March 19, 2024
A cool windy windy ride
Jarrahdale to Dandalup hut
After yesterdays epic slog we planned a much shorter day for todays ride. We were always going to be up as the sun rose and thankfully there was no early morning watering of the grass. We were in the local cafe by 6.30 having a much needed hit of caffeine. It blew a gale last night and was quite chilly, so much so that I had my down jacket on for the short ride to the cafe. I wouldn’t have predicted that 2 days ago.
This little cafe was pumping. The owners of the cafe were lovely and donated some money to our fundraising. I ordered bacon and eggs in deference to my mate Franklin who I cycled in Italy with last year. He insisted on bacon and eggs every morning dragging us from cafe to cafe until someone finally acceded to his pompous English demands.
We stayed there for almost 2 hours as I was writing my blog and it was likely the only internet connection for the day. And the coffee was good. Less good was the door buzzer that went off every time someone entered or left the cafe, which seemed to be every 15 seconds. It was driving me crazy!
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We rolled out of town by 8.30 and immediately hit more loose gravel as we wound our way uphill out of town. The forest is a bit different to the past few days, with She-Oaks, Jarrah and Kari predominating. The first 3 kilometres took half an hour and our hopes of reaching our hut by lunchtime were immediately dashed.
There was a bit more dirt road riding today and by dirt I mean pea gravel compacted to form a road. That was at least easier to ride on but you still had to watch the downhills and concentrate. More single track followed with the last 2 kilometres almost unridable as we climbed up to the Dandalup hut. It was definitely worth the slog.
We were the only ones there so we could luxuriate in the entire hut. With views out towards Mandurah and the Indian Ocean and a nice cooling breeze, we sat for a while on the verandah recovering from the days ride.
As the sun was setting another rider turned up necessitating a rapid clean up of all of our crap we’d managed to spread the entire length of the hut. Shea was a serious rider having done over 100 kilometres that day and plans to complete the whole trail in a little over a week.
Todays track conditions were the hardest so far. There were deeper drifts of gravel and more sandy sections and often both. We must have been on and off the bikes 50 times. I will never look at my driveway the same way again!
Tomorrow night we’ve booked a deluxe chalet at the Dwellingup caravan park. Hopefully they don’t have dress regulations. Hopefully they do have a laundry as our clothes are disgusting.
Today's ride: 32 km (20 miles)
Total: 148 km (92 miles)
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