4/7/16
ALBANY TO DENMARK
Excitement was certainly brewing this morning as we
organised breakfast and loaded up the bikes. We have been really looking
forward to this part of the trip as we have been wanting to ride the Munda
Biddi Trail for a few years now. Today is our day that we actually commence
this long awaited dream. The weather was cold but dry – ‘awesome’. The bikes
felt heavy as they were packed to the brim with supplies – ‘we won’t go
hungry’. Our legs felt like new – ‘rest days help’. The enthusiasm was
escalating – ‘bring on the forests’. Here we go.!!! We rode down Sandria and
Andrew’s driveway hoping that our heavy bikes stayed upright as we descended.
Woop woop down we go and we both stayed up – ‘good start’. 
Just a few k’s on the bitumen road until we joined the trail
which had us riding out the back on a very lovely quiet road. Before too long
our first taste of rail trail followed which was pretty fast and sweet. A few bridge crossings with a lot of water
rushing underneath certainly made it a picturesque ride.
A stop at Young’s Siding for lunch in a shelter. We must say
we totally outdid ourselves today with our pre-made bircher muesli as it was
the best we have ever done. Made from organic oats, seeds, nuts and dried fruit
purchased at the health food shop in Albany, pre-soaked in organic apple,
orange, pineapple and passionfruit juice and topped with organic yoghurt. We
have 18 day’s worth of this amazing brekky/lunch all packaged up ready to go.
We can carry fresh juice and yogurt for a few days at a time without
refrigeration as the temperature outside is cold enough for it not to spoil. On
the Munda Biddi we come into a town every 2nd or 3rd day
so we will be able to top up our juice and yogurt regularly.
We had a couple of k’s of bitumen before we hit the single
track that followed the edge of the Wilson Inlet. This was fairly flat and
quite fast with awesome views of the inlet that was full to the brim with
water. Finally, we came onto a large bridge that crossed the Denmark River and
here we arrived at Denmark. As we crossed the bridge we had a really good
feeling about this town. It was very special with large trees, lots of water, a
great bike/walking path to the town and then the greatest coffee shop on this
planet. Amazing coffee was consumed and we shared an Avo Smash on ciabatta
bread with feta cheese and roasted cherry tomatoes and the most mouth watering
dressing. We had a good look at the extensive organic scrumptious menu and
decided we would be back before closing for an early dinner. If you are ever in
Denmark don’t miss the opportunity for a good coffee and feed at ‘Ravens’.
Back on the bikes and a quick back track to the caravan park
where we placed our tent on a nice piece of lawn next to the kid’s playground.
A shower and a quick sort out of gear we were again heading back into town this
time on foot. We always find it necessary to go for a good walk after riding
all day as it seems to straighten us out and stretch some of our tight muscles.
All rugged up with 4 layers on and a scarf we walked the 2k’s up the road and
sat down at the café and ordered our early dinner. We were not disappointed
once again the food was just superb. Decision number two was made and that was
to return here once more for breakfast in the morning. With the thought of the
next three days on the trail with two nights camping we felt it necessary to fill
our bodies with total awesome goodness while we had the chance.
Back to the tent which was cold on this quite clear night we
were soon snug little bunnies under the covers of our good old faithful
sleeping bags.
5/7/16
DENMARK TO JINUNG BEIGABUP CAMPSITE
The morning started with a very icy temperature of 2.1
degrees. Packing up the tent hurt our fingers. Fingers don’t work well in the
cold and wearing gloves doesn’t help much with packing up a tent. Quick stick
onto the bikes and a ride to our favourite café. Coffee again was awesome and
food totally delicious, filling and nourishing.
Now for the exciting news. Dave found the most valuable tool for the
trip. A camp size, bike size, espresso maker. It’s called a ‘Mini Presso’ and
is totally amazing. It takes ground coffee and it makes the best shorties which
even have a crema. Now, I am a milk coffee drinker and asked the very helpful
lady in the shop if she had any suggestions for me for coffee. Her answer was
put very nicely “just try shorties and within a couple of weeks you will like
it”. In other word’s ‘harden up and drink the real stuff honey’. I tried it and
ok I think I like it!!!
A quick stop at the bakery to top our overflowing supply of
food for the next few days. The only place we had left to put the bread was
under the pannier cover which made for an awkward looking load. We headed out on the trail which was really
just a foot path that took us most of the way to Light’s Beach. We took in the
view of Light’s Beach while eyeing the entrance to the trail on the other side
of the car park that was starting to look a little more serious. The next 6k’s
to Green Pool were a mixture of beautiful flowing single track and punishing
climbs out of creek crossings that saw us having to push our overloaded bikes a
few times. All along this section were brilliant views of the coast, more
awesome. 
Heading back inland almost to the South Coast Highway we
turned right on the single track running parallel to the highway it became
obvious that no one was stupid enough to ride this bit and mostly stuck to the
road. It was a very little used narrow trail, full of steep sections and lots
of fallen branches etc… Then across the highway continuing north we came to our
first re-route. This started off quite cruisy on a nice sandy fire trail. About
half way through we came back onto bitumen and what looked like to be a pretty
tough climb. This climb ended up with several false peaks with several sections
forcing us off the bikes to push with gradients exceeding 10%. The top of this
climb saw the end of the re-route and back on to the main trail. Here we
stopped to have some lunch followed by Priscilla having a tantrum and throwing
herself on the ground, trying to tip her heavy load off. Our food bags were
full of 3 weeks supply of bircher muesli, apples, tangelos, potatoes, yoghurt,
cheese and lots of awesome healthy goodness that weighed a tonne. I think we may
have just over done the shopping just a bit. Our bikes were really really heavy
and even pushing them up those hills was hard sweaty work. We had better look
at lightening the load by eating heaps quickly.
We got our climbing reward with a very nice long downhill on a fire trail before a short section of bitumen taking us within a few km’s of tonight’s hut. This turned into a tight sandy trail that seemed quite fun until we saw the single track heading off to the right and up once again into the tall timber. Suck it up and push. We twisted and turned through the forest continually climbing until we came out into an open stand of magnificent Karri trees with a hut positioned in the middle. A magic peaceful spot of wilderness.
6/7/16
JINUNG BAIGABUP CAMPSITE TO BOONER MUNDAK CAMPSITE
Such peace and quiet this morning as the sun came up other
than the birds singing really made it a hard decision to get up and start our
day. Looking out of our tent we could see that the sky was blue and the sun
light was shining through the tree tops even though the air was still very
crisp and the prospect of a lovely day of mountain biking ahead with good
weather got us moving quickly. 
A note from the Ranger in the log book told us that 3km’s of
new trail has now been completed and it looked like we may have been the first
to ride it. The first 10k’s of trail for the day was mostly single track
winding through the forests. Occasional soft and muddy bits but mostly pretty
fun. It was obvious however, that our work was going to be cut out for us today
due to the hilly terrain. We slowly transitioned from single track to fire
trail to back dirt roads. You think it’s going to get easier when you pop out
onto these roads but it became river valley after river valley for quite a long
time. The descents while steep were also
quite heavily washed out in places which meant that we couldn’t just fly down
them but had to take care. The climbs on the other side were generally quite
punishing causing us to get off and push in a few places.
We stopped off at a large granite outcrop for morning tea
and enjoyed the natural surrounds. The granite rocks had large areas of
beautiful thick green moss growing on them. Here we sat for a while as it was
out of the breeze and with the sun shining directly on us made us feel like a
morning nap. But no we had to keep those pedals turning up those grand hills.
