Betten On Bike: DAY 62 - 10TH JUNE 2013 YANCHEP TO PERTH

Day 62 – 10 June 2013 - Yanchep to Perth

Another morning where we could take our time as we are not too far off our end point of Perth. Luckily the fierce stormy rains of yesterday and last night have cleared and it is a beautiful clear blue sky.

We left our ocean view chalet at around 9am after a nice relaxed breakfast. Thank you Andrea for the lovely poached egg. I have come down with Walter’s cold so have been feeling a bit awful for the past couple of days and Andrea has been very kind in for example bringing me a cup of tea this morning.

We drove to the main road and decided to take the more low key route to Perth via all the new coastal housing estates springing up. This was possibly a quieter route on the road. This area is undergoing rapid development – there are many large estates under construction with thousands of new houses being built. Walter jumped on his bike excited about reaching another major milestone – Perth today.

Cycling Stats: 50kms

Cycling Average: 32 kms per hour

Since Broome Walter has cycled 2,541 kilometres to reach Perth AND, he has cycled a total of 41 days (Total kilometers 7,686) since leaving Brisbane, which equates to an average distance of 187.5 kms per cycling day. This average is higher than his planned itinerary as by his calculations he believed his average would be around 140 kms per day. He has however extended his riding days on a number of occasions for a number of reasons - due to riding conditions, lack of suitable accommodation and the wish to spend more time in a few places along the way.

Back to today – OOOPS the fuel light came on and I believed that as we were closer to Perth there would be a petrol station on leaving Yanchep – not so. We travelled about 6 kms out and I was surprised at the lack of development until we quickly realized that we were of course still in the Yanchep National Park. As we couldn’t be sure about when we would come across the next fuel I decided to head back to Yanchep and onto the other exit road where Andrea had spotted a petrol station yesterday when we had arrived in the pouring rain. Very glad we did too because when we back-tracked to the alternate Perth road where we had left Walter it was indeed some kilometres before we came across a petrol station. All these huge estates were being built but no infrastructure such as shops or petrol stations had yet been built.

We caught Walter some time later and woe and behold – he had a flat (I knew I shouldn’t have put that note in yesterday’s blog about only one flat tyre so far – that was tempting fate!!). He said he was fine & so we continued to the turn-off to The Eastern Freeway (no bikes allowed here) and Walter got into the car for the final sector to our booked accommodation at Perth Central Caravan Park. Late yesterday we had decided to book a cabin as the weather had been so bad and we needed to be near the airport as I am flying home to Brisbane early tomorrow just for a few days to catch up with our boys (can’t wait) & some close friends and for business reasons

Walter & Andrea have gone to the shops & I am working on this last blog - so no blogs until probably the week-end or early next week.

Thank you to everyone who has been sending messages of support – we read them all & I am sorry if I haven’t replied as internet access has at times been a bit erratic to say the least.

We are also very excited that the total we have now raised for Alzheimer’s Australia Dementia Research Foundation has now reached over $21,000 – thank you to everyone who has donated and its definitely not too late – you can find the link on our website under ‘Fundraising / Sponsors’.

Adieu