The Great West Australian Bike Ride - Day 9
Day 9 - Sunday 27-Mar-2011 - Nannup to Manjimup - 56 km (35 mi)
Click here for Rider Route details.
Last night was the final night of the ride, and a last chance for Aaron & Rohan to work on their fund raising efforts. They were selling beaded bracelets custom made to match the ride's colours. The profits would be split between two causes.
- A Masai school in Kenya which is supported by their school, All Saints Collegein Bullcreek.
- WATCAC - West Australian Tandem Cycling Advisory Council. This organization helps sight impaired people cycle by getting them onto the back of a tandem. My wife, Jennifer, is a front rider for them.
One aspect of ride that I have not mentioned is the handling of grey water (from the shower trucks and dish cleaning trailer) and sewerage (from the toilet trucks). They used large green bladders to hold the clean and dirty water for the showers, etc. I just hope they remember which bladders had clean water and which had used water and did not mix them up.
For the toilets, the trucks have their own tanks for clean and dirty water. To dispose of all the waste water appropriately we had regular visits from the liquid waste management truck. The truck would then take its load to the water treatment plant at Bridgetown.
As today was the last day of the entire ride, we were told that there were deadlines to reach the finish as people and equipment needed to start their respective journeys home. Even though we started our day at 5:00am, the campsite and Cafe De Canvas (where breakfast was served) were emptying fast. I think many of the riders left much earlier than us which meant we started at the tail end.
Now to the last day's ride. The route was a fantastic route to drive, some of it not so good to cycle. It started with a 150m climb over 1.5km. I did stop twice to get my breath back during the climb, but I did not get off and walk like many others did. The view back from the top was amazing and shows just how high the climb was.
Once we were passed the huge hill, the rest of the ride was undulating hills to the finish. However, by this final ninth day, my legs just did not have any "oomph" left and I had to resort to my low gears even for the smallest hills. We did have a couple of rest stops on the way, but were amongst the last of the riders to come through.
Finally, after 59.14km (maximum 61.0kmh, average 16.2kmh) and 3:39hr cycling, the end of the day's ride (and the end of the entire ride) was in sight. Make sure you look at the attached route profile for today to see the massive climb at the beginning.
After finishing, we actually went back a bit and took a series of "hero" photos of the family completing the ride.
Our "Week in another world' had come to an end and now we had to pack up the car with our gear and put the bikes on the carrier and start our 300km (this time by car) journey back to Perth.
One final photo for the day. When I took my helmet off after completing the ride, I was able to model a perfect example of "helmet hair".
The Route Profile for the day is attached to the bottom of this article.
David