Boyup Brook to Nannup 2000

Boyup Brook to Nannup, day 3, Wednesday 20 September 2000. This was to be the first challenge day of the trip. The distance wasn’t extreme but it would be hilly. The day started sunny and cold but clouds soon covered the sky. The wind was light SE changing to S then SW. I was going to take a rest in Bridgetown and decide whether I could go on to Nannup. I was determined to go on because stopping for the night in Bridgetown would throw the whole trip out of whack and it would become another 1983, but the option was there if I really needed it.

Nannup

After a nice big breakfast in the silence of the deserted pub I let self and bike out of the front door and rolled away at 7:47. I made sure to find the correct Bridgetown road, not to go to Kojonup. The country was beautiful and hilly and flower-strewn.

I rested at 160, then arrived in Bridgetown at 9:37, 175. I came down Steere Street, well known and remembered from previous rides (1985, 1987, 1991, 1996, 1998). I bought a couple of postcards and some drink in the shop and sat on the familiar wooden seat looking down towards Hampton Road and remembering previous times that I had sat here and the different feelings I had had.

There was never any doubt that I would go on. It was doable, bike and self were in good shape and I had to go on. I rolled down Steere street into Hampton Road, went down that, over the bridge and took the right turn that said ‘Nannup 43km’.

Bridgetown sits in a sort of bowl in the landscape so that, from any direction, there is always a mad downhill rush to get in and a stiff climb to get out. This Nannup road, which I hadn’t taken since 1983, was the worst. I haven’t the really big uphill gear on this new bike that I had on the old one. I might dismantle the cluster and fit it before another ride. I had to walk up some of the ever-winding-uphill road. My unfit heart was racing.

After that I found my second wind and didn’t take a drink and rest stop until 201, more than half way from Bridgetown to Nannup. The steep downhill run that I remembered from 1983 looked different this time – not so much forest beside the road. Smoke billowed across the road from some work that was going on and I didn’t feel safe as the bike accelerated towards 60 kph on this winding descent. I touched the brakes on the corners. I reached the Nannup hotel at 12:52, 223 and claimed my unit. The tariff was $66.

I was very pleased to have got here and the next day’s second challenge looked good. The ride was on track. I got into my unit, much as I remembered it from 1991 and 1992 but not so new-looking.

I had the usual cup of tea and some lunch bought from the cafe. There was still a rotary hoist behind the hotel and I hung my washing on that, including the sweaty backpack. There was still a noisy motor going on and off next to the units but it didn’t bother me as it had 8-9 years before.

After a rest I walked around the town, checked out the river and noted the flood levels reached in the disaster of 1982 caused by a cyclone. Another example of disaster visiting a place near the time of my first visit to it. I had first visited Nannup two months before that disastrous flood. I first visited Busselton and walked on the jetty about 4 months before Cyclone Alby demolished it. I was on my way to Hobart in January 1975 when the news came through of the Tasman Bridge being knocked down by a ship. I first went through Granville train station in Sydney about 3 months before that tragedy.

I took a photo of the main street and did some shopping and made some ‘phone calls, including one to the Augusta Motel, booking a unit. I was determined to attempt this trip for the first time in 19 years and felt more confident of doing it after today’s success. Anyway there was no choice – there was nowhere to stop on the way.

I bought a very nice dinner of chicken nachos from the cafe and settled in to watch Olympics on TV and read and relax.

Reading at Nannup: 223 km. day’s ride: 79. Aggregate: 187 km. km/day 62. Kph,: .

Boyup Brook to Nannup 2000

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