Day 83: Mundaring to Carinyah

August 18, 2022

Start: 9:45am
Distance: 49 km
Ride time: 3:59 hours
Average: 12km/hr
Max: 42km/hr
Finish: 4pm

It was cold this morning. I was comfortable in a real bed. I left and headed to cafe Mojo for breaky.

I had a vegan breakfast. The yellow stuff is tofu.

This cafe is close to the start of the trail. I'd recommend it.

I was a little scared of starting the trail. It's designed for mountain bikes, not touring bikes.

These pipes take fresh water from Mundaring dam to Perth.

Single track with grass trees. Happiness.

Lednar later identified this as Alas Watsonia, a weed from Africa. Thanks Lednar.

My first water crossing. I rode across. It was a little deep. One shoe got waterlogged.

A tiny tiny mushroom on an old tree stump.

I took a 1.5km detour to Core Cider. A lovely place.

I had a late lunch/early dinner. Both the food and the drink was delicious.

I saw this sign at the venue. ...and dairy farmers make great coffee!

These are the little blue signs I am following.

They are pretty good at being placed in the right spots. I had to check the Munda Biddi App many times today. I have all of the paper copy maps.

The App is excellent and easily worth the $21 cost. It will locate me on the trail even when I don't have phone reception. And it has an elevation profile too.

A red-bellied black cockatoo high in the trees. They are beautiful!

Riding through the bush after drinking cider is bliss. I had to do another 10kms of trail and somehow I made it to the campsite.

It has a few facilities:

Under cover picnic tables. Note there is no door to the sleeping quarters.

Undercover bike racks. Some servicing tools would be a bonus.

2 full water tanks. They aren't very big. I guess they would run dry in summer.

A large steel box to put food in to stop rodents.

I think it's great that this was constructed with a prison crew.

If I was in prison, I'd love the opportunity to come out here and do some good work amongst the forest.

I bought a new sponge to clean my trangia in Perth. The mouldy old one is one the left. It was overdue for replacement.

Today's trail was mostly single track and then forest trails. It was fantastic. There were rocks, slippery tree roots, sand, gravel, and smooth dirt. It was narrow at times.

I hit a few rocks with my front panniers. This one caused a decent hole.

I fixed it with gaffa tape on both sides. Cable ties and gaffa tape are a cycling tourist's best friend.

It's been a perfect first day on the trail. A lot slower than I anticipated but all is well.

I saw a few other cyclists on the day trails. Noone spoke to me. Noone was at the campsite.

Belatedly after leaving Perth, I realised that I never caught up with my Perth friends. I would have liked to talk bike touring with Lednar.

I would have liked to check out Steven's new electric dualy mountain bike that he bought especially for the Munda Biddi Trail and tasted his amazing South African sausages.

And I would have loved to have a drink with my dear mate Ron. We have done some good work together in neighbouring countries over the years.

I am sorry my friends. I will be back soon.

The other day I mistakenly thanked Lednar for helping me with a loose screw on the Rohloff rear mech. I'm sorry, it was Carl that gave me the tip on 22 July. Thank you Carl!

Today's ride: 49 km (30 miles)
Total: 4,712 km (2,926 miles)

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Ron MACKENZIEI am really pissed that I haven't checked your log for nearly 2 weeks! Never thought you'd get to Perth that quickly ... :(
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2 years ago

Vince McCarthyNever mind mate. We'll catch up another time👍🏻
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2 years ago