Harrismith

Cottesloe to Harrismith 1999 – 11 days, 726 km cumulative distance. The aim of this trip was not decided at the outset. It depended on weather and wind conditions, how I felt and how the new bike, built with some difficulty and finally with some haste, would go. I was clear that I wanted to reach Wickepin on Day 4, but after that I would be flexible.

Originally I had planned to start from Albany and come back through Denmark and Walpole, visiting the Valley of the Giants and trying the new tree-top walk, but the ‘Walpole Problem’ of a 120 km gap with nowhere to stay between Walpole and Manjimup made me realise that I would have to come back through Northcliffe and up the South Western Highway, which I had only done the previous year.  ... Read more

Wickepin to Harrismith, day 5, Thursday 14 October 1999. The morning was cold and sunny with strong WSW turning to NW winds. I left the Wickepin Hotel at 8:41. The going was easy, as expected, and I didn’t need to shelter for the whole journey. Large storms passed to the north and south of me but I was in a corridor of clear weather and frequent sunshine the whole way. This was amazing luck. I had expected a day of general cloud cover with general rain, but this had already broken up into avoidable belts and patches of heavy rain moving across the land with wide spaces of clear weather.

I rested at 327 and 343 and rolled into Harrismith as expected at 357, 11:03.  ... Read more

Harrismith to Narrogin, day 6, Friday 15 October 1999. This loomed as the second challenge day of the trip, though more so than Day 3. I thought that if I made Narrogin on this day it would get progressively easier and I would get home all right. I was dismayed to find when I awoke that the wind had freshened again and was nearly as strong as the day before, and shifting NW. It looked as though another strong rain system was moving in, though the morning was sunny. Clouds gathered as the day went on.

I went into the hotel kitchen and made my breakfast. Another man was staying at the hotel and was doing the same. We sat and ate breakfast and read some of the papers that were lying about.  ... Read more

Harrismith is a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, approximately 260 kilometres (162 mi) south-east of Perth between the towns of Wickepin and Kulin.