Darkan

Kelmscott to Rocky Gully Tour 1996 – 13 days, 827 km cumulative distance. The aim of this trip was to follow the route of the 1991 ride as far as a resort on the Muirs Highway, then, instead of turning back west as in 1991, to continue east as far as Rocky Gully, then return by some of the route followed in 1987, but this time going all the way back to Cottesloe.

There is nothing special about Rocky Gully except that, before I successfully rode to the Stirlings from Albany in 1993, I had a plan to stay at Rocky Gully on the way from Manjimup to Cranbrook as a way of getting into the Stirlings from the west, by a series of achievable day’s rides.  ... Read more

Proandra Farm stay, Boscabel to Darkan, day 9, Wednesday 23 November 1996. During the night the wind strengthened from the north-west. I discovered this when I needed to get up in the night and find the toilet, which was some way from the house, out the back and off to the right down a path. It was hard to find my way in the dark. The wind swished the trees around and banged the toilet door. The signs weren’t good for the coming day. But there were some hours before I had to start riding so I hoped that conditions might improve.

When I awoke later in daylight the wind was still up. I had a good breakfast and cleaned and tidied the house, moving any furniture back that I had shifted and washing the dishes.  ... Read more

Darkan to Collie, day 10, Thursday 24 October 1996. The morning was cool, clear and sunny with light S-SE winds as it had been in 1987 when I left Darkan, but there was no frost. The winds would help me a bit towards Collie because the road runs WSW for the first half of the journey, then WNW for the rest. This was to be one of those days when a journey that should have been straightforward and not hard became a labour. It happens sometimes. At other times a journey that should have been hard just gets done with little pain.

I left the hotel at 7:59 after pouring oil into the cluster in an attempt to cure the slipping-ratchet problem.  ... Read more

Perth to Albany, 12 day 779 km bicycle tour 1987. This Great Ride of 1987 was a major departure from previous rides, those between 1977-1985, and contained the ‘Chesapeake Road’ episode which has become a life metaphor and was referred to in the 1998 ride story (Cottesloe to Windy Harbour).

This ride was not surpassed for total distance and nights on the road until 1996 (Kelmscott to Rocky Gully), and that ride had a lower number of kilometres per day.

This story was originally written into a clone of an Apple IIE computer and printed on a crude early dot-matrix printer. That computer failed in 1989 and the 1987 story was faithfully copied, from a retrieved printout, into an XT computer with a slightly better printer.  ... Read more

Darkan is a town located in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, between Collie and the Albany Highway on the Coalfields Road. It is also the seat of the Shire of West Arthur. Jarrah, flood gum and wandoo bushland reserves, filled with wildflowers in spring, are a short drive away.

Kojonup to Darkan, day 10, Wednesday 14 October. I left Kojonup shortly after 8am. The main cold front had passed through in the night so the showers were no longer continuous and there were periods of sunshine, but the wind varied from strong WSW to gale-force WNW and was very cold. I had to wear my spray jacket on top of my shirt.

Including shelter stops it took me nearly four hours to cover the 45km to Moodiarrup. One of the shelter stops was at a large deserted hall in a forest and was the only adequate one. At Moodiarrup I had lunch and talked with the shopowner. She and her husband had built the shop in 1954 and been there ever since.  ... Read more

Darkan to Collie, day 11, Thursday 15 October. Morning frosty but sunny for the first hour after sunrise, before a dull overcast set in and stayed. Breakfast was pre-packed cooked pepper steak, an entire swiss roll and a litre of milk.

Set off for Collie, first few km all uphill, thought I was done for. Somehow the kilometres got under the wheels, though, and the country was nice with the winds backing southerly and moderating. I kept thinking I saw steep hills ahead but they turned out only to be gaps of grey sky showing through the trees. There’s no such places as most of the places marked on the map between Darkan and Collie.

I arrived in Collie in the early afternoon and stayed at the Crown Hotel.  ... Read more