag takes up a lot more space though and I haven't quite figured out a new way of packing.

After the cull, Zoe and I went back to her South African friends' house for the curry they wanted me to try. It is called a bunny or bunny chow. The bunny part of the name comes from the Bania caste of Indians who immigrated to South Africa to cut sugar cane. They needed a way to carry their curry into the cane field so they'd hollow out a loaf of bread and use it as a container. Samantha is a descendent of one of these cane cutters (she's half Indian) and her bunny chow was delicious.

Today Zoe, her husband Rob and I went to Rottnest Island. We got the shuttle bus to the Western part of the island to see the seals. I was expecting them to be closer but they were out on some rocks doing seal things. Then I took the obligatory quokka selfie. They really were stupidly friendly. No fear whatsoever. Quite a few of them had babies in their pouch. At the time I failed to remember that when a quokka is threatened it will throw its baby at the predator as a distraction so I missed opportunity to test it out.

There were three quokkas where this one was and a girl had one sitting with her for ages while it ate some leaves. When I went on instagram earlier the @australia account had one of her photos featured, which was really cool.

Unfortunately there was a chilly wind on Rottnest so I didn't go snorkelling or swimming.

Tomorrow I'm going to head out to Wickepin. It is where A.B Facey grew up and lived for a while. His house is out there. He is the author of my favourite book called A Fortunate Life which depicts his mostly unfortunate life. Quite a bit of his misfortune occurred around Wickepin. If you've ever heard me refer to alcohol as "intoxicating liquor" it is because that is what he calls it in that book.

Perth

I went into Perth today on the train. It was almost $9 each way. I went in the morning rush. The only other city where I've journeyed in the morning rush is London and I can assure you Perth is much more pleasant. I didn't even get to put my armpits on anyone's head.

I got to Elizabeth Quay and found somewhere for breakfast. I noticed the lack of people in suits, or even business shirts in the cbd. The dress code for Perth cbd appears to be jeans and hoodies. I was in board shorts and thongs and was worried somebody would mistake me for a stockbroker.

I had a look around. There was a novelty street called London Court that was in the Tudor style that housed a series of souvenir shops. It was a bit tacky. I went to buy a charging cable from jb hifi and ended up with a camera tripod. Because why not?

At 10am I went to the bell tower to go up to the observation deck. It wasn't a particularly big tower so when I went in and found that the observation deck is less than half way up it I was a bit disappointed. The neighbouring buildings were taller. I asked a staff member how I get to the top and he said I'd have to be a window cleaner. I doubted they ever go up there because the windows weren't clean.

The view from the observation deck... Must be the lowest observation deck on earth. 

They had 6 levels of exhibits. Level 6 was the observation deck. Level 5 was the toilets. Level 4 was a viewing platform down onto the bells, level 3 was the bells, level 2 was a viewing platform onto the bell ringers and level 1 was the gift shop. I could've paid double for the "bell tower experience". I wanted to because you get to ring the bells, but I really, really didn't want the rest of the bell tower experience (or to wait an hour). I would've paid 3 times more if they let me ring the bell and leave.

After that I went up to King's Park. It sits up on top of a hill overlooking the river and the city. I must say, it is outstanding. It is high enough that the city noise is dulled and the views are amazing. The lawns are immaculate, like golf greens. Plants of different WA regions are represented in different parts of the botanical gardens, including a boab tree they somehow managed to grow. There was flowing water, the war memorial, a sky bridge through the treetops, a kids education section. The entire thing was massive. There were a few sections I didn't get to. I'd say it is the Jewell in Perth's crown but I think it is the whole bloody crown. I don't know of another city with a park of that quality. I spent most of the day walking around up there.

