I recently completed a road based tour from Perth to Geraldton riding Sir Lancelot and pulling BOB. The full write-up for those interested can be found here. A summary of the ride follows for the rest of us
My plan was to catch the bus from Perth to Geraldton and ride back via Dongara, Leeman, Cervantes, Regans Ford and Guilderton, i.e., over five days of riding. I ended up cutting out the overnight stay at Guilderton and heading back to Perth via Two Rocks, Yanchep and the coast, making my last day's ride 151 kilometres.
The bus trip part was straight forward. Transwa took the bike and trailer without dramas ($10 charge for the bike). The bike was stood up and covered with a blanked to minimise damage to the paint. That said I did manage to loose a retaining clip from the BOB trailer which caused me a little headache or three in Geraldton and introduced me to yet another LBS whom customer service was not something that they understand. That said, I learnt that tie-wire can come in pretty handy.
From Geraldton I headed south mainly on the Brand Highway (not too bad an experience) and the Indian Ocean Drive (needs a name change - not too much ocean in view). The weather was bad on the first day of riding, but at least I had favourable winds. From Port Denison (Dongara) the rain pretty much moved on, but the winds where variable. They have a wind farm at Emu Downs for a good reason and boy did I found out why!
Overall an interesting ride, maybe not the most scenic with long sections of not a lot of change in the big picture but it is surprising how much more one focus on the details.
Next adventure? Next section of the Munda Biddi (off road) and riding to Kalgoorlie via Hyden and Norseman.
Regards
Andrew
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