As we were approaching the Kent River the trail took us through the middle of
half a dozen large upright boulders. It was a weird experience riding through
the middle of these large boulders, they just seemed to have appeared from
nowhere. Just on from this was a swing bridge over the Kent River. The bridge
was very narrow and only just fitted Dave’s bike. His handle bars were
virtually touching the sides of the bridge. It would have knocked his mirror
off if he hadn’t thought of tucking it in. Once on the other side we found a
lovely log and had some lunch in the beautiful sunshine once again.
Fortunately, the continual river valleys became shallower
over the last 20k’s of the day. The last 3k’s of the ride today was on a sandy
section of road. Lucky for us the sand was wet from all the rain and we thought
that this would be a really tough section when the sand was dry. The hut
tonight was only 300m in off the road, a lovely quiet and beautiful spot once
again.
7/7/16
BOONER MUNDAK CAMPSITE TO COALMINE BEACH (Walpole)
With all good intentions we had meant to leave well before
8am as we knew it was going to be a long day in the saddle. However, time
slipped away and we didn’t get on the bikes until after 8.30am. The first part
of the ride today was back onto the sand road with a few nice climbs made the
start of our day very enjoyable. This was followed by some dirt roads taking us
through a cattle grazing area and then the border of the National Park. The
trail then soon entered the National Park and here we started to see the tall
timber and our first big climbs proceeded. Our legs were feeling good with the
climbing and we seemed to be handling the gradients pretty well. Until the real
biggies followed. Up long steep climbs are legs suddenly started screaming at
us and before too much longer we had nothing left to climb with. Off we get and
pushed the bikes to the top. The trees got taller as we climbed more and more
of the hills. It was a get on get off game for the rest of the day through this
magnificent area of the Valley of the Giants. The further we rode into the
forest the bigger the trees and the more ancient the trees became. To be
surrounded by these trees of life was an amazing feeling. To go slow, pushing
our bikes up these steep valley roads gave us a gift of being a part of nature.
Moving slowly, observing, breathing, acknowledging and just being with this grandeur
of nature was a great gift to receive. Yes, it hurt us physically to push our
bikes up this steep terrain. Yes, it hurt our ego that we didn’t have the power
to ride the climbs. But this gave us a lesson and an opportunity that we will
never forget. It is ok to go slow, to stop, to breath and to just enjoy the
moment. As we pushed up each climb step by step we were able to stop every 10
or so steps and look around, observe and be grateful for our surrounds. To see
the moss covering the buttresses of these beautiful old trees shows us how
these large and powerful grand trees can coexist with the minuet and delicate
and how these two organisms actually support each other. To see the old trees with the inside of the
trunks burnout but the trees still standing with history to tell. Here, life was
all around, still growing and supporting a whole family network. This shows
us that no matter what the history good or bad life carries on, and in an
environment of nature and love life flourishes.
Back to serious riding followed our lunch. A little bit of push the panic button occurred as the afternoon was passing quickly and the Garmin was telling us that we hadn’t even ridden half of our distance for the day as yet. The map was checked numerous times and we just couldn’t quite work out what was going on. We just had to leave the feeling of not being in control and just put our heads down and carry on. There was still a lot of up and down with short nasty pinches as we followed the river for the next 10 or so k’s. It was a beautiful track with the river below on our left and the tall trees on either side of us. A nice section of single track followed that brought us out to the main dirt road once again. Thinking we still had 20km’s to go and it being 4pm with only an hour of light left we made the decision to pop out onto the South Coast Highway while we had the opportunity and ride into Walpole before dark. This then turned out to be only 8k’s to Walpole. It turned out that after uploading our Garmin’s once in camp we had actually done the expected 49k’s. It seems as though we must have lost satellite signal at times through the forest giving us a false reading.
Feeling totally shattered and exhausted with grabbed a cosy
cabin for the night. With impending bad weather approaching we decided to stay
put in the cabin for the next couple of days and wait for the weather to clear
before continuing on our adventure.
10/7/16
COALMINE BEACH (Walpole) to KWOKRALUP BEELA CAMPSITE
We ignored the sound of rain on the roof this morning and
decided it was time to harden up, pack up and leave our warm cosy cabin. Back on our bikes with full rain gear on we
headed into the township of Walpole to pick up a couple of necessary supplies
(orange juice, block of chocolate and a packet of English muffins) all very
important items for safe bicycle touring.
We rolled out of town on the bitumen and soon came to our
turn onto a very wet double track that despite the surface water was holding up
quite well making it easier to ride than it looked. We cruised around the
forest edges and started to climb once again. Our legs were feeling better
today and we managed to ride most of the steep hills.
At the high point of the day we arrived at ‘The Swarbrick
Recreation Site’ which is a tribute to the fight to save the forests of this
region from logging. This site is where the environmentalists physically made
their last stand in the 25 year fight. We feel that it is an important part of
our history, the story of which needs to remain alive, helped by sites like
this.
Out onto the bitumen Mount Frankland Road, we started a few
k’s of quite steep descent. Turning right onto the dirt Copeland Road for more
beautiful forest road. We agonised over taking a short cut on the map into the
hut but decided once again to harden up and ride the trail as marked. Lucky we
did as it was a fun ride through creek crossings and large blankets of water
over the road which finally dealt with our fear of riding through murky waters,
just pedal!! The hut surprised us, set in a beautiful Jarrah forest which we
thought we would explore after lunch. But we noticed a sign. This sign said
‘This walking trail leads to a river, the location of which has Aboriginal
significance, please respect this site’. This trail wound through the forest
for about a kilometre down to an amazing granite ledge on the banks of the
swollen Frankland River. It was too wet to sit, but nevertheless we enjoyed the
site for well over an hour just wishing it was summer time so we could go for a
swim in the awesome rock pools. If you get the opportunity to camp at this hut
make the effort to walk this short trail, stunning.
11/7/16
KWOKRALUP BEELA CAMPSITE TO FERNHOOK FALLS CAMPSITE
We missed dawn. In bed by 6.30pm last night with an hour of
reading a book on our phones we then didn’t awake until 7.45am. We are getting
so much sleep it’s insane. There was a hint of blue sky and a prospect of a
fine day but that changed within 10 minutes back to cloudy and frequent showers
as we started our day. Wet weather gear back on as we headed out on the track
and back on to the dirt road. A slow gradual climb took us away from camp, the
further we went the slower the climb became.
After 5k’s we had the option to turnoff to Mount Frankland
to climb the summit for a 360 degree view of the Walpole Wilderness. The 5km
climb to Mount Franklin was brutally long but on a good road so we were able to
keep the bikes rolling up. When we arrived at the car park we checked the
Garmin and found that we had only done 11km’s but we had climbed 335 metres vertically.
Pretty tough start to the day. We dismounted our bikes and proceeded to walk
the summit track to the top of the mountain. The track up was easy walking on a
good paved path in amongst the natural growth of small shrubs and lots of
ferns. The path then turned into steps, 300 steps including two very steep
ladders that took us right up to the top of the mountain. The mountain top was
made of huge granite boulders and at the top was a weather station. It used to
be used as a fire spotting area manned by a spotter from November to 
For every climb comes a good descent so fortunately from the
top of Mount Frankland we were able to pick up a bit of time with the first
4k’s being mainly down. We whizzed along with all our layers on slowly freezing
but perhaps smiling that little bit more than when we were going the other way.
We knew of a trail re-route ahead due to the closer of the Deep River crossing.