Eventually I came back down and had some food. My phone was flat by that stage so I got a bit lost. I recognised where I was as being near the jb hifi from the morning and made my way there. I was really confused to find myself in a different jb hifi. I decided to buy a powerbank to replace the one that died but they didn't have any suitable. So I asked the man working there how to get to the train station. I stuffed up on direction number 1 when I couldn't find the escalator he directed me down. When I got down I couldn't remember which way I was facing and didn't want to go back up to see where the jb hifi was. So I guessed a direction and after a couple of hundred metres I ended up at a jb hifi. It was the other one from the morning. I decided to just accept that I'm trapped in a jb hifi vortex and went in to find a battery. This one had one that was a bit better and when I noticed they had accidentally put the wrong sticker on it (and it was precharged) I bought it so I could charge my phone and find my way out of all these jb hifis.

I'm telling you, I have a disability with navigation.

Zoe picked me up from the train station and we went to visit her South African friends. She knocked on their door then turned to me and said "you don't have any problems with Africans do you?"
Which is a weird thing to ask anyway, but I said "Oh I can't stand them". Her face in those few moments before the door opened was priceless. Pure horror.

So we spent the afternoon with Samantha and Andre and their two girls. I could stand them. They were really nice and we ended up staying for dinner. They cook spicy food and they said to come back to try some family curry speciality called a bunny. So we're going back tomorrow. It isn't an actual bunny (like it was in the Czech Republic with Romana's friends).

Xsr900. This is my future bike. I saw it in the wild for the first time today. Was tempted to sit on it. 

Cervantes to Perth

As I mentioned previously I watched the sunset. It looked like this:

Not as spectacular as I hoped.

I left Cervantes and made my way to the pinnacles. In Greek mythology Pinnacles was Hercules' trusty sidekick. He was often described as being both statuesque and a bit of a lump, which is why these rocks were named for him. Obviously I made that up.

The pinnacles are set in a weird bit of desert just off the coast. The sand is yellow, just like the desert cliche, but is surrounded by the really white sand dunes of the region. So it was a bit weird that it was there. The pinnacles are a bunch of rocks sitting in the sand. They look a bit like termite mounds but are a bit thicker on the ground.

Like most things, I feel the pinnacles could be greatly improved with the addition of paintball guns.

After that I headed for Perth. I stopped at BCF and replaced my mattress. They carried on a bit that I'd clearly used it extensively but they replaced it. I also bought a better sleeping bag but it is much bigger so I've had to repack.

I'm now in Port Kennedy on the south side of Perth at my Aunty's house. I finally had a good night's sleep last night. Today I washed my clothes. I also went and got pH neutral laundry detergent so I could wash my riding gear. I don't know if it was actually pH neutral but it was enzyme-less, fragrance-less and dermatological sensitive. I'm fairly sure it is just water.

This afternoon Aunty Zoe took me down to Cape Peron to take the dog for a walk. It was really pretty and strangely not rammed with people considering how nice it is and that it is in a big city. The drive there was like driving through a little rural village. There is Seal Island and Penguin Island just off the shore. I could see the seals on Seal Island lazing on the beach.

Back from the point the city begins but the foreshore is nice and grassy without any monstrous developments or concrete promenades. It was very nice. I wonder how long it will stay that way. I didn't take my phone or my camera because I'm a dumbass.

Tomorrow I'm going to head into Perth proper for a look around.

S bend to Cervantes

I had another terrible sleep last night. I'm super tired. I left the caravan park and made it about a km before the bike started spluttering like it was running out of fuel. I'd just filled up. I looked down and fuel was pouring out if the left side of the bike.

I pulled up had a closer look. The hose to the carburettor had fallen off the petcock. I turned the tap off and put the hose back on, then rode back to the servo to get more fuel. I'd only lost a litre and a half. It seemed like a lot more.

I rode down to Dongara and had a look around. It seems like a nice town.

I continued down the coast. I was going to camp at Sandy Cape but the weather seemed a bit ordinary and it was only 1:30pm,so I continued down to Cervantes along Indian Ocean Drive. It wasn't a bad ride.

