July 30, 2022
Day 12: Wyndham to Parry Creek Farm
I got up a bit after 5, and wandered around the creek bed looking for Gouldian finches but I guess they need more dedication than a 15 minute wander.
| Heart | 2 | Comment | 0 | Link |
I packed up in reasonable time but then got chatting to a couple who had just completed the Gibb (with no issues in a tent), a truck driver from the Pilbara and the couple who’d given me ice cream last night. It’s a very friendly caravan park. I had thought to get a coffee at the bakery but it does not open at 7 on saturdays.
It was not very quick rolling south out of town with a little headwind but I made it back out the long stringy townships of Wyndham, across a mudflat and into the burning off area. Then it was 7ks east to Parry Creek farm. It’s a gravel road but not too busy so I could choose my line of road. Usually the far left was good, not too sandy but off the general car tyre corrugations. I made it to the caravan park by about 9:30, smack bang in the middle of morning tea so I bought a cappuccino and red velvet cake. The coffee was alright, but the cake was delicious.
I wandered around the lagoon at the caravan park and choose a gum tree to set up under and generally did not very much except drink a beer until about 3pm.
Then I set off for the Marlgu Billabong. It is a Ramsar listed wetland. I went down some 4wd tracks to get there which were mostly good except for a bit across a cracking black soil floodplain. There is a bird hide and little board walk at the lagoon which is long but not wide. Potentially it’s part of a river but I’m not sure which one.
As I arrived, a family was leaving with a donut custard cream plait on a plate which they offered to me as they’d been given it by the Wyndham bakery at closing time. So I got my bakery treat after all. It was huge and the kind of disgusting thing you can only justify eating while cycling. Although there hadn’t really been enough cycling to justify it & the cake today, I reckon I was about a quarter sugar by the end.
The bird signs were quite informative, telling me that I had been seeing black breasted buzzards overhead and a Rufus night heron at the caravan park earlier. I also saw a darter spear a fish, lots of jacanas walking on water, magpie geese, herons, rainbow bee eaters and other ducks.
Then I made the small climb up to Telegraph Hill, where there was a short lived telegraph station subject to interference from the metallic rocks nearby.
Great views of the wetland though. I had not quite left enough time to come back via the roads which involved 6k back to the road I’d come in on and 6k more along that. I followed my own tracks a lot which shows cars aren’t on the far side, but without panniers I could also handle the hard middle of the road better. I raced the setting sun home, partly to get back before dark and more importantly cause I’d booked dinner at 5:30. I left my veggies in the caravan park fridge at Wyndham but it’s safe to say I wouldn’t have been able to make anything like the Japanese pancake and tempura veggies I got here.
Today's ride: 35 km (22 miles)
Total: 780 km (484 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 8 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 1 |
2 years ago