Augusta to Nannup 1992

Augusta to Nannup, Day 4, Thursday 29 October 1992. This was to be the big challenge of the trip, the ride to Nannup along the Brockman Highway. I had worked out a short cut through Kudardup, instead of taking the main highway through Karridale. It only saved 3km but that’s a long way if one has an attack of cramp. The journey would be 87km.

Nannup

FLASHBACK to 1981.

This was the last ride on which I had done this stretch, only that year I did it in the other direction, Nannup to Augusta. I had started at Bunbury, stopped at Donnybrook, then ridden to Nannup via Balingup. On Day 3 I set out, not being aware that a cold front was coming in, because I didn’t see any TV news or hear a forecast and didn’t bother as I should have about such things in those days.

I took a supply of drinks and stopped 20km out for a rest amongst the forest, noticing that the wind was getting up, though in the forest it doesn’t matter so much. In due course I reached the point in the road where it turns west and the storm came in, a strong wind straight in my face and heavy rain squalls.

I kept on in increasing difficulty, the forest thinned out into open country, the rain funnelled in torrents across the paddocks. I passed Alexandra Bridge, where I had originally intended to stop for a swim and where at least I expected to find a shop or something, but there’s nothing there.

The wind was WNW and I thought that at least when I turned onto the Bussell Highway at Karridale, it would be behind me. But before that happened, the wind turned SW, got colder and was against me still as I struggled the last 14km to Augusta. I had to walk up the last hill into the town.

At the motel my hands were too frozen to use the pen for booking in. When I got into my unit everything was soaked, so I unpacked it all, turned on the heaters, hung everything up to dry and climbed into bed for a couple of hours’ warm sleep. I didn’t keep accurate logs in those days but I must have been on the road for more than seven hours. I never recovered from this hard day and three days later the ‘doddle’ from Busselton to Bunbury was torture every km.

Back to 1992.

I left Augusta at 8.03. The morning was fine and cool with a light southerly, which the forecast the night before had promised would turn into a fresh sea breeze later – ideal conditions. This was something of a miracle because that forecast, given at 7.30 the on Wednesday evening, was a dramatic change from the much less favourable forecast given at noon on Wednesday.

I turned off at Kudardup Road, which I had to check on the map because the road sign was missing. The roads were sealed and quiet, and I was entertained by an interesting radio talk from the Augusta RN repeater about U.S. President Harry Truman and the post-war era.

I didn’t make my first stop till 18km out, 24896, at the Brockman Highway junction. I turned eastward and the wind was less favourable, though gradually getting a stronger W element. My next stop was at the Nannup Shire boundary sign, 24913. I was into the state forest by then. The wildflowers were at their best. I saw what I think was a large blue orchid, (possibly a blue lady orchid) a true blue, not violet, though later in the trip I saw a violet variety.

I reckoned that my next stop would see me with under 40km to go, and the word ‘doddle’ was coming into my mind. I felt fine. I peddled on and rested again at 24929, with only 36km to go, and at 24944. The day was cool and the wind favourable all the way, but the repeated hill-climbing was starting to tell. You gain no energy coming down a hill, but lose a lot going up it. I was starting to feel aches and pains everywhere, and my strength was going.

The last 15km were difficult. But I arrived in Nannup at 1.27pm, 24965, having done the last 21km in only 67 minutes and the whole journey, which was 87km exactly as estimated, in 5hr 24 min., with one fewer rest-stop than I had planned. I then saw the old mistake I had made. Being rather intimidated by the distance, I had tried to go too fast and had not stopped often enough. On Wednesday evening I had estimated that the ride would take 6 hours and require five drink stops, and I would have felt better had I taken all that time and all those stops. You can go further if you go more slowly.

I got into my motel unit, previously booked. I stayed in one of these units in 1991, when they were quite new, and they have started to deteriorate already. It was $40.

Nannup, as noted in 1991, has recovered from its demise as a timber town to become a trendy town, a sort of Margaret River. I had Chicken and Chips and Nachos for tea, after a walk round the town and the usual phone calls. I didn’t go into the bar and socialise this time because I just wanted to lie around and be quiet and watch TV.

Reading at Nannup: 24965. Day’s ride: 87km. Aggregate: 287km. km/day: 71.8. Speed from Augusta to Nannup: 16.1 kph.

Augusta to Nannup 1992

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