June 26th, 2011
Mandurah to Perth
Distance: 113km
Total distance: 6510km
Today is the day I complete my Sydney to Perth tour! The rush of excitement was nearly unbearable! The sadness I felt yesterday has somehow diminished, so all my emotions today were positive! XD
My ride today was almost entirely on cycling paths. The recently built Kwinana Freeway has an excellent bikeway adjacent to it. I don’t remember needing to stop to cross a road. The bikeway was clearly signposted throughout, regularly providing cyclists with distances left to Perth and other places. The best part was they rounded the kilometres to 1 decimal point which makes more sense to us cyclists. It was immediately obvious to me that this is very popular among Perth roadies. You can say I was the equivalent of an oversized truck when riding among the roadies. However, out of the 200 lycra-clad roadies or so I encountered, I did manage to overtake one of them and THAT WAS ABSOLUTELY THRILLING!
I didn’t continued riding on the bikeway to Perth though. About 10km to the city centre, I took a turn off to Fremantle or Freo as the locals call it. I went there for two reasons, first to watch Mike Pauly finishes his Melbourne to Perth walk for arthritis trip, and second, to ride down to Indian Ocean to do my concluding ocean dip, officially marking the end of my across Australia tour!
After the 2-hour stop at Freo, I headed straight into Perth at a distance of 25km from Freo and a further 5km to get to Bayswater, where I’ll be staying for the next few days while I’m in Perth. The visitor centre folks at Freo gave me a few guide maps for cyclists so my journey from Freo onwards was based on these maps. The cycling paths along Swan River between Freo and Perth were quite hilly at first, but flattens out as soon as I can see the city skyline. YES, A FULL BLOWN CITY SKYLINE! My most anticipated view ever since I left Adelaide! Felt as though I have just returned to civilisation, returning to the safety of having food to eat within the radius of 5 minutes, someone to talk to whenever you want, full bars of mobile reception, the internet being everywhere, and the thought of being completely surrounded by human activities has never been more comforting.
My ride ended as soon as I reached the doorstep of Andrew and Christina’s (my host in Perth) apartment unit at Bayswater. It was nearly dark by then. An overwhelmingly huge sense of achievement was all I felt! There was never a time I did anything anywhere as crazy as this (although whenever someone say this is crazy I would usually rebut them). What I got out of it in return of this crazy adventure is simply a very treasured and memorable experience. I now have an idea of what it feels like to live a life to the fullest. XD
Well done mate…top effort… now i HAVE to get myself organised n do the trip in reverse.
Better get to it… only 18 months off turning 50!! lol
Thanks Mark! I’m glad to have inspired you to organise a tour of your own 🙂
Please make sure you write a journal for your trip as I’m also excited to read about your experience!
GREAT JOB! You’ll remember this for the rest of your life and the difficulties will diminish and the achievement heighten as years go by.
‘live a life to the fullest’
You did a great job!
Well done – awesome feat.
Hey Mate,
Congrats on your awesome trip! I stumbled accross your page on CGOAB and just had to check out this page after I saw it wasn’t fully updated.
I haven’t read through your entire journal, but will endevour to do so, it brings back some memories of a very similar trip i did a year ago.
I can honestly say it was an experience of a lifetime and not a day goes by where I don’t remisnisce of the good times I had. Its almost as if you can remember every single campsite throughout the whole trip, every day was different! Hope its the same for you.
Good luck with the future and I wish you save travels!
Regards
Prawi Woods
Hi Prawi!
Thank you for your kind words! I was really surprised to see your comment because believe it or not, your Perth to Sydney trip last year was my main inspiration 🙂
I saw your CGOAB journal last year on the featured journals section and read through the entire journal. I was especially amazed by your impromptu approach of touring (e.g. carrying no maps, bush camping), particularly the challenges you encounter crossing the Nullarbor. The fact that you began your tour in winter made it even more exciting. I remember feeling very envious while reading your journal 🙂
I absolutely agree with you on remembering every single place I stayed during the tour. I can even remember all the people I converse with, because usually I think about those conversations again and again while pedalling by myself, haha.
I sure miss those days now and I wish to do another tour hopefully in the not-so-far future. I’ve been eyeing New Zealand for quite sometime now, heh.
Wish you happy and safe riding always
Melvyn
haha awesome man, never knew my journal would have that sort of impact! 😛
I loved how I could literally finish a hard day of riding by turning left, walking 100-200m into the bush, pitch a tent and end the day watching the sun set haha. Bush camping was certainly awesome and something I miss and riding in winter was a strategic ploy that meant I didn’t have to pay for my showers 😉 LOL
Can’t believe you met not one, but TWO people walking across the nullarbor, so awesome. I met a guy walking around the world, and he’s inspired me to walk a local trail here called the “bibbulmun track” later in the year.
Anyway, New Zealand is so close! Do it! Every turn you make is like a post-card picture. its ridiculously beautiful and the people are just so friendly and generous.
I shall continue to read your blog, i’ve been skipping parts, because I get too excited when I see somewhere we’ve both been past, brings back lots of nostalgia. Its very well written with awesome pics! Thanks Melvyn.
Look forward to reading your next adventure.
-Prawi