Munda Biddi - Manjinup to Donnelly Mill

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My fears about hoons and loud trucks rumbling through the night, let alone trains were unfounded, well, at least I did not hear them, and the night's rest was very settled. Another nice shower, packed up and we were ready to meet Mark and Nev in town at about 9:00.
The night wasn't too bad at the caravan park in Manjinump. For interest: last night we listened to some bad luck stories of a young couple from England trying to do a working holiday over here. Having sold most of their possessions they decided to take a year off and travel Australia. They didn't get off to a good start in Melbourne, with the guy getting an abscess in his throat, and lucking out on jobs. Apparently a job posted in Melbourne for itinerant workers gets snapped up within an hour of posting, equally goes for cheap short term accommodation. Busking is too competitive and didn't pay. They came to Western Australia on the promise of a job fruit picking. The manager and fellow travellers tried to give them tips on tax evasion which they did not want to participate in, so they earned a mere $55 after a week of slaving away after 'expenses' were taken out. I have a feeling that their naivete will terminate that gap year very soon - as it is they went out and bought some camping gear deciding it would be cheaper, stayed two nights at $30 per night in this park and now are looking at giving it away because it is too big and bulky to cart around.
Distance travelled = 56 km
Temperature 10 to 26. Not too humid. No rain and fairly calm.

Mark and Nev posted off a lot of their stuff deemed superfluous to the trip eg. tent, punctured Thermarest amongst other things. Nev was traveling as a featherweight now.
Poor Mark was still a beast of burden however, with his still somewhat heavy backpack.  After a coffee and phaffing round we were eventually off at 10:00am.  No stress really, the distance to cover today is only around 60km with predominantly easy grade and a short mid section of challenging terrain.

We started on gravel surfaced road through a rural area. The surface was in good condition making it easy to ride on.

Jon suffered yet another puncture, and this time changed his tube instead of fixing it. Glad I went tubeless and generally avoid issues with punctures. When it comes to tubes, I prefer to replace them rather than patch them.
Quite ironic, a few metres away from the place we stopped, there was repair station with a sign 'air valve'. So far on this trip, Nev and Jon are the only ones to have had punctures.
The use of the cinch locking straps to hold the panniers and toolbox in place has proven their worth. Ed and Jon have both lost their panniers on a number of occasions due to the continual jolting. I lent Ed one of mine to arrest the problem. The panniers I have are el cheapo ones I bought and were never used. I had them for some 30 years. I kept the stuff inside dry by using garbage bags. So far everything was dry and has held together. The trick with panniers is to keep the heavy stuff low and try and centre or keep forward the pack over the rear axle, all to ensure that the bike is stable at high speed and in tricky manoeuvres on tight tracks and loose surfaces. 
I never stop enjoying the forest scene and marvelling at the grand heights the trees reach over here. 

Riding through rural countryside has its benefits. We were treated to some blackberries along the way.

We had lunch at the campsite cabin accommodation at Karta Burnu. This was situated on a nice hillock, offering good views. The cabin was smaller than the ones further south but equally of high standard and clean. We enjoyed reading some of the log notes other travelers wrote and added our own, which is omething we did at every campsite. 

This ride also had a fair share of single track and forest trail.


My grin is an indication of the fun to be had on these tracks, especially the ones purpose built for fun.  Lots of sticks, but loads of nice sweeping turns to enjoy.

One Tree Bridge is a historic site. You might guess by the name that the bridge (former) was constructed with one tree. It is now a historic piece available for tourist pictures being replaced by a modern update. I had a quick dip here to keep up a tradition of swimming. This site was quite chilly being in the shadow most of the day.

There was quite a large diversion of the trail on the leg from One Tree Bridge as Gregorys bridge was being rebuilt. This diversion was easy to follow with the signage (however we did not see the sign for the diversion at the beginning, only at Donnelly Mill). It was a bit annoying that the 'Manjinup Townsite' inset obscured the diversion on our purchased maps - in hindsight I should have printed the web map out (always good that hindsight).

Donnelly Mill, we scraped in before dark at 6pm. What an interesting town. A former logging town, it is now a group accommodation site for school camps, weddings and other functions. All the cabins are kept in good repair. The logging factory, however is currently in need of restoration.
There are numerous very friendly kangaroos and emus. Probably kept friendly by visitors buying food from the general store to keep them happy.
The emus are quite willing to have a feed, but didn't wish to hang around us like their hopping friends.
I fell in love with the general store. It was kept in the style of the logging era.
With a couple of modern additions such as coffee machine and fridge, we were happy to make a purchase or two.
Our accommodation was choice of cottage, bunkhouse or the school weather shed. After looking at the bunkhouse we decided that the free weather shed option was a better choice over the bunkhouse. 
Ed's brakes were playing up on the front. It turns out that the mechanic in Pemberton only replaced the rear pads and not the front ! His pads were non existent and that noise on braking was metal to metal. Luckily my used Avid Elixir pads had some meat left and were compatible with Shimano. By the light of my very bright AyUp head torch we had it all sorted out. I must say I prefer the Avid design of inserting the pads through the back is an easier way to install than the Shimano's way of going underneath.
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Location: Donnelly Mill Rd, Western Australia, Australia

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