The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 5
Day 5 - Wednesday 23-Mar-2011 - Margaret River to Dunsborough - 63 km (39 mi)
Click here for Rider Route details.
Today was a great ride, it did have some hard hills, but also had some really smooth new roads and some fun long downhill runs. The distance was 70.57km with a max speed of 56.5kmh and an average speed of 17.8kmh.
Our first rest stop was st the Vasse Felix winery. This was one of the oldest wineries in the region and has beautiful grounds.
It was rather funny to see all the bikes resting on the grape vines.
The next stop was at a local institution Simmo's Ice Creamery. However, when we arrived, it looked like there was a problem as the Police were in attendance.
It turned out to be nothing serious as shown by the photo below, just some extra manpower was needed. The Police are here to serve, no-one says it can't be Ice Cream.
The range of flavours available was outstanding, here is a picture of one of the three fridges with ice cream and sorbets.
There were also some funny sign in the shop and around the grounds. Here are a couple for your enjoyment.
Our final stop (for lunch) before reaching our campsite in Dunsborough was the picturesque Meelup Beach. This is in the Eagle Bay area which is just gorgeous. Check out the view on the way to the beach.
While we were having lunch by the beach sitting at a pinic table under the shade of a glade of tall Marri trees. We were eating lunch and admiring the view and joking about the "H o n k e y Nuts of Death". [Edit: Spaces added to stop blog site language filter blanking out word.]
H o n k e y Nuts are large hard seed nuts from gum trees like the Marri tree (also called Gum Nuts). They are dangerous to cyclists as riding over one can make your wheels jump and it is possible to lose control and/or crash.
Anyhow, there was a loud bang and suddenly both Aaron and Rohan went "Ouch!" at the same time. It turned out a h o n k e y nut had just fallen from the trees above us and had hit Rohan on the forehead, bounced off the table, and hit Aaron on the side of his head.
When Jennifer heard what had happened, she laughed so hard that she choked on the orange she was eating that she had a coughing fit and could not speak for a few minutes. I think the Kookaburras would have been laughing at us too.
After that excitement, finishing the ride, and setting up camp was boring.
Bye for now.
David