Munda Biddi trail Northcliffe to
Walpole
Cycling with a touring bike we did not
even concider trying a Munda Biddi track which is a mountain bike
trail from Perth to Albany. After we have arrived in Northcliffe
after an easy 35km cycling day we met a few other bikers and shared
some cycling stories and had some drinks together.
Alison, Denise, Gavin and Steven were
cycling the Munda Biddi www.mundabiddi.org.au/ from Albany to Manjimup and they recomended
us to try the trail, even with our heavy loaded bikes. We thought,
well okay, it is better than 100km highway on one day and quickly
changed our plans. Tuesday we would start the Munda Biddi in
Northcliffe and spent the next 2 nights in the huts and camp sites
provided on the trail directly in the National Park(s).
In the morning we bought enough food
for the next 2,5 days cycling and 130km mountain bike track!
Equiped with a set of maps from our
biker-friends we started.
Day 1
In February this year there was heavy
fire in the bush, so that large parts of the national park got
completely burned down. The trail has some detours because of the
fire, even one of the 2 huts on the way is closed due to the fire.
Already after a few kilometers of our ride we slowly began to
understand how big the fire was.
Big respect to all the rescue people
and fireman and for the forest workers that still remove the broken
trees from the paths.
It is amazing though how fast the
nature is comingback again! The green returns already in big parts of
the forest. Many trees died but their seeds survieved and started to
grow soon after the fire.
The first day we stayed overnight in a
hut in a magic place near a High Mountain and observed the most
spectacular sunset.
Cycling was fine, the road was good and we enjoy the stay in the hut on our own with a glas (or two) of red wine :-)
Day 2
The second day we started with a few
quite heavy climbs on a loose gravel road and that was hard with the
heavy loaded bikes. After 10km that day we hit our first 1000km on
our bike computer and we are very happy about it:
But before we had a swim in a small
lake at Fernhook falls. Surprise, surprise.
The single tracks were very nice but we
would have enjoyed them surely more without our 20-30kg luggage on
each of our bikes. We had to be careful and slowly going down,
otherwise the machine ( our bike) behaved very shaky.
After 52km and a heavy climb up on a
single trail with many broken trees we arrived in the second hut!
Tired but happy we enjoyed ourselves cooked pasta and eate some chips
and listened to some birds again. The day before it was very quiet
in the woods, because obiously also the animals died in the fire but
not today.
Day 3
We knew we only have 30km to go to get
to the next bakery to get some coffee and sweets or a cake and that
was our main motivation!
On the way we accidentaly meet 2 wild
Emus! Amazing, the ones we have posted lately were on a farm, but
these two were in the bush and they run quickly, that is for sure!
Yes, we got to Walpole and drunk some
coffee and we notice the 130km mountain bike track quite a bit in our
legs!
Thanks a lot to Alison, Denise, Gavin
and Steve for encouraging us to go on this trail! We would definitely
have missed a great insight into the Wesr Australian forests. We owe
you a beer guys;-)
Walpole to Denmark
Staying in Walpole was nice we enjoyed
a warm shower at the campground and soon went to bed. The ride from
Walpole to Denmark was kind of hilly again but the scenerie was
really nice with amazing karri tree forest. Shortly before Denmark we
decided to stay over night at a campground at Parry beach. What a
beautiful place to stay. The beach is very large and popular among
angler. Soon it was clear we will stay for another night. Next day we
walked along the beach to a place called elephant rocks at Williams bay. You just
have to look at the pictures attached. It was just stunning.
On the way to Denmark we met quite a
few pelikans, as we said previously, like in the zoo here!
