Mandurah to Cottesloe 1997

Mandurah to Cottesloe, day 8, Wednesday 29 October 1997. After a cooked breakfast and the usual help-yourself cereal in the dining room that hadn’t changed in 20 years, except for the wallpaper peeling a bit more off the ceiling (no other guests showed up), I left the Brighton Hotel at 9:38 with a breeze already behind me. This truly was to be one of those ‘southerly buster’ days. I looked forward to enjoying this last easy run home, in contrast to 1979.

Cottesloe

At 4351 I stopped for a rest at a ‘Rules’ supermarket in one of those ghastly southern coastal suburbs. The little centre didn’t carry any name to identify the area. A woman was sitting with bags of shopping when I arrived and was finally picked up by a taxi as I was about to leave. She could have been waiting some time. She looked unhappy. This was one of those ‘get a car or live somewhere else’ suburbs.

I bought a drink in the supermarket. As I was getting ready to leave I trod on the earphone wires that I hadn’t noticed hanging out of my pocket, breaking the wires, then trod on one of the little phones. So I could have no more radio as I continued home. It wasn’t so bad as I was only 2 hours from the end of the ride.

I turned left into Cockburn Road at 4365 and rested at Coogee, 4174. I didn’t bother to buy a drink. I knew that I was only 14 km from home and it seemed that I could achieve a time of less than three hours for the journey from Mandurah to home – it was 12 noon when I got going again. I could do Coogee to home in half an hour with this wind if I pushed it, which I could do now, and if I were lucky with the dozen or so sets of traffic lights on the way.

Finally I turned into the laneway that runs past my house and the 1997 ride ended as I put my foot to the ground outside my back gate. It was 12:33. 2 hours 55 minutes from Mandurah.

Final reading at end of ride: 4388 km. Km for day: 66. Aggregate: 588. Kpd: 73.5 ( a new PB). Kph to home: 22.2. 2 hours 55 minutes from Mandurah to Cottesloe ( a new PB).

This was not my longest ride but notable for 5 personal bests; Bunbury to Busselton; Bunbury to Dunsborough; Bunbury to Mandurah; Mandurah to home; highest daily average kilometres ridden. I might have one more go at beating 5 hours for Bunbury to Mandurah, but the other personal bests will probably stand forever.

Mandurah to Cottesloe 1997

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