So we continued down Beardmore Road which was a beautiful ride on a good gravel
surface through all sorts of changing forest landscapes. At the end of
Beardmore Road, we came across the bridge crossing of the Deep River. This
amazing bridge built from massive jarrah logs crosses the river perched on top
of the waterfalls that is the Fernhook Falls. Crossing the bridge and a sharp
little climb saw us arriving at our campsite for the night. This is a lovely
camp ground with a couple of little log cabins built for just two people with
nice little combustion heaters in them. We parked ourselves in front of one of
them, lit the fire, made some coffee and enjoyed the serenity.
12/7/16
FERNHOOK FALLS CAMPSITE TO YIRRA KARTTA CAMPSITE
We awoke in our little hut to another chilly morning and
were pretty much all ready to leave when we got talking to a couple of other
campers, a father and daughter who were travelling in their ute exploring and
camping in various locations around the South West of WA. Over the next couple
of days they were heading to Donnybrook to volunteer as cooks at a camp for
underprivileged children. It is so important to take the time and stop and chat
with others and listen to their reasons for travel and their interesting
stories.
Our ride today was mostly single track through some
beautiful forests. It was a nice flowing ride, very quiet and we felt very
isolated from the outside world. Towards the end of the day we were riding
through some very burnt out forest areas. A bushfire had been through here a
year or two ago. Lots of very burnt out trees that miraculously are coming back
to life. Green growth is vigorously appearing on most of the burnt tress and a
lot of new fresh life beginning to grow under story. Nature always has a way to
come back and it is so good to see it happening here in this badly affected
area.
As we approached our turnoff to our next hut we noticed a huge granite out crop standing out in the middle of the forest way above the tree line. Wow this looked just amazing. The track to the hut was a sneaky little single track that led us to another awesome set up. The fire had been right through here too and must have done some damage to the hut but this has all been repaired and looks as good as brand new. The grand granite dome stood right next to the hut so once we got ourselves set up we went for a nice walk to the top of this big rock. As we were walking up the first part of the rock we could hear a couple of emu’s but unfortunately couldn’t spot them in the bush. We also spotted some wombat poop. How did these critters survive this enormous, hot bushfire? It’s amazing to see that they actually have. The climb up was so pretty as there were all these small areas full of green plants, like miniature gardens with lots of moss and shallow pools of water. The fire had even burnt over this huge outcrop as in these little gardens where bits of old burnt plants. Now the gardens are flourishing. Up the top here we were able to get mobile service. We had been out of range for over 3 days so it was nice to make a few calls home to Evan, Owen and mum and chat with Lauren on messenger. We headed down off the rock and went for a little wonder through the bush hunting for the emu but only found its poop and identified that it had been eating a lot of bush plums. We even found the bush that it was getting its tucker from.
Dave thought it was a good idea to start on dinner so I took
off and had one last climb up the rock and before I knew it the sun was
starting to set. The view of the sunset from up there was just amazing. Such a
beautiful end to a perfect day.
13/7/16
YIRRA KARTTA CAMPSITE TO NORTHCLIFFE
.5 Degrees, that was the temperature as we started off early
this morning. We had quite a bit of riding to do today so we got up extra early
and headed off just after 7.30am. It was still and very cold. Icy cold in fact.
It didn’t take long for our fingers and toes to start screaming at us even with
all our layers of clothing on. At the top of each hill we would stop for a
minute or so and put our hands under our arm pits to try and get some feeling
back into the finger tips. Lucky for us the temperature rose to 5 degrees by about
10am!!!
It seemed like we spent most of the morning jumping sticks,
large thick pieces of bark and small fallen logs that had come down after the fires.
The tracks were really messy and pretty slippery. We had a couple of creek
crossings that had been washed out and we had to manhandle our bikes across
them. Lots of big hills today with only a couple that we had to push up the
last pinch. We were riding really well and the k’s were getting done pretty
steadily. The last part of the ride before we hit the town was a mixture of
forests and farming land. We were only about 5k’s out from the town when we met
a guy and his young son out for a ride around the local tracks. We stopped and
had a great chat with him as he is a Munda Biddi Volunteer. 
We made our way into town and then got set up at a bit of a
weird caravan park 2km’s out of town. We
had run out of clean clothes and washing was becoming quite urgent and as there
were no laundry facilities at the caravan park we rode back into town with our
bundle of dirty laundry and sat in the laundromat eating chips, lollies and
drinking ginger beer. We decided to stay in town and have dinner at the pub. Here
we enjoyed a lovely warm meal sitting by a toasty warm fire. Then it was dark.
We had to ride our bikes with our bundle of now clean and nice smelling clothes
back to the tent in the dark. Luckily we had a head torch and our high viz tops
with us so we were all shiny and bright on the little road back to the caravan
park. It was freezing on the way back so it was good to get back into our
little tent and snuggle into our awaiting sleeping bags.
14/7/16
NORTHCLIFFE TO PEMBERTON
We splashed out on a nice breakfast at the Hollowbutt Café
on the way out of Northcliffe. In the back of our mind we knew about the
reputation of the switchback climb at the end of the day into Pemberton, solid
energy was going to be required. One of the things we notice about riding the
Munda Biddi is that we can ignore the wind forecast, it doesn’t matter how hard
it blows, we will barely feel it on the forest floor.
It was a really nice ride out on singletrack through the
parks. All leading to a beautiful little wooden bridge over a creek, moss
growing all over it, just like something out of a fairy tale. This was a really
awesome day, some challenging bits thrown in as well as some very large fallen
trees that left us with no choice but for both of us to lift the bikes over.
With about 12 ks to go we went on to an old logging rail
trail that was a fast descent, very tightly overgrown, but an opportunity to
let go of the brakes for a change, we really let it rip. It was fun to see
Mary’s beaming smile at the bottom and yelling “I can’t believe I just got air
on a loaded fat bike Woah!!!!!”
A couple of ks further brought us to the beginning of the
Pemberton Switchback. There was a road alternative, but we decided that we just
had to have a crack at it. Those squiggly lines on the map didn’t disappoint
and let’s just say that this climb was very hard but awesome, I can’t believe
that I made it up on a loaded fat bike. It was a workout and a half for Mary to
push Priscilla and Wilma up this climb but they managed to reach the top all relaxed
and joyful as if it was a walk in the park.
Following a bit of recovery at the top there is an awesome
bitumen trail that leads from the Gloucester Tree car park into town. Ok, so a
bitumen path can’t be that great right?, but this one had bright green moss
growing down both sides of it like fluorescent line marking, Fairy land again.
We rode into town and just caught an awesome wholefoods café
about to close. The lovely lady was more than happy to keep the café open for
us and here we thoroughly enjoyed a lovely warming bowl of cream of mushroom
soup and awesome organic coffee. We had our first stay at a YHA hostel in
Pemberton which was great. We met three guys who were walking a section of
Bibulman Track with one of their Grandsons, what an awesome gift these guys
gave this really nice young lad. The gift of confidence in the wild, just
awesome for his future.
15/7/16
PEMBERTON TO QUINNINUP
The forecast read ‘95% chance of rain, 25-50mm’ but we
ignored the forecast. It was just light spitty stuff outside first thing in the
morning so we will be fine with our wet weather gear on. Down the road we went
and stopped off at the bakery and grabbed a warm loaf of multi grain sour dough
and an awesome looking vanilla slice for later. A little further down the road
we stopped off at a café that was open early and went in and had the most
amazing breakfast. Huge breakfast that filled us both up ready for a day on the
bikes. The rain wasn’t getting any heavier just thicker so off we went out of
town and around a big lake. This sucked, it was really muddy and very slippery and
it really just seemed to go in a pointless direction before turning around on
itself. Before we could even warm up we were back out on the bitumen going up
and up and up a big steep hill. 
