Mount Barker

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

Albany to Mount Barker, day 7, Sunday 11 October. The roaring easterly that had blown all night and now freshened, helped me for the first few km, but was so strong that the effort of holding a straight riding line cancelled whatever relief it gave me.

By Narrikup it was blowing straight across my path. I stopped at the Narrikup country store, had a snack, looked at the arts and crafts. After climbing a steep hill 9km out of Mount Barker I looked back and could just see the twin hills of Albany. The wind was very slightly against me by now, backing ENE. It was noticeable how rapidly the country was turning from green to brown as I approached Mount Barker.  … Read more

Mount Barker to Cranbrook, day 8, Monday 12 October. The morning was overcast and the wind blew gale-force, spitting rain, from the north-east. I had thought the previous night that it would be good to turn right off the Albany Highway at Kendenup and take a detour through the western edge of the Stirlings. This would have nearly doubled the day’s ride and most of the addition would have been gravel with presumably many steep hills and sandbogs.

When I got to the Kendenup turnoff I felt the force of the opposing wind and saw the Stirlings becoming shrouded in rain or low cloud. I decided to save the Stirlings for a separate ride in the future. So my day’s ride was only 42km but it seemed hard enough.  … Read more