Williams

Perth to Dumbleyung 2007, 9 days, cumulative distance 455 km. The aim of this trip, the first since 2005, was to take an opportunity which probably won’t come again; to start deep in the Great Southern and ride home via Dumbleyung and see Dumbleyung lake, which was more full than for some years due to a reasonable season in the area. I had this plan some years ago, during the Stirlings ride of 1993, but didn’t feel able to go there on that occasion.

Again I took my digital camera on this trip. I took pictures of orchids again, reflecting my particular interest, and of the towns and countryside and of bodies of water that were in better shape than usual.  ... Read more

Perth to Tenterden, Monday 15 October 2007.

PRELIMINARY

This was another ride which started as in 2002. I went with Liz to her country property at Tenterden on Monday 15 October. I took the front wheel off my bike so it would fit in her Yaris. We stayed overnight at Williams then proceeded to Tenterden on Tuesday 16th.

The forecast was for rain on the following day, Wednesday, so I got the rechargeable-battery powered saw going and cut as much firewood as I could before the charge ran out, then re-assembled the small shed that had been blown to bits in a storm some time ago. Rain poured down on Wednesday, accompanied by strong winds. It was all a good workout for the re-assembled shed, which didn’t fail.  ... Read more

Narrogin to Williams day 6, Tuesday 18 October 2007. I left the motel at 10 am but didn’t head for Williams straight away. I took the opportunity to ride into Foxes’ Lair, a nature park on the other side of the road from the motel. The motel brochures encouraged guests to visit it. There were gravel tracks going in to a car park, where there were information boards about walk tracks of different lengths. I took one of these and took some pictures. The wildflowers were splendid. At one point the walk track ran along a cliff edge and there was a view of the woodland and country.

The wind was behind me as I turned back onto the main road and headed for Williams.  ... Read more

Williams to Boddington day 7, Wednesday 24 October 2007. The day was warm and sunny with north to north-easterly winds, a headwind for 40 km of my planned day’s journey. I left the motel at 9:26 and turned onto the Albany Highway and made my way over the bridge and past the hotel and the craft shop and the Woolshed and out of town.

There is some climbing to do until about 10 km north of Williams, then a view of country ahead and a downhill run for a while. I felt optimistic and energetic despite the conditions. They weren’t so bad and I had the left turn at Crossman and 12 km of wind-assisted riding to Boddington to look forward to.  ... Read more

Cottesloe to Yealering 2003 – 11 days, 586 km cumulative distance.

The aim of this trip was originally to visit Kulin, not because there is anything special there but because I have never been there and it has always been just out of reach, round the corner, a bit further down the track, but never on my way to or from anywhere on previous rides. As the title implies, another wimp-out occurred and I ended up visiting Yealering again.

I took my digital camera on this trip so it is the best-recorded trip ever. I took 48 pictures, but about a dozen of them were of orchids, reflecting my particular interest.

Charles A. Pierce

Other days on this Tour:

Daily Locations for this Tour:

Boddington to Williams, day 4, Thursday 16 October 2003. The morning in Boddington was very foggy, thicker than you see fog in Perth, more like a good East Anglia fog in England. I didn’t rush to get going, I didn’t want to ride in fog, there were only another 50-odd km to do today and the road would not be so hard. The winds turned out to be helpful, moderate westerlies all day. The sun soon peeped through the dissipating fog and I left Boddington on a cool morning at 8:58.

I reached Crossman at 984. There seemed to be nothing there but a house until I turned onto the Albany Highway and looked north and saw the roadhouse beyond the house.  ... Read more

Williams to Wickepin, day 5, Friday 17 October 2003.

ANOTHER WIMP-OUT

When I awoke I found it hard to get up, I felt unable to manage the next two days, with two 70 kilometre runs. I did get up and get going, but this feeling on first waking up was the seed of the wimp-out to come.

I left the hotel at 8:23 am on a cool sunny morning, with winds westerly to south-westerly, a tailwind. The day became overcast as I went on. I went over the bridge and turned onto the Narrogin road, and took my first rest at 1044, at a concrete bench and seats conveniently set up beside the road. I was not carrying too many drinks – I was going to buy one in Narrogin to have at my second rest.  ... Read more

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

Narrogin to Williams, day 7, Saturday 16 October 1999. The day was cold and the wind was SW and moderate to fresh as I rolled away from the Narrogin motel at 9:30.

It was only 31 km to Williams by the shortest road so I decided to take the long way to look at the southern part of the Dryandra Woodland. I took the Narrogin-Congelin Road and reached the junction with Bradford Road, 446, and took a break. At this point I was going to decide whether to go further west and link up with Rosedale Road, or just go straight down Bradford Road to join Clayton Road and proceed to Williams. The roads to the west would be gravel and they didn’t look all that good at the start, so I decided to take Bradford Road.  ... Read more

Williams to Boddington, day 8, Sunday 17 October 1999. I left the motel at 8:30 on a cold sunny morning with a SE wind. I had risen at 7 and jumped straight into the pool without stopping to think whether I felt like it or not. The bracing experience was a great benefit. Some old ladies had been sitting well wrapped up at tables near the pool and screamed at my ‘bravery’.

I went down the road that leads through Quindanning. I could have taken a shorter way, straight up the Albany highway to a place called Crossman, then left onto Crossman Road and so into Boddington. I preferred the Quindanning way because it promised to be more scenic and I wanted to look at Quindanning, last visited in 1989, and the Boraning historic cemetery beside the road 9 km before that.  ... Read more