Munda Biddi - Pemberton rest day
Today is a rest day, we are 1/2 way on our journey. After seven days of riding
it was good to have a day off. We chose it well because we would have got a
tad wet had we of ridden today.
Distance traveled = Approximately 20km
Temperature 16 to 19. Raining in the morning until about 2:30pm.
I had these plans to climb the three fire trees in Pemberton viz: Gloucester,
Diamond and Bicentenial. These are karri trees ranging from 51 to 75 metres,
all scarily tall and all offering spectacular views over the forest. But it
wasn't to be. It was chucking it down with rain until well after lunch time. I
have been thwarted, not only from doing it yesterday but also from 1986.
In 1986 a guy froze halfway up, we had to go down, and the people above
were (naturally) getting quite agitated. It was tricky going down, because a
few insisted that they were going to go up regardless ! It's funny in
this day and age of litigation and do goodness that we still are allowed to
climb these trees, hopefully it remains that way.
The morning was spent on maintenance. Mark, Nev and Ed took their bikes in for
a service. Me and Jon, we did our own. I replaced the brakes as there was only
about 1/4 of the 'meat' left, just to be on the safe side. Brakes do wear out
and seem to on big trips like this, but the reason is more to do with the fact
that I have not changed them since I bought the bike a year ago. I also gave
the bike a good scrub and at the same time examined the various components
such as cables and gear sets. No mud, but plenty of dust. Overall, the
bike was holding up well and nothing broken.
One has to be careful when tightening bolts on these bikes as they are steel fasteners screwing into aluminium alloy. Aluminium is soft and will easily strip of thread if over tightened. Loctite 243 blue is generally regarded as the best to use. Also, any nut and bolt arrangements, in two places on my rack, I replaced with Nyloc nuts.
Mark, Nev and Ed came back with their bikes, not overly satisfied with the service. The guy who normally does the services was not available. The shop had little in the way of spare parts. They had to raid their own bikes to get some brake pads for Ed's bike. I am glad I followed my own advice that everyone should carry spares: spokes, brake pads, dérailleur and hanger, tubes along with a tool set: especially important if your bike is of unusual specification. In the period of waiting they managed to stock up on food and other essentials.
In the afternoon I road down to the Jarrah Jacks brewery, and enjoyed a pint of beer. A nice place, the beer was OK, but the place was rather empty - something to do with the inclement weather perhaps - so I did not feel inclined to hang around.
One has to be careful when tightening bolts on these bikes as they are steel fasteners screwing into aluminium alloy. Aluminium is soft and will easily strip of thread if over tightened. Loctite 243 blue is generally regarded as the best to use. Also, any nut and bolt arrangements, in two places on my rack, I replaced with Nyloc nuts.
Mark, Nev and Ed came back with their bikes, not overly satisfied with the service. The guy who normally does the services was not available. The shop had little in the way of spare parts. They had to raid their own bikes to get some brake pads for Ed's bike. I am glad I followed my own advice that everyone should carry spares: spokes, brake pads, dérailleur and hanger, tubes along with a tool set: especially important if your bike is of unusual specification. In the period of waiting they managed to stock up on food and other essentials.
In the afternoon I road down to the Jarrah Jacks brewery, and enjoyed a pint of beer. A nice place, the beer was OK, but the place was rather empty - something to do with the inclement weather perhaps - so I did not feel inclined to hang around.
I intended to then ride to the Bicentennial tree, but got distracted with a
sign displaying something along the lines of a Warren Vineyard
specialising in premium aged wines. This was something hard to refuse, and
given that the tree could still be very wet I did not take much persuading.
You go in and have to ring the brass bell loudly to get attention. This
place was like stepping into a museum. I loved the olde worlde feel
and enjoyed indulging in the tasting of some very good wines, and I left
with a bottle of shiraz-cabernet.
Finally on the way back I saw a sign to the marron farm. I wanted to see what
these creatures looked like and was intrigued as to what they tasted like.
Marron was supposed to be the great crayfish killer from Western Australia. It
is not a cheap meat at $44 per kilogram live. After spending some time talking
to the farmer, he is also into fish farming and is interested in exploring
aquaponics - a biosystem of edible plants to filter the water and nourish from
the fish effluent. This topic is of interest to me, so we had a good chat. He
is not there yet as he only just became a new owner.
The marron are like a large yabby, smaller than a crayfish, though I do
believe they can grow over 2kgs. They are sold live at around 100 to 200gm.
You cook them in rapidly boiling salted water for about 4 minutes. The
recommended humane thing to do is to freeze them first. The flavour is not
much different to yabby or crayfish. I enjoyed the flavour, but cannot
say that it is a meat I'd regularly want to consume.
We had a barbecue dinner. Which was almost a non-goer as the owner to replace
the gas bottles and it took him a while to get a refill. He was a jovial
fellow, likes to act a bit of a larrikin but glad to assist. We were very
happy with the house, (Pemberton Farm Chalets) everything worked, and the showers were hot. The lights were a bit for our
tastes, and there were loads of millipedes on the floor due to the wet
weather.
Our clothes somehow dried enough under the verandah. Luckily we washed them
last night, so we now have a clean set for the next half of the ride journey.
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