Munda Biddi - Boonar Mundak campsite to Walpole

I loved this section of the Munda Biddi taking us to the small coastal town of Walpole. Scenery abound, single track with some glorious descents through beautiful leafy forest.

Refer to Munda Biddi trail map 8 Walpole to Denmark.
Distance covered today = 52km. Temperatures 16 to 26 °C . No rain, hardly any wind. Quite humid at 89%.

You had to earn those wonderful descents, with it being a bit tough for some of the party, My months of training has paid off. Not that it matters, as the ride was about enjoyment, and if you need to walk that is fine. The difference between 4 kph and 6 kph is not a lot.

We were heading back to civilization on this ride. Before we went into town (after an amazing long descent on a fire trail - where I spotted a quokka who tried to race me down) we stopped at the tree top walk at the Valley of the Giants. I am glad we stopped here as it was good value for money and interesting. The Valley of the Giants refers to the tingle tree, a rather interesting tree because of its wide buttress roots and lack of tap root.

We lunched here (no cafe as such - fortunately we came armed with food), listened to the nature walk and enjoyed walking on the tree top platforms, reaching some 70m from the ground.

It was nice to see that quite a few of the fire trails are closed to vehicular traffic, and converted for use by bicycle and pedestrian.

We had a funny moment chatting to Mark at a stop. He was standing on a dead fox's tail without knowing. 1080 poison is used in an attempt to contain fox numbers, this is one of the casualties.

We could not resist a swim in the Frankland river at monastery landing recreation site. Very brown, it was quite warm and refreshing. Loaded with fish as well. So far we have had a dip every day.

Whilst swimming I felt a rather large swelling on my posterior. I think through the hot days a boil generated around a trapped hair. It burst later: I could of done with a sanitary pad with the amount of mess generated. Luckily the pad in the cycling knicks were good enough and that I had two on today. (This is the norm now due to the long days of riding on rough roads rendering the backside a bit tender.

Sticks were a common thing that we had to deal with. As soon as I heard that characteristic noise of a stick in the wheel I would stop pedaling immediately. Otherwise there is a high risk of damaging a derailleur with the stick getting caught between chain and derailleur, or the wheel and derailleur.

As we got closer to Walpole we spotted some kangaroos on the roadside, which was pleasing as we haven't seen that much wildlife.

We stayed at the YHA in Walpole. It was not quite to the same standard as Denmark, but the showers were good and warm (Denmark had solar, which gets boosted overnight - however if you use the disabled ones you are guaranteed of a warm one). The rooms were clean and tidy.

There were only a few people staying at the hostel. Of note was a German couple who arranged to hire via the Internet a couple of bikes from the bike place in Pemberton. They had a great few days riding from there to Walpole and the Valley of the Giants and are making it by bus back to Pemberton. The bikes were of excellent quality.

Walpole is not a big town, accommodation and eating facilities are very limited but of good standard. The inlet looks like it would be fun for water based activities.

We ate at the Philippine Magic cafe. This cafe causes town chat because it's owned by an English bloke, who has a Philippine wife with an age difference..... as I say it is a small town. I am not one to cast judgement because it is not my place. The food was nice, especially since he had to do the cooking because his wife was in the Philippines visiting family. He is great to talk to and full of stories, the salt and pepper calamari needed a repeat order because it tasted so good.