Northcliffe

This is the eighth of a series of retrospective bike stories, of rides taken before 1987. 1987 was the first ride to be fully documented in the current format, with distances, speeds, rest stops and so on, moreover written as soon after the event as possible.

This was the year in which I got away from the Monday to Saturday 5-night, six-day format. I broke through limits and went further than before, into a lot of unknown territory for me, taking 8 nights and nine riding days. I started on a Friday instead of the traditional Monday.

Charles A. Pierce

Other Days on this Tour:

Daily Locations for this Tour:

Pemberton to Northcliffe, day 4, Monday 18 November 1985. I set off from the Lodge and stopped in Pemberton to buy drinks. I only had 29 km to go to Northcliffe. This would be new road altogether for me, I had never been south of Pemberton by any vehicle.

I had decided to take a look at a famous tree, the Marianne North tree. In 1880 an English artist called Marianne North was touring Western Australia painting pictures of natural wonders. She painted one of a huge ancient karri tree with a lumpy growth about 5 metres up its trunk. This picture now hangs in the Kew Gardens in England. The tree is about 4 km west of the main Pemberton-Northcliffe Road, up a gravel track known as Ralphs Road or Old Vasse Road.  … Read more

Northcliffe to Windy Harbour and return, day 5, Tuesday 19 November 1985. I had a good breakfast in the dining room and packed a minimum of stuff, packaged drinks, tubes, pump, valuables, small towel. I set off east along Zamia St. and turned right into Windy Harbour Road which is a continuation of Wheatley Coast Road. The country was interesting. It was low-lying with a lot of scrubby plants and there was water around so that water birds and frogs and rustling noises could be heard.

About half-way to Windy Harbour the land rose and the trees became taller until I was entering an impressive forest. This was the Mount Chudalup National Park, a forest around a massive 187 metre granite outcrop.  … Read more

Northcliffe to Manjimup, day 6, Wednesday 20 November 1985. This was to be one of the hardest days on these rides. The plan was to make the next overnight stop at Manjimup. I had my full breakfast, then an Episode, then I started to labour towards Pemberton.

I had a couple of drink stops and eventually made it without any other kind of stop, but as I turned right to go down Brockman Street into the town I could sense trouble coming. I struggled up the steep hill to the park at the north-eastern end of town and was relieved to find a public facility. After that I got more drinks and some food from the shop over the road and sat for a while getting the will to go on.  … Read more

Northcliffe is a town located in the lower South West region of Western Australia, about 28 kilometres (17 mi) south of the town of Pemberton. It is largely surrounded by karri, marri and jarrah forest and is close to the Warren, D’Entrecasteaux and Shannon national parks. Locations of great natural beauty close to the town include Mt Chudalup (a granite monolith), Northcliffe Forest Park and the beaches of Windy Harbour.

Cottesloe to Windy Harbour Tour 1998 – 10 days, 627 km cumulative distance.

The aim of this trip was to return to Windy Harbour, only this time to do it better, faster, with less hardship and fewer mishaps than in 1985, drawing on the experience gained over the years.

Charles A. Pierce

Other Days on this Tour:

Daily Locations for this Tour:

Manjimup to Northcliffe, day 3, Wednesday 14 October 1998. The morning was cold but clear with a moderate SW wind. I left the Manjimup hotel at 8:43 after breakfast of biscuits and cheese in my room.

I proceeded the way I should have gone in 1987, not via Pemberton but straight down the South Western Highway , then right into Wheatley Coast Road and straight on into Northcliffe. Wheatley Coast Road starts at Muirs Highway, SE of Manjimup, and goes straight through Northcliffe down to Windy Harbour, though at some point it changes its name to Windy Harbour Road. This way is about 8 km shorter than the way via Pemberton. In 1987 I didn’t even have a proper map until I bought one in Northcliffe and discovered the Chesapeake Road, the road that made the 1987 ride possible.  ... Read more

Northcliffe to Windy Harbour, day 4, Thursday 15 October 1998. I left Northcliffe for Windy Harbour at 8:29 on a fine morning with a moderate NE wind that went to NW later, so I had a tailwind all the way down and some of the way back. I passed the Chesapeake Road junction at 6409, but didn’t stop, wanting to take my photograph of it on the way back, when I assumed that the sun would be at a better angle for light on the subject.

The ride was pleasant, the country interesting and the wind helpful, though I hoped it would change for the journey back. I rested at 6417 with the rise into Mt Chudalup State Forest, the only high country on this ride, just ahead.  ... Read more

Northcliffe to Pemberton, day 5, Friday 16 October 1998. The morning was cool with strong NW winds. Rain started to fall after I left Northcliffe at 9:27 but I didn’t stop, the rain wasn’t too heavy and cleared up after a few km. I had been expecting a very wet and windy day, as had the weather bureau. That evening the weatherman on TV explained how the expected strong cold front had got ahead of itself and collapsed, but there was another strong front expected to come through early on Saturday with plenty of rain and hail behind it and there would be no escaping that one.

On this Friday, after the early shower, I had it clear, though still very windy, all the way to Pemberton, where it began to rain just as I arrived at the shops.  ... 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