Munda Biddi - Albany to Denmark

The Munda Biddi is a world class multi-day cycle trail running about 1000km from Albany to Perth. After weeks of planning, collecting a party of fellow adventurers my cycling adventure on the Munda Biddi cycling trail in Western Australia is now a reality. Please refer to the index and trip plan / review for an overview of the whole trip.

Please enjoy the reading as I cover the each day, the trials and enjoyments of the ride and tit-bits of wisdom or lack thereof.

Today's trip notes.

After a disrupted sleep in the Victoria Park backpackers hostel due to the all night partying of some patrons I managed to get up at 6:00am for the flight to Albany. The temptation was to bang some pots together down the hall to inflict eye for eye punishment, but unfortunately there were probably others in the same boat as me. Note to self - heed the warnings on TripAdvisor et al about noisy hostels, this one was bad because of the layout: the rooms are adjacent to the kitchen & lounge and there is a bbq entertainment area out front so there is no escape from drunken noise.

It was lucky that I left early as Perth airport is split into discrete zones. T1 and T2 in one area and T3, T4 in another. I asked the taxi driver to drop me off to where Virgin fly domestic and you guessed it, he dropped me off at T2 instead of T4. Many a passenger no doubt has made the same mistake. There is no indication on the boarding pass either, you have to have the flight itinerary and make careful note. Fortunately there is a free shuttle between the two areas.

The plane flight was comfortable, and would you believe it, coffee or tea and a scone was served. The plane was propeller driven, but not too noisy. It left on time and landed on time, all a good start. Albany was cloudy and it started to rain when I landed, so I reassembled the bike inside the terminal in a quiet area.

I arrived at 9:30am and managed to get away at about 11:00am. It didn't take long to cycle into town and fortunately the rain abated.

I arranged to meet at the information centre. Albany was confusing in that there is a huge information board and a separate more obscure information office. I found the board as it was in the main street and so did the others, except Nev, who went to the office. All was good though, that's what phones are for. We had a pre -ride coffee drink to introduce ourselves before going just after 12:30.

Our party ranges in age from 48 to 62, consisting of Ed, Stuart (me), Jon, Nev and Mark. I met Ed and Nev prior to this trip. Jon and Mark were not known to me. I found out that Jon has done quite a bit of touring and has written an article in Bicycle Victoria RideOn magazine and the CrazyGuyOnABike portal (click on the link to read his article on a ride to Cape York). Mark was in Russia working & used skiing to keep fit. I organised this ride using the club CVOR via Meetup, a great club who do social mountain bike rides round Victoria.

The track markers were excellent, clearly visible on yellow posts with a blue triangle and emblem pointing the way.

Our start was soon halted with Jon getting a flat just outside of town. We started on bitumen roads which changed to dirt and some with a sandy components.

Overall the riding was on good surfaces. Although it conceivable that you could ride without the maps, it is not a good idea as you can easily ride past a marker and it is also useful to be able to visualise the route.

We really enjoyed the floral scenery along with the magnificent eucalyptus trees.

We were amused by a dangerous plants sign. I would never of thought to eat these .... - anyway spare the thought if it crosses your mind.

It was getting late at Youngs Siding and Mark was suffering from a lack of bike training and probably general fatigue from flying from Siberia to here. The route gave us the option of continuing via the highway to Denmark or looping a huge U on some dirt roads to follow the Hay River. Mark and Nev chose the highway and the 3 of us followed the route.

It was not really worth the effort to follow the Munda Biddi route proper from Youngs Siding as the dirt roads are long, wide and boring. Also we witnessed some of the pea gravel surfaces that people rave about. The river did not offer much in the way of views from the road.

The scenery and riding pleasure picked up again when we joined the rail trail that runs in to Denmark (Denmark to Nornalup Rail Trail. This part of the trail runs through forest and the shore line, is flat and in excellent condition, it is a great way to head in to Denmark.

It was getting dark rapidly, Jon got another flat so elected to camp. Ed and I moved on to the Youth Hostel in Denmark.

The host of the hostel was genial and also did part of the trail. He and Ed were best of pals as he had the same brand bicycle (a Merida). He keeps a tight ship, everything is spotless in the hostel, and the patrons well behaved; including us !

I had a trial trying to get the Boost prepaid card to work for the phone service. In the end I gave up in frustration. Things like phone cards need to be activated from home where everything is at hand including the internet. I didn't have my drivers licence so need to wait on line for alternative options, the person after all the robot messages ended up representing Telstra so I was diverted back to the Boost robot system. So in the end I am using Vodafone and expensive roaming (when it works) and wasted 40 bucks on a prepaid card.

Prior to leaving for dinner, a tourist from Belgium sold his chocolate mousse creations to us at the hostel. They were absolutely divine. We had dinner in the local Indian restaurant - can highly recommend - and were lucky to get some samosas, they only had two left so we had to share - and we could see why they sold out.

A map with photos superimposed (unfortunately not with trail).
(Refer to Map 9 Denmark to Albany. Munda Biddi trail published by Dept of Environment and Conservation.)
Distance covered today = 75km + 12km for the trip from the airport to town.