Boddington to Wandering 2011

Boddington to Wandering day 4, Thursday 27 October 2011.

I had the toast and cereal and a hot pie for breakfast. I set off at 8:30, 269. Here it was, Day 4 and I hadn’t yet done 100 km. In the old days I would have done over 100km in the first 2 days. There was a light westerly wind. The road was less up-and-down now that I was getting away from the coast and the going was all right with pleasant scenery.

At Crossman, 281, I rested, and light drizzle began to fall. I say at Crossman, not in Crossman, because there is nothing there but the derelict remnants of a roadhouse. I don’t know if I remember ever visiting that roadhouse when it was alive. It was fortunate for me because there was an information point which gave me shelter from the light rain which stopped after a few minutes.

I had to go north now, up the Albany Highway for a short way to find the right turn onto the Wandering road at 282.

I was now on a road I had never ridden before, hard to find after all these years. The country was pleasant and the going not too hard. I took another rest at 293, then later after a long climb followed by a fast downhill run I came to a T-junction and faced a sign saying PINGELLY 49, pointing to the right. That was a bit more than I had expected because there were still 3 km to go to Wandering. I turned left here and after crossing a bridge approached the town of Wandering.

On the left as I approached the town was the cemetery I had been told to look out for. Only three surnames accounted for a large number of graves ? Turton, Watts and Dowsett. Apparently the Dowsetts were so numerous that they also have their own cemetery, but I did not find that. I tried to figure out the relationship between all the buried Watts and Turtons, and took some pictures. Then I rode on into the town. My chalet was on the North Wandering Road, apparently a right turn off the main road through the town.

I rode on into town and stopped at the Post Office, 303, at 11:30. It was a large post office for such a small community. The day was now sunny and warming up. I turned on my mobile to try to ring the Wandering Brook Estate. The signal icon did not come up and ‘No Service’ was displayed. I went into the post office and asked where the shop was. They told me there was no shop, I would have to go to Boddington or Pingelly, both 50 or so km away, to get food. There was only the tavern, which didn’t open till the afternoon and only served pub meals. A large post office but no shops? I went outside and looked at my mobile and it now said ‘Limited Service’. I tried to ring the Wandering Brook Estate but got the message ‘Action Failed’. I tried to send a text message to Perth and got the same result. I went back into the post office and asked about this. They took my mobile and said it was only G2, I needed G3 to use it in Wandering. I was worried about having an out-of-date mobile and hoped it would work further on in the ride.

I decided to go on and check into my chalet. I turned right at the North Wandering Road and had a downhill run, then crossed a bridge and climbed towards three chalets standing next to a paddock and a vineyard. Odometer 304. There were a pony, a mule and two llamas in the paddock grazing peacefully. No humans were about. I couldn’t see any other buildings. I remembered that when I had booked the chalet, the lady had said she would leave the key in the door and I thought I remembered her saying it would be Chalet no. 1. This must be either the top or bottom one of the three and the bottom one had the key in the door, so I let myself in.

There was no note from the owners about where they lived or how I should pay. There was only a menu from the tavern, which claimed it was open for lunch from 12 till 2 and for dinner from 6 till 8. I decided to go up at 12 to get some food and drinks. I dumped the heavy luggage and rode back up the hill to the town, pausing at the telephone box to ring the Beverley hotel and book a room for Saturday.

The tavern didn’t look promising, silent with no vehicles or people about, and I found a faded sign that said it didn’t open till 4! So I rode back to my chalet and rested for a while. Then I got up and showered and did more laundry. There was a clothes-line at my chalet but no pegs, but unoccupied Chalet no. 2 had lots of pegs so I took those. I took them back the next morning.

I took some photos of the animals in the paddock and of the chalets and surroundings. Then I relaxed and read my book for a while.

Towards 4 pm I rode back up the hill to town and found the tavern open. However, they said the kitchen didn’t open till 6 and I could only buy drinks and chips. I bought some drinks and went back to the chalet. After more lazing around and not having seen anyone or heard any vehicles, I set off to find someone to pay. I found an old farmhouse with lots of old cars around it in various stages of decay. I knocked on the door and numerous dogs started barking. The man came out and told me that the house belonging to the winery was way up the top of the hill. I had to go back to the road and go past the chalets, climb over a fence and walk up this steep gravel track.

I got to the house at about 5:30 and knocked and rang for a while but no-one answered. I had left my mobile on and it suddenly came to life with a couple of text messages. Must have been because I was much higher up now.

It was a nice big house with a lovely garden. There was a little memorial in the front garden with a poem that went something like

If prayers could build a staircase
Or tears build a [something]
I’d climb right up to Heaven
And bring you back again.

Anyway there was no-one there and no cars so I went back to the chalet and rode back in to town for the third time, lucky, found the tavern open and ordered two steak sandwiches, one for dinner and one for breakfast. While I was waiting for my order an old couple started an inept game of pool. They sank the white ball twice before they got any of the coloured ones in, then they sank each other’s if they sank any. The TV news was on, about the Queen’s visit, about how hard she had worked since arriving in Australia. The old man said ‘She’s never worked a day in her life.’ I thought of saying ‘If you owned a biscuit factory, would you employ her?’ but refrained. No need to be nasty.

I got my food and got back to the chalet in daylight. I warmed up one of the meals in the microwave and put the other in the fridge, and settled down to eat and watch TV for the news and weather, and the good Thursday programs. It was good fresh tasty food but chips don’t really agree with me. I had all the blinds open and a nice sunset was developing over the town and hills behind it. I took a few pictures of that, had to be quick because sunset is an ephemeral thing.

During the evening a vehicle stopped on the gravel road, leading up to the house, on the other side of the fence from my chalet. No-one got out and after a while it resumed its journey up the hill. I had the blinds open and the lights on so they must have seen that someone was in. But of course, they were looking for a motor vehicle, and I only had the bike. They must have assumed that I had gone to the pub and left the lights on. I didn’t think of this at the time.

I didn’t settle down to sleep at first, had bad leg jumps and had to get up and take another pill. After that I had a reasonable night. The country was very quiet and dark and I could see the row of lonely town lights a kilometre away across the paddock.

Reading at Wandering Brook Estate, end of day: 314km. Day’s ride: 45km.
Cumulative distance: 139km. Average km/riding day: 46.

Charles A. Pierce

Other Days on this Tour:

1. Mandurah to Wandering Tour 2011
2. Mandurah to Dwellingup 2011
3. Dwellingup 2011
4. Dwellingup to Boddington 2011
5. Boddington to Wandering 2011 (This post)
6. Wandering to Pingelly 2011
7. Pingelly to Beverley 2011
8. Beverley to York 2011
9. York to Mundaring 2011
10. Mundaring to Midland 2011

Places Mentioned in this Post:

Related posts:

1. Mandurah to Wandering Tour 2011
2. Wandering to Pingelly 2011
3. Dwellingup to Boddington 2011
4. Wandering
5. Dwellingup 2011

Tags: Boddington, Crossman, Wandering