1993 Western Australia Cycle Tour

Updated 07 April 2008

The diary on the pages that follow was begun in an exercise book when we arrived in Perth, Western Australia and runs out somewhere between Adelaide and Sydney as we cross the Nullabor. Cycling into Perth from the airport, the dust on our bags and the holes in our T-shirts misled several people into thinking we'd already pedalled across that great empty wilderness from Sydney. Passers-by said "Good on yer!", and we dined out at least once on this misapprehension: Pete Cappendell and Sue Gilbert, who stopped their jeep in the street to flag us down when they spotted us, had cycled the 3045 miles in just nine and half weeks three months earlier.

Western Australia contrasted strongly with New Zealand before it, and Canada (which we travelled onto next). Autumn was turning into winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and the nights were drawing in. Nevertheless we had - at least in the first month - pretty good weather for riding down the coast to Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. Our decision to ride along the coast to Adelaide and Sydney - equivalent to riding from London to Istanbul in terms of distance - was pretty solid at this stage, before the rain, mud and cold had us importuning charity shops for old blankets a few weeks further on.

The Murray River section and particularly the tall, tall Kauri trees in the Avenue of the Giants were a handsome reward for choosing the route we followed (which was chosen from the excellent "Cycle Touring in Australia" by Leigh Hemmings). Europe doesn't have any trees to climb as tall as the Gloucester Tree (180', 61m), and timber towns like Nannup showed us a side of Australia that you'll never get to see on film or television.

Porpoise Bay, Rottnest Island

Apologies for my handwriting; I do intend to swap the diary entries for typed ones with more slides when time allows. Your feedback is always appreciated, just drop an email to jerry at blissonwheels.com if you want to goad me into action.

Note: the following diary pages are for friends and family (authorisation required to view).

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