5th October 2023

Cold night on my own. Spent a lot of the night tossing and turning trying to get warm. And this despite my fancy down sleeping bag. When it had warmed up a bit I emerged and checked my thermometer: 6 degrees! It was obviously colder than that during the night and there was a cold breeze blowing. Must do something to stop the breeze next time. I used the groundsheet from my tent last time.

Anyway, tonight I’m in a small mobile home in a caravan park so I should be warm! And comfy bed and shower….

The ride started out with a gentle uphill on a forest road which was fine up to the point where there was a gate and a sign saying there were mining works going on. So the trail diverted straight up the hill side. Once at the top there was a lot of wiggly trail which wasn’t too bad. Also the King Jarrah trees gave way to the smaller trees again. Hard to tell what as there has been some burning going on and most of the trunks were black again! Also a lot of the bushes were overhanging the trail so I kept getting whipped!

And then the sand and rocks started. Sand stops you dead, or throws you off, and rocks are just unpleasant. Got passed by someone going the same way as me and two people going the other way.

After a quite exceptionally hard push uphill, thankfully not too long, I arrived at the car park at the top of the reservoir. So I sat and watched the boats, the blue water and had some lunch.

Then all round the reservoir to the caravan park where I met some more cyclists who told me I was out of luck as they’d eaten everything in the cafe! (Not true…!)

Now sitting outside my ‘chalet’ watching the insects eating the flowers.

Critters of the day: flock (?) of emus. Hope you can see them in the pic below as they were some way off. Also an ants nest because I was getting desperate for a critter!