The rest of our ride was really cool, lots of logging
trails, single track and creek crossing. The rain now was starting to get
heavier and for the rest of the day we rode in the shadow of a rain cloud all
the way to Quinninup. We rode for four hours straight, in the rain without our
usual second breakfast stop, morning tea stop or a lunch stop. It was too wet
to even think about stopping in the rain. Luckily our big breakfast kept us
well fuelled all morning. I did have a little woopsy daisy when I wasn’t concentrating
and rode onto a slippery stick that was facing parallel and before I knew what
was happening I was down on the ground, still attached to Priscilla and
squashed under the heavy weight of my loaded bike. Dave came to my rescue as I
am trying to rescue myself with no avail. No harm done other than some extra
mud on me and a bit of a sore toe.
When we arrived into Quinninup we were greeted by a really
friendly bloke who gave us directions to the caravan park and told us that the
pub has a nice warm fire going and hoped that we enjoy our stay. Such a nice
welcome into a lovely little town. Being so wet we decided to get a cabin at
the caravan park so we could dry out our gear. We spent the afternoon at the
pub enjoying the nice warm fire and enjoyed a nice warm meal there too at
dinner time. The place was really rocking at happy hour with some pretty good
tunes playing.
16/7/16
QUINNINUP TO MANJIMUP
The night in our cabin at the Quinninup caravan park was
eventful, it rained most of the night and several possums appeared to have
booked into the apartment in the ceiling due to the weather, oh well, we can
share.
The weather didn’t look too bad on rising so we had brekky
and got under way. We had decided to ride about 8ks of the Wheatley Highway
before re-joining the trail for a couple of reasons, 1, there were stories of
several flooded creek crossings on the early trail, 2, there was a re-route in
place that takes you out onto the south western highway in a very dangerous
section that we really didn’t want to be on with the logging trucks in very wet
weather. (still forecast to be 50mm+ again today). This advice was thanks to
the owner of the tavern who we chatted with the night before and turned out to
be spot on. The highway certainly didn’t excuse us from the climbing however,
with several steep sections until after we re-joined the trail just after the Warren
River bridge. The trail then followed the river for a while, was quite pretty,
but there were once again several very large trees down across the trail with
no possible way around them. The rain
began to fall again at this point with a vengeance. I find riding single track
in the pouring rain quite a surreal experience, I love it, but this was
starting to become ridiculous. The trail was never really muddy, just wet and
slippery, with still plenty of short steep hills to climb.
We made the decision to bail out onto the road again and
just get to Manjimup and a hot shower. I was feeling exhausted today as well,
day seven on the trail straight, but I think yesterday’s wet ride and the final
climb into Pemberton the day before that, was catching up with my legs. Larry
was also feeling my pain and was refusing to go fast today. So we rode the last
15ks into Manjimup on the black top and found the caravan park in town had no
cabins. We went across the road to the Manjimup Motel and luckily they were
able to do us a good deal as we were staying for two nights and included
breakfast as well, bargain. And a very welcome hot shower. Very soon the room
was a cloud of drying wet weather gear and boots.
Once all our housework was done it was off to the town to
search out some food and good coffee. Not far from our motel was a very
interesting looking café/bar/restaurant called “Tall Timbers”. Without any hesitation
we proceeded to the front door and were shown to two comfy chairs right by a
nice warm fire. Within a few minutes we started to sweat, this fire was amazing
but too hot so we moved a little further over and settled in. The afternoon
whizzed by in a cloud of awesome coffee, cake and local Blackwood Ales, and
then we decided to stay for dinner, we totally recommend Tall Timbers, very,
very nice.
17/7/16
DAY OFF IN MANJIMUP
Today was a very special day for us, as our Nephew Trent,
his wife Amanda and kids Skye and Flynne were flying down to spend the day with
us. So we had to get prepared, Motel breakfast and then we needed to get some
washing done and get some supplies into the kit for the next stage. We found a
great food shop up the end of the main street that stocked a lot of our kind of
stuff, organic whole foods, so we were able to get most of our needs there.
All the while we were getting updates from Trent and Amanda
as they prepped the plane, filed flight plans and checked the weather. We were
back in the motel when we got the message “Heads Up” so we bolted outside into
the motel car park to see these guys doing a lap around the motel as we waved
and hoped they could see us. The airstrip is about 3 ks south of town and they
decided to walk in, so we headed out to meet them half way as the sound of
thunder was reaching us from a passing storm. Luckily we dodged it and stayed
dry. It was so good catching up with them, and lots of laughs and stories were
shared around over our lunch at Tall Timbers.
We really are looking forward to seeing these guys again
over the next couple of weeks as they may catch up with us somewhere on the
trail nearer to Mundaring. Then at the completion of the Munda Biddi we will
very excitedly stay with them for a few days in Freemantle.
18/7/16
MANJIMUP TO KARTA BURNU CAMPSITE
With no great hurry to leave this morning as we only had a
short mornings ride to Karta Burnu we took our time to pack up, have breaky and
head out of town. Before leaving town we stopped off at the local bakery for
our bread supply and of course could not resist one last coffee at Tall
Timbers.
The ride this morning was on a lovely flowing track with
only a couple of descent hills. The sun was shining, though the air was still
very brisk. Some of the tracks we rode had quite a lot of water running through
them from all the rain the last few days and in a couple of spots it was really
quite deep so our feet got soaked. With a few manoeuvres around and under small
fallen trees we made our way quite quickly to the hut. 
On arrival we were greeted by two Park and Wildlife Rangers
who were sitting on the deck of the hut in the sunshine just finishing off
their lunch. These two older guys were really cool, told us lots of great
stories and as they left wished us a great nights camping and hoped we
continued to have a safe and enjoyable trip.
The afternoon brought us some sunshine and time to catch up
on the blog, do a little bike maintenance and just chill out on the deck of the
hut that over looked a beautiful forested valley. The birds have been crazily
in song all afternoon. I think they too have enjoyed the sunshine. As soon as
the sun started to go over the hill it got cold very quickly. Looks like we
will have a very early dinner and into the tent and under the warmth of the
sleeping bags before dark tonight.
19/7/16
KARTA BURNA CAMPSITE TO DONNELLY RIVER VILLAGE
Today’s ride was to be a short 23km ride which we expected
to be just a cruise in the park. Never expect any part of the Munda Biddi to be
a cruise in the park!!! The first couple of k’s was downhill on a long switch
back. Dave and Larry had a ball, riding the flowing descent from the top all
the way down to the bottom. Mary, Priscilla and Wilma struggled. The turns were
tight and us girls just didn’t have the skill for these tight techy corners so
walk we did. Struggled at that too as it was slippery and going down and around
on a slippery surface was just shit. Well bad luck we just had to keep on going
until finally reaching the bottom. Then off we travelled the way we were meant
to go and that is on a bike seat and pedalling.
Pedalling didn’t last long at all today. We had k’s of
single track which had tree after tree down on, we had mud and more mud, we had
flooded creeks and bursting river banks and we just had lots of walking,
pushing and lifting of bikes to do.
We finally got to a dirt road and made the decision to avoid
the next lot of single track and to follow the dirt road into Donnelly River
instead. What a great idea, let’s make our ride easy for the last 10k’s as it
had already taken us 3 hours to ride just 13k’s. ROAD BLOCK!! Oh crap the
Donnelly River was flooded, she had burst her banks and water was all over the
road. With shoes and socks off we pushed our bikes through the water that
nearly reached our knees, well my knees. The water was freezing, absolutely
freezing and I was screaming in pain from the coldness of that icy water. After
the crossing we found a wet log to sit on, dry our feet and put our wet shoes
back on. Our wet soggy shoes felt so warm after our lovely river walk.
