Author Topic: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days  (Read 12939 times)

Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #25 on: 29 December, 2017, 12:17:48 pm »
Looks like damn hard work, even on tyres as fat as yours.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Aushiker

  • Cyclist, bushwalker, phottographer (amaturer)
    • Aushiker: Bicycling and Hiking in Western Australia
Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #26 on: 30 December, 2017, 12:26:18 am »
Day 2 coming to an end: Roses-Quallup Beach to Quagi Beach - 35.5 km - Elapsed Time 8 hours 16 minutes in total



Quagi Beach camping area in the Stokes National Park is very much car focused. The camping bays are all hard-packed so unless you have a free-standing tent you need to find a soft bit of ground as I did. The tent is a Tarptent Double Rainbow.



A change in pace; a Banksia, maybe a B. integrifolia  sharing my camping space at Quagi Beach camping ground.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #27 on: 30 December, 2017, 12:27:59 am »
Looks like damn hard work, even on tyres as fat as yours.

Without a doubt each day had its good parts and its hard parts, whether it was winds, heat, 4WD tracks that where anything but firm or the one beach which was not able to be ridden. Still the challenge was part of the experience.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #28 on: 30 December, 2017, 12:45:13 am »
THURSDAY DECEMBER 7 - DAY 4 QUAGI BEACH TO MUNGLINUP BEACH CARAVAN PARK

A longer day today at 78.4 km and an overall time of eight hours.  It was all road riding with a mix of bitumen, minor 2WD roads and Munglinup Beach Road which I am sure is going for the most corrugated road in Australia.



This abandon property on the corner of Sears Road and the South Coast Highway caught my attention so a short break from riding to take in my other passion, photography.



This abandon woolshed on the corner of Sears Road and the South Coast Highway caught my attention so a short break from riding to take in my other passion, photography.



Back on the South Coast Highway; some days highway riding was unavoidable. Today was one such day.  Despite the lack of shoulder the traffic volumes where not to bad and hence it was not an overly bad road to ride on.

Steph

  • Fast. Fast and bulbous. But fluffy.
Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #29 on: 30 December, 2017, 04:55:53 pm »
Some comments on that bit, for the benefit of those who might not know how the roads are.

I found Munglinup a really dispiriting place. The SC Highway carries one west from there till Ravensthorpe, when there is sa steep little hill after the caravan park. East of Ravey, the bush is ideal for wild camping. West, it is shit.  The general pattern of the riding is set by dry watercourses, in that every so often you have to descend and then grind your way back out, as the road follows the lie of the land rather than using cuttings or bridges. There are some paddocks (fenced fields) away from the road, but the bush in between is largely nasty scrub rather than gum trees and open ground. There are curving flood relief channels gouged at an angle into the bush every so often.

The orad is two-lane tarmac, with a 'pea gravel' shoulder on each side. The tarmac is laid straight down, so the edge is sometimes a step, sometimes a merged slope. There is no hard shoulder, and I remember a couple of stretches where it became a single track. In the pea gravel are reflective posts, normally flat so they bend over and spring back when hit. There are road trains, and the rear trailer often fishtails, especially on the descents to the water courses. Traffic levels generally are very low.

Flies are everywhere. Inside your nostrils, on the inside of your sunglasses, crawling through your helmet vents, and equally common is roadkill, which smells. That sounds like an obvious thing to say, but that smell greets you well before the corpse and stays with you a long way afterwards. You get to know every single stage of roo decomposition, from alost human-looking to bloated balloon to leather scraps over bone. Stumpies (blue-tongued skinks) are crushed all along the verge, and as they mate for life, when one gets killed its partner stays beside it until it too is crushed.

It is incredibly beautiful.
Mae angen arnaf i byw, a fe fydda'i

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #30 on: 31 December, 2017, 01:09:12 am »
Day 3 Continued … Quagi Beach to Munglinup Beach Caravan Park



The Great Southern Land. As the heat builds, the flies comes, and life on the farm continues. Straw being bailed to provide cattle feed over the long hot summer months.



Young River Station looking a little tired and depilated, a decline it seems from its heyday in the early 2000s. Paused here whilst riding the South Coastal Highway.



