Dwellingup 2011

Dwellingup, day 2 Tuesday 25 October 2011.

Dwellingup Primary School

I awoke in the small hours to hear rain pouring down on the roof. It was still going when I woke in daylight and it was time to get up. I had planned to start really early, so that I could have plenty of rest stops and arrive in Wandering with enough daylight to shop and settle into the accommodation and look around.

I started eating breakfast at 5:30 am. The rain went on and on, and there was a north-easterly wind to go with it. It was an unusual rain system, coming from the north-east instead of the west.

By about 9 am with no break in sight for the winds and rain I had to accept that the planned 90 km effort was not feasible. I had to decide whether I should just cancel the whole thing and go home via Del Park Road and Armadale, but I didn’t even have the confidence to try that, after the heart-racing and loss of strength of the previous day.

I might have tried for Boddington that wet windy day had I been able to get accommodation there, or I might have tried the 90 km effort given dry weather and at least slightly helpful winds. But the combination of continuous rain, headwinds and distance, and being unable to get an early start, made it sensible to make another plan.

Eventually I decided to try to book accommodation in Boddington for the next day, Wednesday. I would do that first, then try to book the unit I was already in, or somewhere else, to stay in Dwellingup another night. Then I would try to change the booking at Wandering from Tuesday to Thursday.

All three steps were successfully undertaken. Boddington had just one unit left unbooked for the Wednesday. The Dwellingup Hotel just took my money for another night and said it was quite OK, best-laid plans, and so on. And the Wandering Brook Estate weren’t put out at all if I arrived on Thursday instead of Tuesday. Best-laid plans, and so on.

After that I had a bit more sleep, read my book, just took it easy. The rain stopped at last towards noon. In the afternoon I walked north up the Del Park Road and found the Munda Biddi trail. I took a long walk along that and took some more wildflower pictures and inspected some chalets. No-one was in them.

I had another early night to allow an early start. I would only have 50 km to ride and the weather forecast was more encouraging, with westerlies developing. I kept everything in plastic bags in case I had to ride in the rain and couldn’t find adequate shelter.

I didn’t ride the bike at all on this day and decided that in this report, I would only average distances for actual riding days. As I get older there will be more rides like this, if any.

Dwellingup 2011

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