Munda Biddi - Pemberton to Manjinup

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Long day. It started out wet, and continued on an intermittent basis up until we reached Quinninup. We are lucky with the weather in general, so a wet day here and there wasn't going to hurt our spirit.

Distance traveled = 84 km
Temperature 10 to 26. Humid at times. Intermittent rain throughout the day. Calm.

We met a couple of ladies in their middle 60s travelling the opposite direction on the trail. They were traveling from Donnelly Mill to Pemberton taking 4 days to do it. They were amiable and thoroughly enjoying the trip.
Ed took a tumble today. Hurt more the pride than anything else. We have been fortunate overall that there has been no serious injury on this trip. Low speeds and perhaps the panniers provide a buffer from the surface. Lucky the high speed descents on the pea gravel has not resulted in anything serious.
The ride from Pemberton to Quinninup was on undulating fire trail. With lots of spot showers, were were on and off with the rain coats often. Cheap and cheerful, ugly as all get up, my home-made Tyvek rain coat made from a cut down disposable coverall was holding up well ($8 and weighing a mere 90gm ).
Quinninup tavern was a welcome site for lunch.
The burgers and beer went down well.  We were glad to have some respite from the showers.
I spotted a really cool letterbox made from an old refrigerator.
After Quinninup there were long expanses of new growth forest, and groves of pine forest. Funnily the pine plantations were not at all boring as they broke up the scene and smelt wonderful with the dampness.
Manjinup after a long day was a welcome sight. Nev and Mark headed for a motel and we remaining three headed for the caravan park to camp. Nev and Mark's hosts kindly lent them their car to drive to town, which they took up so they could enjoy a meal at the local chinese restaurant. Ed from our group joined them. Having had a big lunch I had a simpler meal of flat bread, cheese and salad.

My initial impressions of Manjinup - I am not overly enthused by the town. The welcome sign is good. It is to me a town divided by rail, grown by rural industrial needs.
First use of my tent this trip. To save weight and space, I took a punt taking only the inner. The inner is waterproof, excepting the entry screen; it worked though there was a bit of condensation. Overall the punt worked well - the tent material is Cuben fiber, favoured by ultralight camping enthusiasts and made by cottage manufacturers in the States eg. Z Designs, Bear Paw, Lightheart. Mine is a cuben PyraTent by Bear Paw.  My sleeping quilt is also of Cuben fibre.The quilt an Ephiphany cuben, 

 I got from EnLIGHTened Equipment, warm as toast and tested by moi in Nepal in sub -10C temps. 

  The tent  inner and quilt is less than 850gm. The sleeping pad is also a marvel in design, light, warm and very comfortable, an Exped Downmat UL. It has a huge Silnylon 'Schnozzel Pumpbag' that you use to blow it up, taking only 3 puffs. I have proven this in the snow and vouch for its R rating. Ed's was lighter a Thermarest Neopad, but it didn't inflation technology and was narrower (love the tech. competition !).

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Location: Manjimup WA 6258, Australia

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