I was hoping to find a free camp but I couldn't so I'm at this caravan park in the town. I finally watched the sun set over the ocean. It was very similar to watching it rise over the ocean but in reverse.

Now it's time for bed, I'm determined to sleep well tonight.

Kalbarri to south of Geraldton

I barely slept last night. A combination of weird dreams and the tent flapping kept me awake. I tried to read my book and ended up finishing it. It was Down Under. After realising I was at Hamelin Pools because of Bill Bryson I thought I should read it again. He also went to Kalbarri. It is the last story of the book. He describes the wreck of the Batavia. I've been reading about it on Wikipedia. I'll summarise what happened.

The Batavia left Batavia, which is now Jakarta, in 1629 and headed south to catch the favourable winds. The skipper had hatched a plan to raise a mutiny as the ship was carrying a lot of silver, he didn't like the captain and he was batshit crazy. He arranged to have the ship go off course and blame it on the captain. Then he arranged to have a female on board anonymously molested, causing the captain to punish the crew, who would then join the mutiny.

The second part of the plan failed because the molested lady recognised her attackers, so only they were punished. The first part of the plan kind of worked. The ship did go off course, hit a reef and sank. About 40 people drowned while the remaining 300 or so made it to a nearby island in the Abrolhos Islands.

They were fairly stuck. The Captain took some blokes and decided to row back to Batavia. The city, not the ship. The skipper was left in charge and resumed the mutiny. He essentially had a witch hunt. He'd make up crimes a manipulate others into carrying out punishments (always murder). Eventually he started getting bored so would find interesting ways to murder people. He also had the women rounded up into "rape camps". His ultimate aim was to reduce the number of survivors so the supplies would last longer. And also to rape people, I suppose.

A group of survivors eventually took off to the next island and prepared defences against the skipper. I think about 200 people had been murdered by that stage,including a baby the skipper failed to poison, so just strangled instead.

Meanwhile, the captain had miraculously made it to Jakarta. It took him 33 days. Everyone was really cross with him. The Batavia was the flagship of the Dutch East India Company. He got another ship and was ordered back to rescue the survivors and perhaps salvage some of the enormous wealth from the downed ship. Somehow that took him 3 months.

When he got back, the two groups of survivors spotted the rescue ship at the same time and literally raced out to be the first to tell their side of the story. The captain eventually chose the right side. All of the mutineers were executed in gloriously creative ways, except for two, who he rowed to the mainland and abandoned with quite a lot of provisions at a place called Red Bluff.

That's where I went today. The internet is terrible, but in the photo looking south from yesterday's blog, the big headland is Red Bluff. Those two blokes were the first European inhabitants of Australia.

There are stories of blonde haired blue eyed Aboriginals that just might be their descendants.

After Red Bluff I carried on down the coast. I went past an old convict buying yard and studied it carefully David Mitchell style. From the road at 110km/h. I also got quite a shock when off to the right a mass of pink water appeared. I knew there was a pink lake (Hutt Lake) but I really didn't expect it to be pink. I almost went off the road staring at it. It was really pink.

Even more remarkable was that there was almost nowhere to stop for a closer inspection. When I did find somewhere the flies were insane. I'll point out that the captain of the Batavia also noted that when he was shipwrecked. I snapped a terrible photo and almost ran back to the bike. There were literally hundreds of flies swarming around me.

I kept going to Horrocks beach. It was crowned the best beach in Australia last year or the year before. It isn't the best beach in Australia by a long shot but made for a refreshing swim. I continued to Northampton then took a back road around to Geraldton. The landscape has improved dramatically. It is hilly and green in a way I haven't really seen anywhere else in Australia. It is not unlike Moravia in the Czech Republic, although the hills here are gentler.

I'm now camped at an overpriced caravan park at a place called S-Bend. The park is nice despite being named for a toilet part. Should've called it Z Bend. The Asian lady that checked me in keeps checking I'm not "stealing electric".

