Waterloo

Cottesloe to Harvey, day 1, Monday 27 November 1978. I hoped that this ride would be better than 1977, learning from the mistakes of the previous year. Unfortunately I didn’t know what all the mistakes were. But one had certainly been, starting too late on a hot morning. So I decided to start at sunrise, which at that time of year is not long after 5 am. I had no definite objective, I was just going to see how far I could get in one day.

I rose at 4:30 and I always remember the cacophony of bird-song in the summer morning twilight. I got my stuff together, the same bags as before, the same hat, the same clothes, then set off as the sun rose.  ... Read more

Waterloo is a small town in the South West region of Western Australia, located on the South Western Highway between Bunbury and Brunswick Junction, in the shire of Dardanup.

Harvey to Donnybrook, day 3, Wednesday 12 October 2005. I made a mistake on this cool sunny morning – I was looking for the back road to Wokalup to save a bit of distance, but couldn’t find it! It must have changed. The realisation began at this point, and was reinforced during the trip, that I must get a new set of maps before doing another trip. My old well-used maps with their memories have to be replaced.

I ended up doing a big round trip through the outskirts of Harvey, pleasant enough in itself on this fresh morning, and coming back to the hotel to go back to the south-western highway by the normal road. This added 5 kilometres to the day’s ride, which I didn’t need.  ... Read more

Donnybrook to Harvey, day 8, Monday 19 October 1998. I left the Donnybrook Motel at 8:40 with a moderate SE breeze that was to help most of the way. I was surprised that the weather had turned around so quickly – after the days of rain with a NW-W-SW regime I expected a day or two of fresh S-SW. It was as though a couple of days had been omitted from the cycle and the easterly trend was already clear.

I passed through Boyanup at 6645 and took a right turn to get onto the Dardanup Road, formerly the South Western Highway. I stopped for a rest at 6649. There was a feeling of a headwind as I headed NW. I passed through Dardanup at 6655, turned right into a headwind, then turned left to get a tailwind as I headed due north.  ... Read more

Harvey to Donnybrook, day 3, Thursday 17 October 1996. As in 1991 I had decided to bypass Bunbury and go straight to Donnybrook via a short-cut through Waterloo and Dardanup. Left Harvey at 7.52. Stopped at 1007, at Brunswick, at 8.49, having done 22 km in 57 minutes – the best hour of the trip. Winds were calm with a light westerly drift developing later in the day to help me slightly into Donnybrook.

It was here that I had the only accident of the trip. I had finished my drink and rest and was walking the bike over the grass towards the gravel path that led back to the main road. There was a little hump just where the grass met the gravel.  ... Read more

Harvey to Donnybrook, day 3, Wednesday 23 October 1991. This was going to be one of the challenges of the trip. I had decided to bypass Bunbury and go straight to Donnybrook via a short-cut through Waterloo and Dardanup. It looked like about 70 km, and I didn’t know how bad the headwind was going to be. It proved to be steady and moderate SE so that it didn’t help me for the last few km into Donnybrook, where the road turns ESE, as a south-westerly would have done.

Left Harvey at 7.58. Stopped at 22061, 22068 (to look at Brunswick River and pump the tyres, though they didn’t need it) 22077, 22090, 22099 (Boyanup).

When I turned off the SW highway at Waterloo the road went due south, into the headwind.  ... Read more