Day 104: Walpole to Booner Mundak

September 8, 2022

Start: 8:15am
Distance: 53km
Ride time: 4:39hours
Average: 11km/hr
Max: 52km/hr
Finish: 3:15pm

Last night I met Olesh and Miranda. They are Bibbulmun hikers and were staying in the same campground.

They were both a few years older than me but still had the drive to be in the outdoors.

Olesh has firm plans to cycle from Bali to Europe on his Surly Long Haul Trucker. (These are no longer made so he was fortunate to get one)

As I was the recipient of good karma from Phil yesterday, I thought it appropriate to make a small donation to Olesh's future bike ride. He seemed determined and I'm sure he'll make it to Europe.

It didn't rain overnight and for once I had a dry tent to pack up.

Sand and a steep terrain isn't great for a heavily laiden touring bicycle.

The morning track followed the Frankland River upstream. It was very hilly.

Very pretty. I could easily camp here but I hadn't done enough kms.

It's very hard to capture the steepness of a track in a photo. I have very low gears and can pedal at 3.5km/hr. Even so I couldn't ride up this hill.

By the end of the day, I would walk my bike up 3 long and steep hills.

I love pics like this. My tiny bike next to an ancient goliath of a tree.

I arrived at the Valley of the Giants and did a tree top walk. It was 600m long and 40m high. It shook and swayed and was a little scary.

Eucalyptus jacksonii. He is hundreds of years old and flowers once every four years.

There was a mobile coffee van at the tree top walk and I took my time to enjoy two coffees.

There was no wind all day and that made the forest seem more tranquil. It was quite cold when I stopped riding so I wore my jumper often. The weather forecast was wrong and it didn't rain.

After I finished the walk, I returned to the Munda Biddi Trail and found another hollowed out Tingle tree.

I took this pic with a tripod and the timer on my phone.

My bike easily fitted inside this massive tree.

A while later I passed some farmland.

I don't know if these are alpacas or lamas?

This pretty flower was on a thin grass like stalk.

Some deep sand that I had to walk through.

I arrived at the hut after a bit of a long day. It was very hilly. Booner Mundak means wild country or bush.

There is no one else camping here. The hut registration books lists many people struggling with the hills and the sand. A few people broke spokes and rear cassettes and one person had to walk up to 20kms. People saw deer and foxes and cats.

Even with the hills and the sand, today was a great day. I will hit Albany in a few days and already I am sad I will have to leave the Munda Biddi Trail soon.

Today's ride: 53 km (33 miles)
Total: 5,641 km (3,503 miles)

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Scott DiamondSurly does make their disc trucker. Basically the same as LHT but with disc brakes (which personally I think is better)

https://surlybikes.com/bikes/disc_trucker
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