Kalbarri

I achieved the goal I set myself yesterday of doing very little today. When I awoke the ongoing weather event which I said I will no longer mention had seemed to have died down. I went for a ride just down the road into Kalbarri and stopped at a Cafe for a combination of breakfast and lunch uncommonly known as lunchfast. I ordered a prawn salad and a coffee and was immediately suspicious when the salad arrived before the coffee. I soon realised that it was totally understandable when the construction of the salad merely involved opening a bag of mixed salad from woollies and deep frying some pre-battered frozen prawns. The coffee sucked too.

I went for a bit of a ride around Kalbarri and found it to be really nice. It's quite a beautiful place and would be an excellent backdrop for a number of activities. For example: sailboarding, kite surfing, green energy generation, kite flying, aerodynamics research, paragliding, hang gliding, sailing and hot air ballooning. Unfortunately the beach was fairly unappealing due to the weather.

Looking to the south

The Murchison River mouth. 

I came back to the ranch and went down to the icy cold pool to read my book. It is the only place with any shade. Every 20 minutes or so I'd jump in for a few moments relief from the flies then jump out again to warm up. I spent a few hours down there and then began cooking dinner at around 3. I was hungry and wanted to get in while the one good burner was free.

I noticed a sign saying that cameras had been installed in the bush kitchen to prevent theft. I had a brief flash in my mind of a dimly lit, cigarette smoke filled room with a bank of TV screens in the bowels of the ranch house where some poor, miserable bastard (or team of bastards) have been tasked with monitoring the pots, pans, knives and forks of the bush kitchen. Big brother is always watching.

Tomorrow I'm going to make my way a little further down the coast. I'm not far from the Principality of Hutt River but I don't actually know if it is worth the detour. It does have $5 camping though. Hopefully the movement of air will be minimal.

Z Bend and Nature's window

Today I went for a ride out to the National Park. I will stop stating that it is windy. It is always windy. It is a motorbike after all.

First off I stopped at the lookout over the town. That's pretty much a complete summary of what it was. I took some photos and on the way back to the bike an older lady asked me "Isn't this special?" she must be from the west coast because it really was just a hill. It was the one I rolled down as a matter of fact. But hills here are special.

I kept going out to the park and had to stop to show the ranger my parks pass. I had my phone in one pocket and my vape in the other, both connected to the bike to charge. He noticed the wires and I told him I'm a suicide bomber. He thought that was the funniest thing ever and started tell me about how the Chinese aren't very good drivers. I didn't really understand the connection.

I got to the Z Bend. It is a gorge that bends in the shape of an S but with sharp corners. I know you're thinking that's a Z, but it isn't. It is backwards. If we just start doing all our letters backwards the kindergartners win.

Next stop was nature's window. It is a hole in a rock atop the edge of the gorge. I arrived to find it had been left open and was letting all the flies in. It was quite a good view, although one moron decided to seek shade right inside it without any consideration for the half dozen people trying to take a photo. Word is he's a bad driver.

He moved when asked and I took the obligatory photo. There was a loop walk that looked like it would be really good. But it was 9km and I'd already acquired about 30 flies (this is not an exaggeration). On the walk back to the bike I took a little survey of how many flies other people had and I had far more than them. Some people had none. In some cultures that would make me a winner. I'm not sure which ones but there'd be one I reckon.

Just wear a hat. 

Back at the bike when I got my gear out my fly tally jumped by a lot. It would've been over 100. My gear stinks quite bad.

I came back and tonight I attempted to cook potato's, corn and lamb. I took HOURS. The gas cookers are really bad here. It was worthwhile though because I'd lost my fork again so it was a good opportunity to acquire another one.

I'm still here tomorrow. I'm feeling like garbage. I don't know if it is the weather turning a bit cold or if I'm a bit run down or if I'm getting sick. So I won't be doing much.