Within half an hour we were pedalling into Donnelly River
Village. This little village use to be an old mill town. The mill closed down
in 1978 and soon after the town was bought by a small number of people and
turned into a holiday village. You are able to stay in the old houses or as we
did stay in one of the bunk rooms at the old school. Such a quaint little spot,
so old worldly and full of little surprises. It really does feel like you have
stepped back in time like way back to the 1950’s. There are lots of tame
kangaroos and emus there and lots of birds that aren’t at all frightened of
people. The general store/café is awesome and well stocked. The menu and the
coffee is fantastic and they have a nice warm fire to sit by inside the shop. A
very relaxed and friendly atmosphere all around. There are some lovely short
walks down to the river and around the town. The old mill itself is falling
down and fenced off as it is too dangerous an area to enter. Apparently it is
heritage listed so maybe one day it will be brought back to life. 
20/7/16
DONNELLY RIVER VILLAGE TO NANNUP
Let’s avoid single track again today. Such smart arses are
we. We decided to follow the road straight instead of turning right as to avoid
the 8km’s of single track that was going to suck. So instead we got a nice
steep up and a section of track with quite a few very large fallen trees across
it. Stop, dismount, lift, mount, Repeat. This went on until we reached a turn
onto a nice dirt road which happened to bring us back onto the trail. This felt
amazingly easy to ride with no fallen trees, no washed out sections, some up
that we just took in our stride and before we knew it we were actually
traveling with a little speed.
The last 10km ended up being on a newly paved road. A huge
surprise awaited us. We had an amazing down, finally we found a down that kept
on going and going. What an absolute joy to ride. As we approached Nannup there
were a couple of little rises but mostly really easy going. We found a café and
had a pretty ordinary coffee and some lunch before setting up our tent in the
caravan park. The caravan park was right at the end of the main street and just
opposite was another café. So of course after our set up of the tent, showers,
laundry etc we walked across and had a good coffee and shared some delicious
scones. The rest of the afternoon we went for a wonder around the back of the
town, walked along the old train bridge that crossed the Blackwood River. Right
on the edge of the river is a large tree that has dated markers on it showing
the flood heights of many years. On a few occasions the bridge would have been
well under water. Today the river was flowing very quickly, and the banks were
very swollen.
21/7/16
NANNUP TO NALA MIA CAMPSITE
No hurry at all today as our ride to Nala Mia was 20+k’s on
a rail trail. After our pack up, breaky etc. we headed over to the Riverbend
Café at 9am for a warming up by their fire and a nice strong good coffee
starter. Then it was onto the rail trail and away we went. It was an absolute
delight to ride, cruisy and totally enjoyable scenery. The creeks were all
overflowing and running into very full rivers. There were bridges to cross over
some very pretty creeks and a few areas that had large running puddles on them
that we had to ride through. Even though it was a very easy ride you still had
to concentrate as one lapse of concentration saw you heading off the track
assisted by the rollie pollie pea gravel.
On arrival at the hut Nala Mia at Jarrahdale we were
surprised to find the hut right in the middle of this quaint little quiet town,
but it was cool. We had a very chilled out afternoon drinking coffee and hiding
from the showers of rain. We decided to pitch the tent instead of using the hut
as the tent sight was set amongst some trees and over looked the village. It
was just too beautiful to ignore.
22/7/16
NALA MIA CAMPSITE TO DONNYBROOK
44km’s of all easy, well of course that is what the map
said. Fair enough the first 15km’s was all quite lovely single track through
jarrah forests with one major flaw, most of it was running like a river!! This
made the technical difficulty much higher as it created major washouts, loose
surface and vary large puddles that we just couldn’t know the depth of until we
rode them. Following this we were mostly onto reasonable fire trail and forest
roads.
We divided the day up into three sections having our second
breakfast on a nice jarrah log in the sunshine. It was hard to get moving again
from the warmth of that beautiful sunshine. Not far on from breakfast we were
riding a nice sandy trail when Mary noticed some curious paw prints in the soft
sand. Walking around Nannup the previous day we saw a sign that mentioned
rumoured sightings of thylacines in the area with a diagram of their paw print.
We thought these paw prints were a remarkable match and were very large. Check
out the photo of the paw print we found.
We had a short section of bitumen in order to cross the
Capel Rivers which included a couple of fairly tough climbs and then a left
turn back into the forest for a final 10km’s of single track which included a
stop for a much needed peanut butter sandwich.
We arrived in Donnybrook in pretty good time and had a
coffee at Café Tiffany while we worked out where we were going to stay. We
found out that the council runs a ‘Transit Park’ and we had to call into the BP
Service Station to get details. This little park is awesome. It is right behind
the cricket oval, with beautiful green lawn to camp on, loads of open space, a
creek that flows on the other side and you get a key to your own private
bathroom.
23/7/16
DONNYBROOK TO WELLINGTON FOREST
The sun came up at 3am!! Well the park light turned on at
this time and for a short moment or two we thought it was time to get up. When
daylight did actually break and it was time to rise the outside of the tent was
surrounded by fog and very damp air. When we were all set to leave the transit
park we decided to head to a café for breakfast and found a lovely little one
open on our way out of town. After a nice warm cooked breakfast and great
coffee we were on our way on a section of the trail that we were quite afraid
of. There were sections of this ride today that was graded “Challenging” and we
knew that there was going to be a lot of climbing. Our day turned out actually
pretty awesome. Lots of climbing, long stretches of road that was around 5-6%
that we just seemed to spin up. Then there were sections that were really quite
steep that went to 10-15% at times and here we slowly but surely made our way
to the top. We had bitumen sections, dirt roads, forest trails and single
tracks thrown in. Along the final ridgeline we were just cruising through the
forest and could see the coast in the far distant. We had a couple of really
great spots that we stopped at today. Crooked Brook Forest was really
beautiful. This forest has some lovely walking trails through it and a few
people were out enjoying this winter day. We stopped at the shelter here and
had our second breakfast and a coffee and just enjoyed the surrounds. We timed
this perfectly as a heavy shower passed and we stayed very dry under the
shelter. Our next stop was not that far down the road were there was an art
gallery. A lovely timber house that was full of beautiful art work from a small
number of artists. The lady that owned the gallery was really friendly and we
got talking to her for a while about all sorts of interesting subjects. 
Following rainbows, butterflies and red tailed black
cockatoos led us into the forest along a path and down into a small village.
This reminds me of a little story, something like Hansel and Gretal maybe.
Being inquisitive we both thought we should check out this little community
that was out in the middle of a forest. Here we found a café. And it was open.
We were welcomed by a very friendly lady, Liz who invited us inside and sat us
down by a nice warm fire. The mention of cabins and Christmas in July sparked
up a real interest in the place. Wendy the manager and chef let us know that
there was one cabin available tonight and it has a fireplace already to go and
also there was room for two more for the dinner that was being put on tonight.
How could we pass up this temptation of a nice warm bed, a fire place and a
Christmas party. So we checked in, lit the fire, had a shower and waited
patiently for 7pm to come along to attend the Christmas in July gathering. And
apparently there is breakfast on in the morning.
24/7/16
WELLINGTON FOREST TO HONEYMOON POOL
We got talking to Wendy and Ben after the dinner last night
which was a lovely way to end our awesome day. They invited us to come down to
the café for breakfast at 9.30am as Wendy was trialling a new breakfast dish
that she is going to add to the cafes menu. How lucky were we to get to trial
this delicious dish of fluffy pancakes with bacon jam (vego option for me) with
two beautiful poached eggs on top with a side dish of mushrooms, tomato and
onion and also a side of the tastiest homemade baked beans. This dish is sure
to be a winner. Wendy is going to open the café on Sundays for breakfast from
now on. 
