Cottesloe to Meelup Beach 1977

Cottesloe to Meelup Beach, 6 day bicycle tour, 1977.   This is the first of a series of retrospective bike stories, of rides taken before 1987. (1987 was the first ride to be fully documented in the current format, with distances, speeds, rest stops and so on, moreover written as soon after the event as possible.) This provided not only a record of the ride but a time capsule of the person I was at the time. To write about a ride nearly thirty years after the event is to try to look back on the person I was then and explain the mistakes and stupidities. The earlier rides took place in November-December, which of course meant that I was battling heat or strong south-westerly winds.  … Read more

Cottesloe to Mandurah, day 1, Monday 21 November 1977.   At work before I went on leave, I had been discussing with a workmate the idea of taking a bike ride into the country, and he had mentioned that Meelup Beach would a nice place to cycle to. That idea stuck and I made it my eventual aim.

I left home in Cottesloe at 9.40 on a warm humid morning. I had a 28 inch heavy steel bike with a 3 speed hub gear and back pedal brake, a basket in front with a bottle of water in it, and a bike radio clipped onto the handlebars. I hadn’t done any special maintenance on the bike – at that time if there was nothing broke, I didn’t fix it.  … Read more

Mandurah to Harvey, day 2,Tuesday 22 November 1977.   After a fitful night I went down to the dining room which didn’t change much in the next 20 years or so until the hotel closed. It had big sash windows with shrubs pressing against them, and wallpaper on the walls and the ceiling. There were quite a few other guests. There were several different cereals that you could help yourself to, also toast and tea and coffee, and they came in and took my order for a cooked breakfast as well. It all seemed quite sumptuous, and I always enjoyed it every time I went back to that hotel.

Afterwards I had a shower and prepared to get away. I paid and retrieved my bike from under the fire escape where I had left it.  … Read more

Harvey to Bunbury, day 3, Wednesday 23 November 1977.   The morning was mild and windy and showery. The gravel area in front of the farm machinery business had puddles. I had a nice hotel breakfast then paid and got everything together and set off with painful stiffness on the less than 50 kilometre journey to Bunbury. It was a bit earlier than the previous two days. Through the discomfort and tiredness I was excited to think I was going to be cycling into Bunbury, having never been there except by train or in someone’s car.

I passed through Wokalup, 5km down the road. There was a big old hotel, now only a tavern, and Peter’s dairy. A goods train rumbled along the railway track and big trucks came and went from the dairy.  … Read more

Bunbury to Busselton, day 4, Thursday 24 November 1977. I was a bit irritable when I came down to breakfast in the old high-ceilinged hotel dining room, still there. I scowled at the yobs who were still carrying on as they crowded together to wolf their breakfast. Breakfast was nice anyway.

I finally got going a little after 9 o’clock, but took a bit of time to go and visit a part of the town that had sentimental value for me, due to events that had occurred in 1962, 15 years before (yeah, all right, it was October 14 1962 and I was with a girl for the first time).

When I actually started to head out of town my map wasn’t much help so I made the assumption that the road along the coast, Ocean Drive, would get me out of town and heading towards Busselton.  … Read more

Busselton to Meelup Beach and return, day 5, Friday 25 November 1977.  The day was sunny and mild with a light southerly. I had slept without waking for about 10 hours (I can’t do that any more!) and felt heaps better. I had ordered my breakfast for 8 am – this was 1977, they still brought brekky up on a tray to your room. A knock on the door woke me up and I got up and got the tray from the floor outside the door. This was also the time before I started buying cakes and pies the day before to have breakfast in bed, saving time, energy and money. I think I started doing that in 1987.

Having decided what to do with the day I went down and booked my room for another night.  … Read more

Busselton to Bunbury, day 6, Saturday 26 November 1977.   I slept well again and enjoyed another breakfast delivered to my room. I left Busselton by the same way as I had come in, not knowing at that time about the other way through Wonnerup.

The road wasn’t hard, the wind was favourable and the day was mild, but as I pedalled on I decided I couldn’t face going back home the way I had come, and at that time I had never ridden even close to 100 km in one day, and believed that the 100 km from Bunbury to Mandurah, up the old coast road, was just not feasible. It probably wouldn’t have been on that heavy bike.

Even in 1979, there was nothing for 50km between Australind and Lake Clifton and I don’t think there was any accommodation at Lake Clifton in those days.  … Read more