June 20th, 2011
Pemberton to Augusta
Distance: 128km
Total distance: 6085km
The morning saw me pedalling up the 2km steep road out of Pemberton like a desperate salmon trying to make it to the top of a cascade. I have come to a conclusion that it is impossible to get used to climbing on a loaded trike.
Today was a big day ride, so I tried to make as little stops as possible. However, two significant encounters made me stopped for more than 15 minutes each. First was an encounter with yet another British touring cyclist! His name was Collin, and he has done exactly 3 times my distance and duration starting from Adelaide in a counter-clockwise direction! Now on his way back to Adelaide, he shared with me his experience of riding in the north and the numerous encounters with touring cyclists there in the past 9 months of riding. Cyclists weren’t the only travellers he chanced upon, apparently there was a guy walking with two camels across the country somewhere in the north, and two unicyclists riding from Darwin to Adelaide at this moment! These special travellers (he regard me as one as well since I’m riding on an unconventional bike) made me want to ride the north some day just so I can meet these people, haha! Anyway, we were equally excited to meet each other on this relatively quiet Vasse Highway. Before we parted, he mentioned to me that I will meet a Korean cyclist about half a day behind him.
Expectedly, I met the Korean cyclist only 10km down the highway! Although the encounter was expected, I did not expect to see what he was doing though. It was showering, and I saw him stopped at the roadside and just standing next to his bike with an umbrella. So I asked him, “Why aren’t you pedalling?”, he said “I don’t like to ride in the rain”. He added that he NEVER rode in the rain. This is coming from a man cycled for more than 10,000km from Melbourne (counter-clockwise direction). Jihui also shared with me his encounters with many other cyclist ridings in the north. Wow, sounds like a paradise in the northern part of Australia! Interestingly though, he said I wasn’t the first touring triker he met on the road. After listening to the details of the other triker, I was certain the guy he met was Dennis Smith, a fellow CGOAB-er who is currently riding from Sydney to Perth via the northern route. Jihui had an unfortunate blown out tire on his bob trailer in a remote area somewhere in the north. He was forced to walk for 1000km before coming to a bike shop, temporarily fixing the tire with layers of duct tape every day just so it can roll with lesser resistance when he pushes the bike.
I was utterly SPEECHLESS.
Felt awesome to meet two solo touring cyclists on a single day. After the two meetings, the rest of my ride I was imagining a tour across the country via the north. At the same time, I was worried that I may not be able to reach Augusta since I’ve stopped riding for more than 30 mins altogether before midday. Thankfully the road becomes flat (first time since I left Denmark) after 42km of riding when I took the turn off to Stewart Road. The scenery gradually changed from tall tree forest to short tree forest to agricultural land. I took a short cut to Augusta via Glenarty Road as recommended by Greg and Kathy and was thrilled by the absence of traffic and beautiful scenery of vineyards. Wasn’t so thrilled with the highly undulating road though. Reached Augusta just before the twilight disappeared at 5.45pm. Quickly checked myself in at the YHA here and rode to the town’s IGA before it closes at 6pm.
Talking to other touring cyclists are always more meaningful than other travellers in terms of recommendation on places of interest. Cyclists will tell you things about the journey like wind and road conditions, places to camp, elevation profile, and places to visit that are of reasonable distance (e.g. 3km off the highway). A driving traveller sometimes tell you things like, “You should check out this place, it’s only about 3 hours of easy driving” when in fact it’s about 6-8 days of riding (a return trip) and the driver totally disregard that half the distance was unsealed road with many blind corners, etc. Also, I usually do an estimation of the overall reward I would get for the distance I make. For instance, a 6 days return journey just to see a popular waterfall with nothings else to see in between wouldn’t make a good side trip. Travelling backpackers, on the other hand, wouldn’t have much knowledge about places to visit in remote areas since they mostly travel by buses and trains. Hence they can only provide information on major towns nothing more than a visitor pamphlet could tell you.