Since we had a very late start we decided to just head to
Honeymoon Pool which was only about 10km’s ride away. So after our enormous
breakfast we just chilled out for a bit longer in our lovely little cabin keeping
warm by our lovely fire. Dave had a couple of jobs to do on the bikes and with
that all done we slowly and casually packed up and were on our way at around
lunch time. We said our goodbyes to Wendy, Ben and Liz as a big group of people
were arriving for another ‘Christmas in July Party’.
The ride out was all down. Down for a change and we went
flying past the Bidjar Ngoulin Hut turnoff. We rolled into the Honeymoon Pool
Campsite in less than an hour on the bikes. This is a really pretty spot with
campsites set up all along the Collie River. We came to a camp that had not
long ago been vacated that had a fire burning slowly in the fire pit so we
decided to set up camp at this site. With our tent set up and the fire stoked
up we were all settled in.
As it was only mid afternoon we wondered off along the river
and went for a nice quiet walk taking the opportunity to take a few photos
along the way. The camping area became quite busy in the afternoon with large groups
of people and lots of kids dropping in for picnics. By dusk all had cleared out
bar us and a group of kayakers who were camped upstream so we felt like we had
the whole place to ourselves.
25/7/16
HONEYMOON POOL TO COLLIE
We decided to ride the road out of the Wellington National
Park to avoid a “Challenging” section of the trail as we needed to get to
Collie before lunchtime. This ended up being quite a tough climb out in places
with the road being quite steep but it did save us a little bit of time. We
were then onto open single track and trail which was quite fast. The last
15km’s or so was a gentle down, all the way into Collie on a beautiful flowing
section of trail. About 5km’s before Collie we met a really nice local bloke,
Gary who was out on a morning ride, riding a fat bike too. So we stopped and
had a great chat with him.
Arriving in Collie we went straight to Crank’n Cycles to
have our bikes attended to. I have been nursing Priscilla for quite a few days
now as her bottom bracket has been playing up and we think we may have got to
Collie just in the nick of time before it totally shat itself. Larry needed a
look over too so we left both bikes in the shop in the good hands of Eric. Now
this is a really cool bike shop, full of fat bikes and other bikes of all shapes
and sizes. In the Fat Bike Department they had Surly, Salted, Scott and some
cheaper brands as well. So many Fat Bikes. And the other side of the shop is
full of toys including really cool big people toys like robots and helicopters
and drones. Just about anything you want they would have. And the best thing of
all is they have a shop cat. His name is Sprocket and he is the coolest cat I
have ever met. He is really tall and very handsome and he can do tricks just
like a dog. He can sit, stay and jump. Wilma even got to meet Sprocket.
Once the bikes were dropped off at the bike shop we did a
little food shopping and then headed back to the caravan park and got all
sorted up there. This was a funny little caravan park. There was a guy living
in a miniature tent city in the corner of the park with his little dog. He had
about 5 small tents all joined together like little rooms and lived in there by
himself. Then there was a caravan and they had a chicken and a couple of people
camping in cars and then there was a black cat. Not sure who he belonged to.
We were kept awake a bit during the night with a few people
walking around the neighbourhood with pretty loud voices and as they walked
from street to street they were setting all the dogs off. They seemed to be
doing laps around an area for quite some time. It was such a clear cold night
with no wind that they sounded a lot closer than the probably actually were.
26/7/16
COLLIE TO YARRI CAMPSITE
Once the bikes were loaded up again we were on our way. We
took the road out of town and travelled on the bitumen for about 15km’s before
we reconnected back onto the trail. The trail was mostly all open forest and
really quite good going. About 5km’s from Yarri Hut we reached the
“Challenging” section. This was mainly downhill for us coming from this
direction but was very rutted and chewed out by some motor bikes which made it
a challenge to descend safely. We did both comment that it would suck a lot
worse going the other way. The challenging section continued right up to Yarri
Hut with the trail seeming to actually pass through the hut. Yarri is quite a
small hut perched between the trail on one side and a steep forested gully on
the other. We really loved this hut. 
In the comments book for this hut there is a thing going on where you describe the Munda Biddi Trail by using the alphabet.
This is our description of our Munda Biddi experience:
Black Cockatoos with Red Tails
Chronically understated difficulty
Don’t put your foot down in the deep puddle
Eat, drink, sleep, ride, repeat
Freezing cold mornings
Gasping for breath
Harden the f*ck up
I think I can
Just turn up
Killer hills and more killer hills
Larry moon dog loves the trail
Munda Biddi Man hiding in the bushes
No room for Princesses
Oh my god what were we thinking
Pea gravel sucks
Questioning our sanity
Raging rivers and flowing trails
Serendipity comes our way
That’s how I always ride ‘Dickhead’
Ultimate freedom
Vitality restored
Where’s Wilma Wombat
Xtra strong coffee required
You said it was a rail trail
Zooming along singing a song
After a relatively warm night it seemed easy to pack up without
frozen fingers and toes. But we had to leave the serenity and head off on what
was expected to be quite a big day. The
trail led us initially across the dam wall and then followed the dam on the
other side for the first few k’s which was quite easy. The native forest was
all severely burnt out, right down to the water’s edge. As we left the dam the
trail meandered through this burnt out forest and gradually climbed for the
next 15km’s. It was quite hard going due to the amount of fallen sticks on the
track.
The day became pretty tough with the added pressure of knowing
that the weather was changing for the worse. We pressed on with challenging pea
gravel climb after challenging rutted descent until we finally had to say
'let's eat that piece of carrot' that we bought at the Blue Wren Cafe this
morning. We sat on a nice log in the last bit of sunshine for the day and felt
like we had recharged enough for the final push to Dandalup Hut.
It was a tough night’s sleep, a storm blew through around
midnight which lasted for a good 3 hours with strong winds and occasional
showers that just managed to keep us awake. But we awoke to a fine and calm
morning with the promise of an awesome day. We packed up and left camp around
9am and climbed our first hill of the day on cold legs, ouch. Then we began the
descent to the North Dandalup Dam which was extreme to say the least. Most of
it was unrideable due to very heavy rutting. We cruised across the dam wall and
continued heading north until the trail took us off the road once again.
Another sharp climb and 500m along we came to the turnoff to the touring route
which apparently avoids a particular gnarly section of trail that is not
recommended for loaded touring bikes. Well the first km of the touring route
was shit, very steep, very rocky with lots of loose large rocks that had been
dislodged by trail bikes. So walk it we did. Once we got beyond this climb the
trail levelled out and became a bit more as expected before we re-joined the
main trail. We were really struggling with some sections that had been damaged
so severely by the trail bikes once again. 
We entered the Serpentine National Park and thought to ourselves
that hopefully the trail bike riders had enough respect to not go in here. All
seemed good for the first few k’s and we stopped and had second breakfast on a
nice log right next to a ‘King Jarrah’ tree that looked so old and beautiful.
Not long after here we got off the bikes to walk them through a large puddle
that we couldn’t see the bottom off only to hear the sound of trail bikes
coming up behind us. Mary was still half way across the large puddle at this
stage and I was worried that being on a bend the trail bike riders wouldn’t see
her. Luckily they stopped for a look before hitting the puddle and Mary made it
across ok. There were 4 young guys on bikes and as they came through I tried to
get them to stop to have a little chat but of course they just blew us off.
They knew they were doing the wrong thing and the leader put extra spin on the
wheels to try and tear the track up just that little bit more. 
