The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 2

Day 2 - Sunday 20-Mar-2011 - Pemberton to Karridale - 105 km (65 mi)

Click here for Rider Route details.

Another early start. Waking up at 6am, we all got dressed, the tents packed up and the bags loaded onto one of the two baggage trucks. Here is a picture of everyone pitching in to offload one of the baggage trucks.

We also have two loo (toilet) trucks accompanying us. These are self contained trucks with Gents and Ladies toilets and basins.

Finally, there are two shower trucks with Male and Female showers and change facilities. These are also self contained and use gas heaters to warm the water. The down side is that there can be queues depending on the time. The shower trucks are only available in the afternoon and not in the morning.

This is just some of the logistics that allow 1200 cyclists and 180 volunteers and staff to shift camp day after day.

We have to leave camp between 7am and 9am.  By 8am when we left, most of the tents were already packed up.

The ride to Karridale started with a large hill just as we left the campsite. This was a "Hello, Good Morning" wake up call for the riders. It set the scene for a long and hard ride. We took 5.5 hours (plus rest stops) to ride 107.89km, averaging 17.9kmh (max 55kmh). The scenery was beautiful when I took time to look when I was not concentrating on getting up hills or not crashing on the downhill runs.

We did take time for a family snap looking back down one of the many hills we climbed.

We finally arrived at the camp site near Karridale at 5pm, after 8 hours on the move. Needless to say we were very tired.

Did I say campsite? .... Well that is if you call a dry and dusty farm Paddock covered in sheep droppings a campsite.

We found our bags, set up the tents, got showered and fed. Finally it was time to crash (sleep). Well at least after I typed this post up.

Chat tomorrow.

The Route Profile for the day is attached to the bottom of this article. 

David

Day 2 Profile - Pemberton to Karridale 2011.pdf

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• Anonymous
  March 20, 2011
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