The bike normally sends the cattle scattering; not these three. They stood their ground eying me off. Thankfully for the fence :)

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #31 on: 01 January, 2018, 04:54:46 am »
Day 3 Completed … Quagi Beach to Munglinup Beach Caravan Park



Off the South Coast Highway now for the next two days :). Springdale Road is a mix of dirt and bitumen and provides an alternative route into Hopetoun if you do not mind a bit of gravel riding. It has been in good condition both times I have ridden it which says something for the minor roads around here.



Lunching in luxury :). A nameless ephemeral creek which must flow hard and fast when it does given the culvert works here was my lunch stop today. A change from the scrub on the side of a road.



Late harvesting on Munglinup Beach Road. Case IH equipment seems popular around here so not surprised to see a Case IH 8120 harvester in action.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #32 on: 03 January, 2018, 06:38:16 am »
Day 4 [Part 1]: Quagi Beach to Munglinup Beach Caravan Park - 78.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 hours.



Breaking camp at the Munglinup Beach Caravan Park. I think I paid around $25 for an unpowered tent site and for that privilege I got to share the bit of grass with the generator which went all night. Funny that didn't get mention when I booked in.



Taking a break on the edge of the Lake Shaster Nature Reserve.



Love the name of this bay, Starvation Boat Harbour. I wonder what had happened to give it this name? Good camping at the harbour but I bypassed it this ride.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #33 on: 04 January, 2018, 07:44:38 am »
Day 4 [Part 2]: Quagi Beach to Munglinup Beach Caravan Park - 78.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 hours.



Back on the coast and now in a completely different environment. The area is known for its limestone as can be seen from the Southern Ocean East Road and the mining of lime. This is also the locality for Starvation Boat Harbour.



Thanks to Greg for identifying this plant for me; should have realised it was a gumnut! Greg is pretty sure it is a Eucalyptus preissiana Schauer [Bell-fruited Mallee].



Well the sign on the Southern Ocean East Road did say it was closed. Of course I had to ignore it; whoops. Swimming with tiger snakes and a fatbike where not quite what I had in mind for this ride : The outcome? A detour of some 42 kilometres.

Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #34 on: 05 January, 2018, 03:46:54 pm »
You didn't fancy wading it? Beat the water with a stick, that usually drives off the snakes. Usually. Tiger snakes sometimes attack instead. Aggressive buggers.

Starvation boat harbour is, I guess, on Starvation Bay. Didn't a shipwreck  on there and the survivors starve?
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #35 on: 06 January, 2018, 05:40:01 am »
You didn't fancy wading it? Beat the water with a stick, that usually drives off the snakes. Usually. Tiger snakes sometimes attack instead. Aggressive buggers.

It gets pretty deep out in the middle from what I could see so the bike would have been well covered in the water (and I didn't fancy trying to carry 25 kgs over my head).  I also didn't know what else was to come. It turned out there was apparently three lakes on the road. I don't know if they were easier to cross or not.

Quote
Starvation boat harbour is, I guess, on Starvation Bay. Didn't a shipwreck  on there and the survivors starve?

A comment in Facebook provides the following explanation:

"The Dempster brothers expedition in 1863 was advised that their destination (the small bay there) had feed and water. Upon arrival, this was clearly not the case, and they named the place "Starvation" due to their disillusionment with the place. It became more prominent in 1901 when Canning (of the Stock Route fame) chose it as the southern extremity of the Rabbit Proof Fence.
... from 4WD Days on the South Coast of WA, Westate Publishers."

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #36 on: 06 January, 2018, 05:46:41 am »
Day 4 [Part 3]: Quagi Beach to Munglinup Beach Caravan Park - 78.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 hours.



Taking a break on Springdale Road whilst completing my 42 km detour around the Jerdacuttup Nature Reserve. Springdale Road eventually becomes a bitumen road before intersecting with the Hopetoun-Ravensthorpe Road.



Christmas in the bush? Not sure what to make of this finding on Springdale Road at all. It was just in the "middle of nowhere" so to speak; no driveway or housing nearby.



The ubiquitous floodway sign; common as in the West Aussie bush. The only problem is, the road is, eh going uphill here. Whoops! You see floodway's are normally low points where waterways cross the road.