The descent into the Serpentine Valley was nail biting. Steep,
rutted, rocky, rooty, thick pea gravel and sand as deep as ever all mixed up
together from our little friends. We crossed the bridge at the bottom and then
had the corresponding climb up into Jarrahdale which was exhausting just
looking at it. A lot of pushing was done on this climb, but we cleared the
worst of it and then rode the last 2km’s of nice open trail into the beautiful
little town of Jarrahdale. A stop off at the General Store/Café for a late lunch
which was delicious. Here we found out that the Post Office which is also a
mini-supermarket have 4 double rooms upstairs as a BnB at a very reasonable
price. The rooms are really lovely and you have access to a shared big
beautiful bathroom, a lounge and kitchen. Continental breakfast is also
included. We were the only ones staying tonight and the hosts Jim and Kerry are
lovely and very helpful. Barney the dog is a real cutie. We highly recommend
Jarrahdale BnB.
After yesterday’s smashing of our legs up those hills that we
rode and walked it was a nice feeling of just spinning the pedals and gaining
momentum with very little effort. Today felt like a walk in the park, a little
bonjour ride, an easy day until along came a couple of hills. Ahhh we were
awoken from our mesmerised state. They were ok, not really steep just long and
painful in the quads. Today was a short one and we were in camp just before lunch.
By two o’clock we found ourselves on our beds all wrapped up in our sleeping
bags as the temperature had dropped very quickly and the hail came in with the
wind. Thank goodness we made it to the hut before the hail as that would surely
have given us a good sting on the already battered and bruised legs. So the
rest of the afternoon was sunshine, rain, sunshine, hail, sunshine wind. Here
we spent the afternoon lazing about as you are meant to do on all good
Sunday’s.
Somehow we were able to
get out of bed and face the freezing cold morning. I had a cup of hot water to
start the day as there was no way I was going to consume a cold one straight
from the tank. Then coffee was made, nice hot toast with hard frozen butter and
vegemite and a second coffee to warm our bellies. Off we went with numb hands
and feet and all our layers on. The sun was shining, so once we were out from
under the tree canopy we could feel her warming rays. Layer by layer came off
as we slowly warmed up riding a lovely gentle logging trail. See it is a rail
trail!!!!
27/7/16
YARRI CAMPSITE TO LAKE BROCKMAN
Last night was really cold, probably the coldest night we
have had in the tent. I kept having to ask Dave to share his sleeping bag with
me as I was nearly shivering with just mine. We started off on the bikes at
about 8.30am and it was only .1 degrees. We had all our layers on riding down a
lovely little track. Today’s trail virtually circumnavigated the Stirling
Reservoir. It was probably about 90% of really cool single track with the
occasional fire trail thrown in. Unfortunately, it was chopped up by the trail
bikes for the whole way making it difficult to ride corners and climbs.
The Lake Brockman Tourist Park is huge with lots of camping
areas all situated around the lake which is really just a reservoir. It was
only half full maybe due to the recent bushfires that went through the area in
March this year. As we were riding into our camp site we went past one of the
funny little caravans/cabins that was named ‘Bonnydoon’ which made us laugh.
This really did feel like the movie as we were the only ones staying in this
massive park, Oh the Serenity!!
28/7/16
LAKE BROCKMAN TO DWELLINGUP
After a relatively warm night it seemed easy to pack up without
frozen fingers and toes. But we had to leave the serenity and head off on what
was expected to be quite a big day. The
trail led us initially across the dam wall and then followed the dam on the
other side for the first few k’s which was quite easy. The native forest was
all severely burnt out, right down to the water’s edge. As we left the dam the
trail meandered through this burnt out forest and gradually climbed for the
next 15km’s. It was quite hard going due to the amount of fallen sticks on the
track.
Then we found the re-route sign which was inconveniently
facing in the opposite direction. It was just lucky that I looked over my
shoulder as we went past it. This may explain why so many people have been
complaining about getting lost around this point. This re-route was due to the
fires in March that also burnt out the Bidjar Ngoulin Hut which would normal
have been our stay for tonight. So this re-route saw us following well made
dirt roads up until the Nanga Campsite. From here we decided to ride the road
into Dwellingup. The climb out of Nanga was a painful one and certainly got our
heart rate going to finish off what ended up being quite a large day by Munda
Biddi standards.
It was a joy to arrive at the Blue Wren Café for coffee and
cake. We camped out at the caravan park which was quite nice even though the
sites were all on pea gravel (as if we haven’t seen enough of that stuff). A
quick resupply at the IGA and then dinner at the pub with a nice brisk walk
back to the caravan park in the dark.
29/7/16
DWELLINGUP TO DANDALUP CAMPSITE
We couldn't resist having breakfast at the Blue Wren Cafe before
we left. The Munda Biddi Man is still trying to slow us down (slow down dudes,
have the extra espresso, take your time). We rode out of town with a few local
mountain bike girls and we quite enjoy now when people ask us where have we
ridden from and we say ‘Adelaide’. There surprised expressions are quite fun.
The ride out of Dwellingup felt like the mountain bike town that it is. This
place has a really good vibe. And so the single track began. It was pretty cool
riding but today I had that classic directionally challenged type of day. It
wasn't that we got lost it was just I could never truly pinpoint exactly where
we were on the map for the first 20km's or so. So much change of
direction.
The day became pretty tough with the added pressure of knowing
that the weather was changing for the worse. We pressed on with challenging pea
gravel climb after challenging rutted descent until we finally had to say
'let's eat that piece of carrot' that we bought at the Blue Wren Cafe this
morning. We sat on a nice log in the last bit of sunshine for the day and felt
like we had recharged enough for the final push to Dandalup Hut.
With about a km to go we came up behind a guy walking along with
a deck chair and an esky in his hands looking like he was struggling. Naturally
we stopped to chat and found he also had a friend carrying gear into camp and
we were worried that they had had some serious bike trouble. But then we looked
at the nice clothes and the dress shoes and thought something along the lines
of WTF. These guys had just knocked off from work and were doing a supply run
dropping off gear to supply a group mountain bike ride and camp the following
day. So we had a great chat and they were amazed by our fat bikes and they gave
us a bottle of red because they thought we had done an awesome job so far. Very
nice guy's, thank you very much.
Dandalup Hut sits on the escarpment overlooking the coast around
Mandurah. Quite a spectacular spot. It's quite windy tonight and expecting rain
with the laughter of kookaburra's.
30/7/16
DANDALUP CAMPSITE TO JARRAHDALE
It was a tough night’s sleep, a storm blew through around
midnight which lasted for a good 3 hours with strong winds and occasional
showers that just managed to keep us awake. But we awoke to a fine and calm
morning with the promise of an awesome day. We packed up and left camp around
9am and climbed our first hill of the day on cold legs, ouch. Then we began the
descent to the North Dandalup Dam which was extreme to say the least. Most of
it was unrideable due to very heavy rutting. We cruised across the dam wall and
continued heading north until the trail took us off the road once again.
Another sharp climb and 500m along we came to the turnoff to the touring route
which apparently avoids a particular gnarly section of trail that is not
recommended for loaded touring bikes. Well the first km of the touring route
was shit, very steep, very rocky with lots of loose large rocks that had been
dislodged by trail bikes. So walk it we did. Once we got beyond this climb the
trail levelled out and became a bit more as expected before we re-joined the
main trail. We were really struggling with some sections that had been damaged
so severely by the trail bikes once again. 
We entered the Serpentine National Park and thought to ourselves
that hopefully the trail bike riders had enough respect to not go in here. All
seemed good for the first few k’s and we stopped and had second breakfast on a
nice log right next to a ‘King Jarrah’ tree that looked so old and beautiful.
