Hyden to Kondinin 1995

Hyden to Kondinin, day 6, Tuesday 31 October 1995. I didn’t have the buffet breakfast, just the usual biscuits and cake and milk before an early start. This was to be a challenge day. The winds were indeed from the WNW, gusting up to 20 knots, the sky was overcast and the morning cool. I left Hyden at 7:21 and took drink breaks at 3063, 3078 and 3093.

Kondinin

Because I had expected a hard time it didn’t seem so bad, I just took it steadily, up and down the gentle slopes and along the long straight stretches of road, where you can see 5 or 10 km ahead. The maps told me that the last 8km into Kondinin were mostly downhill, so when I was 15km out and making good time, realising that I could make it in under 4 hours I started to push hard. I rolled up to the roadhouse motel at 11:17, 3108. I had made it in 3 hours 56 minutes, 7 minutes less than the forward journey, with stronger headwinds, though a cooler day.

I went into the roadhouse, said ‘Here I am again!” got into the same unit I had left on Sunday morning and though I ached a bit felt very relieved and relaxed, feeling that the hard part of the trip was over and it was going to be straightforward from now on as I headed back to Perth.

Later I walked up to the pool to try to get a swim, but although the pool was ready it didn’t open till 10.30 am on the next day, November 1. All country pools open on November 1. I looked forward to having a swim further up the track.

I shopped, made ‘phone calls and went to visit Kondinin cottage, a restored house built originally from mud, stones, rough timber and iron in the 1920′s, about the time that many of these small towns were being built in the rush to populate and farm the country after World War I. No-one actually lives in it permanently, but it is occupied daily by a family who come from a farm, open it up and show it to tourists, and sell antiques, books, china, furniture and so on.

I had a good chat with the lady, and left half an hour after their official closing time of 5 pm, but she said she didn’t mind, she had had a good chat. I didn’t buy anything except a couple of postcards. I explained that I was on my bike, and her daughter was interested in that, what is it like riding a bike such distances, how long does it take, what about drinks, and so on.

Dinnertime brought the first of three miracles on this trip. I sat down in the roadhouse restaurant and looked at the menu, wondering what sturdy country fare I might try this time. I looked at the entrees and saw ‘Fresh Oysters – half doz. $7, one doz. $12.’ When the waitress arrived I said “You haven’t really got that, have you?” “I’ll just check”, she said, and went into the kitchen. She came back to announce “Yup! We goddem!” I ordered half a dozen, and they were too, not frozen or anything, really fresh and delicious in their shells, on a bed of fresh chopped lettuce, with some sauce, a slice of lemon and fresh brown bread. I didn’t get around to asking how this was achieved in a small wheatbelt town (pop. 475) a long way from the coast, in a region where ‘fish’ is a card-game rather than a food.

The day ended in its usual leisurely way with TV, poring over maps and writing the log.

Reading at Kondinin (on the way back): 3108. Km for day: 61. Aggregate: 275. Km/day: 46. Speed to Kondinin: 15.1 kph.

Hyden to Kondinin 1995

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