July 3, 2024
Cycle day 55 - Dandaragan to Back to Nature CP
Cycle Day 55 - Dandaragan to Back to Nature Caravan Park (north west of Gingin) = 70km. 4333km cycle toured so far on this trip.
![](https://images.cycleblaze.com/zx6et2u5ycrqpcgzdlthdciy9w2_2000.jpg)
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God it was a cold night at 4.5 degrees this morning and I will be so glad when we get to the post office at Fremantle to get our winter sleeping bags! I think I have to wear my 2nd pair of pants to bed tonight although it is forecasted to be 9 degrees tonight. However the tent was basically dry - just a little bit of condensation on Neils side of the tent as that was the exposed side. But it was a nice not having to sponge down the tent and then wrap it up absolutely wet! Todays high is 18 degrees so it was a lovely sunny day all day - no clouds whatsoever. There was a very strong easterly wind so we had a cross wind, then a tail wind and finally a cross headwind for the last 12km to the park.
We were on the road at 8am this morning and it was 37km to Regans Ford which is where we join that damn Brand Highway again for 3km. I had an idea that it was going to be hilly and yip sure enough there were 2 big munters then 3 minor munters to follow before a fabulous and freezing decent to the highway.
We pass through some lovely country side and despite the hills which were all low gears it was a pleasant view of the windmills, livestock and greenery. So green it hurts our eyes!
![](https://images.cycleblaze.com/xsfpm9u5p0br0zlaj8dcsmbri32_2000.jpg)
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Not alot of traffic on this road and on the map it is a brown road which is a shit road for caravans but an awesome road for us to ride on. But because they had to get the windmills all up here the old road wouldn't be able to take the trucks carrying the windmills up here so they redid the roads so it technically is still a brown minor road on the map but has the quality of a National No.1 highway road!!!
We get to Regans Ford after all that climbing - we are not sure whether to take off too many layers as the climbing makes you sweat and hot then the down hill cools you down and makes you cold. We spent 3km on this Brand Highway (no.1 highway) and I tell you it was still just as miserable as what it was when we left it 1 week ago! Happy to find out turnoff to Lancelin and here we had a cuppa on the side of the road.
Knowing this road runs west before we turn south we knew we would have a nice tailwind. And we did - it helped our weary legs today (this is our 6th day straight cycling of hills and we still have 1 more day to go after today!). In fact Neil was so enthusiastic about getting back on the road that he left one of his coke drink bottles behind on the side of the road.
This west road was flattish for most of it and it was completely different scenery to what we had this morning - compare the pair!
it is very different and now we are looking at the roadside that is just crammed packed with native bushes, shrubs and trees. And when there is a field you can be sure it will be full of either native grasses or kangaroo tail bushes!
![](https://images.cycleblaze.com/9izf6y5x1aap3sctav4sv2pl761_2000.jpg)
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Had a lunch break at our turnoff to go south and the road is more undulating to the caravan park that is 12km down. There is not alot of opportunity to bushcamp so we go to the caravan park and it is about 1km of the road up and down a gravel road. And as we approach it I am thinking oh my gosh this is gonna be like the one where we tried to camp near Gin Gin in Queensland - where we did about 5km of complete utter munter of a sootie grunter undulations to get to it only to think - nup and had to redo the damn 5km of undulations again. However it is not too bad adn it has permanents, tourists and I am going to assume possible holiday makers but we have a lovely spot under a tree away from everyone and right next to one of the sinks that has lovely spring water - we are going to change all our water over from the chlorine stuff we got from Dandaragan to this one before we leave tomorrow.
We nearly picked up a pet -
![](https://images.cycleblaze.com/wzkjpu0p30iwqpys5oqx87eygbz_2000.jpg)
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https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/575114-Anthela-canescens/browse_photos
2 months ago
Not sure about these caterpillars and don't think they are meant to be man handled so I had to flick it away with a stick and hopefully it won't come back and hide in something we have left open.
Tomorrow we have a short day - possibly about 50km to some bushcamp on the edge of Yanchep National Park.
Hey Dad - you mentioned Aldi with the winter gear on sale - guess what Neil says to me last night - that if we get time before our train on Friday at Butler that, since Butler has an Aldi, we might pop in for a looksie! I tell you that Neil is a shoppaholic like you Dad. I swear he bought that woollen jumper in Dongara just so you couldn't get it!
Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 4,333 km (2,691 miles)
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