Not long after here we got off the bikes to walk them through a large puddle
that we couldn’t see the bottom off only to hear the sound of trail bikes
coming up behind us. Mary was still half way across the large puddle at this
stage and I was worried that being on a bend the trail bike riders wouldn’t see
her. Luckily they stopped for a look before hitting the puddle and Mary made it
across ok. There were 4 young guys on bikes and as they came through I tried to
get them to stop to have a little chat but of course they just blew us off.
They knew they were doing the wrong thing and the leader put extra spin on the
wheels to try and tear the track up just that little bit more. 
The descent into the Serpentine Valley was nail biting. Steep,
rutted, rocky, rooty, thick pea gravel and sand as deep as ever all mixed up
together from our little friends. We crossed the bridge at the bottom and then
had the corresponding climb up into Jarrahdale which was exhausting just
looking at it. A lot of pushing was done on this climb, but we cleared the
worst of it and then rode the last 2km’s of nice open trail into the beautiful
little town of Jarrahdale. A stop off at the General Store/Café for a late lunch
which was delicious. Here we found out that the Post Office which is also a
mini-supermarket have 4 double rooms upstairs as a BnB at a very reasonable
price. The rooms are really lovely and you have access to a shared big
beautiful bathroom, a lounge and kitchen. Continental breakfast is also
included. We were the only ones staying tonight and the hosts Jim and Kerry are
lovely and very helpful. Barney the dog is a real cutie. We highly recommend
Jarrahdale BnB.
31/7/16
JARRAHDALE TO WUNGONG CAMPSITE
“And on the 7th day though shall not ride trail
bikes” he yelled out as he rode his fat bike through the bush.
Today we had a very civilised start to our day, with waking from
a very warm comfortable sleep, a second shower in 24 hours then a lovely
continental breakfast and coffee that was waiting for us in the kitchen. We
really enjoyed our stay at ‘Jarrahdale BnB’ and a big thank you to Jim and
Kerry for looking after us so well. Once our bikes were packed we wandered into
the shop and bought a few last minute supplies before saying our goodbyes to
our wonderful hosts and their adorable little dog Barney.
“See it is all rail trail” she screamed out as she spun the
pedals around on her fat bike.
After yesterday’s smashing of our legs up those hills that we
rode and walked it was a nice feeling of just spinning the pedals and gaining
momentum with very little effort. Today felt like a walk in the park, a little
bonjour ride, an easy day until along came a couple of hills. Ahhh we were
awoken from our mesmerised state. They were ok, not really steep just long and
painful in the quads. Today was a short one and we were in camp just before lunch.
By two o’clock we found ourselves on our beds all wrapped up in our sleeping
bags as the temperature had dropped very quickly and the hail came in with the
wind. Thank goodness we made it to the hut before the hail as that would surely
have given us a good sting on the already battered and bruised legs. So the
rest of the afternoon was sunshine, rain, sunshine, hail, sunshine wind. Here
we spent the afternoon lazing about as you are meant to do on all good
Sunday’s.
1/8/16
WUNGONG CAMPSITE TO CARINYA CAMPSITE
-2 degrees. That’s all I can say.
Somehow we were able to
get out of bed and face the freezing cold morning. I had a cup of hot water to
start the day as there was no way I was going to consume a cold one straight
from the tank. Then coffee was made, nice hot toast with hard frozen butter and
vegemite and a second coffee to warm our bellies. Off we went with numb hands
and feet and all our layers on. The sun was shining, so once we were out from
under the tree canopy we could feel her warming rays. Layer by layer came off
as we slowly warmed up riding a lovely gentle logging trail. See it is a rail
trail!!!!
The trail turned to single track and become quite technical as
we started to descend into the Canning Valley. The Canning River itself was a
disappointment as it really didn’t even rate as a running creek. For some
reason we expected a large high flowing major river here. Across the bridge we
went and began a punishing climb that would have been quite at home on the UCI
World Cup Downhill Circuit, except we were pushing up. Following that we just
seemed to be cruising through undulating open trail and despite the
classification of intermediate we seemed to be zipping along it at quite a good
pace. This might have been due to the fact that our legs felt great today.
We arrived at Corinya at around 1.30pm. This is our last hut on
the trail and is set in re-growth Jarrah forest. We enjoyed the afternoon
soaking up a few welcome rays of sunshine and watching the red tailed cockatoos
in the sheoak’s perhaps for the last time on the Munda Biddi Trail. We have so
enjoyed their presence along the trail and feel very grateful to have seen as
many as we have.
We feel that they are really the sentinels of the Munda Biddi.
We feel that they are really the sentinels of the Munda Biddi.
2/8/16
CARINYA CAMPSITE TO MUNDARING
Our final day on the Munda Biddi Trail. It feels surreal that
today is the last day. We have spent the last month in the forest following the
trail from end to end and now it is nearly over. The day started well with a
lovely sunny morning and 45k’s of trail ahead of us to Mundaring. The first
half of the day was mostly nice easy to intermediate trail, still lots of pea
gravel but quite enjoyable riding.
We found the signage a little bit difficult to follow at times
and while heading out onto the touring route option we must have missed a sign
that brought us out onto the Mundaring Weir Road a k or so higher than planned.
Once back on the route it took us down a long descent on bitumen which was
designed to miss a very challenging descent on the main trail. This diversion
however brings you back onto the trail for the last km or so of that descent.
Hold on to your hats Nelly, this last k was tough. Mostly walking and just as
we thought we had reached the bottom and onto the easy trail to the Mundaring
Weir, things got even more interesting. This lower road which loosely follows
the pipeline from the weir was loaded with swampy creek crossings and large
rocky outcrops which would be enough to make anyone question their first day on
the Munda Biddi starting from Mundaring. Ultimately we popped back out onto the
Mundaring Weir Road for a little climb until the turnoff to the Mundaring
Hotel. Turning right enjoying a quick descent you then look up at a wall of
bitumen that I would challenge anyone to ride on a loaded bike. We stopped at
the hotel for a quick coffee and cake to charge us up for the 7km climb up to
Mundaring. This climb really turned out to be quite a pleasant one, maybe it
was that feeling of nearing completion of an epic journey. We cruised the last
couple of k’s into the Sculpture Park and were really pleased to find that the
Northern Terminus sign now exists. It felt like such an achievement but the
thought of what’s next for us was a little scary and we both felt the call of
the Munda Biddi Man saying ‘come on dudes how about turning back and riding it
the other way’.
At the Northern Terminus we took our happy end of trail photo
which of course included Larry, Priscilla and Wilma. Unfortunately, when we
headed off on the bikes to the motel we noticed that Wilma was missing. Panic set
in with just the thought of our little wombat missing. We quickly unloaded our
bikes and dumped our gear in our room and set off at lightening speed to look
for her. Straight to the Sculpture Park as this was where we last saw her and
there was no trace of Wilma there. We rode the roads and footpaths searching
everywhere, even looking in drains and rubbish bins all the way back to the
motel. Still no Wilma. It was starting to get dark so we decided to walk into
town to have dinner and continue our search along the way. Still no sign of the
little wombat. I sent a FB message to the Mundaring Shire explaining the
situation and they were very helpful and directed us to a local community page
and suggested we post a photo of her on there. This is what we did but still no
luck. We have had to come to terms with the fact that Wilma 1) May have fallen
off the back of my bike and has been picked up by someone, 2) The Munda Biddi
Man may have lured her back into the forest or 3) She just ditched us. We are
going to miss our little Wilma Wombat as she has been a big part of our journey
all the way from Nullarbor. We had so many Wilma Adventures.