Made Hopetoun. Had to snap an image of the welcome to Hopetoun "art work." The town is actually a nice friendly place to visit; well worth it.

That ends day four.

Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #37 on: 08 January, 2018, 10:50:21 am »
You didn't fancy wading it? Beat the water with a stick, that usually drives off the snakes. Usually. Tiger snakes sometimes attack instead. Aggressive buggers.

It gets pretty deep out in the middle from what I could see so the bike would have been well covered in the water (and I didn't fancy trying to carry 25 kgs over my head).  I also didn't know what else was to come. It turned out there was apparently three lakes on the road. I don't know if they were easier to cross or not.

It reminded me of a bushwalk many years ago - walking on grey dirt tracks, suddenly we come across a swamp where there shouldn't be one. Swamp extends as far as we can see in either direction and we need to go straight ahead. After some discussion we all remove socks, redone boots (Aussie hiking boots didn't have so much padding so would dry out fast) and wade across. Person in front wacks water with big stick to scare off snakes. Water was waist deep in middle.
I really didn't enjoy that. Getting tangled up with a snake in reedy, stick-filled muddy water is probably one of my worst nightmares.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #38 on: 08 January, 2018, 10:55:24 pm »
Day 6    [Part 1]: Hopetoun to Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] - 61.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 3/4 hours.



Heading out of Hopetoun on Hamersly Drive and before the "fun" started I was distracted by the first of two sand monitors for the day. As it turned out it was timely as got to chat to a couple of local bicycle riders (roadies); the only riders I met on the ride.



Having passed Culham Inlet I paused for a moment to take in East Mount Barren and Barrons Beach. East Mount Barren stands at 311 m. Thankfully the road swings around to the left of it.



Having passed Culham Inlet I paused for a moment to look back and capture an image of its peacefulness.


Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #39 on: 10 January, 2018, 01:16:24 pm »
Day 6    [Part 2]: Hopetoun to Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] - 61.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 3/4 hours.



Time for the "fun" to start. I actually surprised myself and rode all but about 50 metres of the climb. Mind you that was about it for the day :)



Looking back to Hopetoun from the foot of East Mt Barren. The view takes in Barron Beach and Culham Inlet. The ride down the other side was to come … yippee! :)



East Mount Barren close up. From here I rolled down from the foot of the mountain deeper into Fitzgerald River National Park to participate in its good and not so good aspects.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #40 on: 12 January, 2018, 12:27:19 am »
Day 6    [Part 3]: Hopetoun to Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] - 61.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 3/4 hours.



Looking west across the expanse of the Fitzgerald River National Park with Mylies Beach in the foreground. My plan at this point was to pretty much follow the coast to the western boundary of the park. Oh for the plans of mice and men.



Having entered the Fitzgerald River National Park the Hakea Victoria or more commonly known Royal Hakea started to dominate the landscape. Regretfully I was out of wildflower season so no flowering specimens where to be seen. The Noongar name for the plant is Tallyongut. They can grow to around 3 metres tall. This was one of the tallest I saw today.



Now at Hamersley Inlet and contemplating the Hakea Trail as a way to head west along the cost. Note the steps: they were the easy ones. The log stairs where to come and come and come …

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #41 on: 12 January, 2018, 05:36:42 am »
Day 6    [Part 4]: Hopetoun to Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] - 61.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 3/4 hours.



To reach the Hakea Trail proper one must first get to the beach at the inlet. Today there is a trail to provide, eh, easy access. When I walked this area in 2008 we were on our hands and knees with backpacks getting through the bush to the beach! Oh how things have changed. This is however really a walking trail and not at all ideal for bicycles: read log steps and more steps and more steps.



Paused for a moment to take in the vista of the Hamersley Inlet. What is frustrating now, is that the 4WD track on the other side of the inlet is so obvious. I could have taken that track <smacks head>.



Made the inlet having survived the Hamersley Inlet Link Trail log steps.



Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #42 on: 12 January, 2018, 11:11:35 am »
What are you doing for water supplies on this stretch?
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #43 on: 12 January, 2018, 01:13:03 pm »
What are you doing for water supplies on this stretch?

The plan was to carry it [15 litres]. It was only going to be one night at Qion Head, then out to Point Ann where water is normally available at the day area. From there it is a day's ride into Bremer Bay.

Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #44 on: 12 January, 2018, 03:13:04 pm »
Ah - I didn't twig the updates were all day 6 - just kept seeing 'elapsed time, 8 hours' and thought 'crikey, he's been a long time between watering points'.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #45 on: 14 January, 2018, 11:44:02 pm »
Day 6   [Part 4]: Hopetoun to Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] - 61.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 3/4 hours.



To reach the Hakea Trail proper one must first get to the beach at the inlet. Today there is a trail to provide, eh, easy access. When I walked this area in 2008 we were on our hands and knees with backpacks getting through the bush to the beach! Oh how things have changed. This is however really a walking trail and not at all ideal for bicycles: read log steps and more steps and more steps.



Paused for a moment to take in the vista of the Hamersley Inlet. What is frustrating now, is that the 4WD track on the other side of the inlet is so obvious. I could have taken that track <smacks head>.



Made the inlet having survived the Hamersley Inlet Link Trail log steps.



Made the beach at Hamersley Inlet. Paused to contemplate going on and battling the rock outcrops or turning back to take Plan C.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #46 on: 16 January, 2018, 12:00:16 am »
Day 6   [Part 5]: Hopetoun to Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] - 61.4 km - Elapsed Time 8 3/4 hours.



Back out at the Hamersley Inlet day area pumping up the tyres in preparation for some road riding when this goanna came wandering by.



Now on the outskirts of the Fitzgerald River National Park and wild camping alongside a former firefighting water hole.



Day 6: Esperance to Albany: The Unconventional Ride. 750 km in 10 days. Now on the outskirts of the Fitzgerald River National Park and wild camping alongside a couple of firefighting water tanks.

Day 6 comes to an end.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #47 on: 18 January, 2018, 01:17:00 pm »
Day 7    [Part 1]: Wild Camp [Fitzgerald River National Park] to Jerramungup - 92.9 km — 37 C - Elapsed Time 9 hours 41 minutes.

A big day today; 92.9 km, temperature in the shade, 37 C (GPS says 39 C but heck two degrees was not noticeable trust me) and nine hours and 41 minutes on the road.



This billabong in the Fitzgerald River National Park is a bit of a "mirage" in that it is cooling water but it is water with a catch; salt and more salt. No drinking water to be had here. Maybe good for a salty swim but that is about it.



The less than glorious Fitzgerald River where it crosses the Old Ongerup Road and enters the park. Very saline water so not suitable for drinking.



Late harvesting happening near Jacup. Saw my first harvesting equipment for the ride with this JCB Fastrac 3185 pulling a chaser bin down the South Coast Highway. I assume moving to the next harvesting location as the local farmers work fast to wrap up the season.

That is it for Day 7. The distance, the heat and really the riding locality did nothing to inspire much in the way of photography.

Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #48 on: 20 January, 2018, 12:40:33 am »
Day 8    [Part 1]: Jerramungup to Bremer Bay - 87.2 km - Elapsed Time 6 hours 46 minutes.



I was too wiped out to take a "welcome to Jerramungup" photo the afternoon before so took it as I was leaving this morning as my official record of visiting.



Telecommunications are as important in the "bush" as they are in the city. This is the Gairdner River Exchange which provides telecommunications including mobile phone coverage, microwave repeater and I believe ADSL 2+.



Telecommunications are as important in the "bush" as they are in the city. This is the Gairdner River Exchange which provides telecommunications including mobile phone coverage, microwave repeater and I believe ADSL 2+.


Aushiker

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Re: Esperance to Albany [Western Australia] 750 kms in 10 Days
« Reply #49 on: 21 January, 2018, 06:39:13 am »
Day 8    [Part 2]: Jerramungup to Bremer Bay - 87.2 km - Elapsed Time 6 hours 46 minutes.



Leaving the South Coast Highway for the day and turning on to the curiously named Devils Creek Road which is a road train route; only baby road trains here but.



Good news. All access to the Fitzgerald River National Park via Devil Creek Road is open. Not that it mattered to me as I was turning off before entering the park.



Stopped on Devil Creek Road for a break. Took this photo as reflection on life on the farm in early summer.