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Day 1: Murdoch >> Mandurah
I woke up at a leisurely 8am today, the very first day of my journey. After eating breakfast, which consisted of two buckets worth of coffee, and a few crumpets with cheese, I went about my final packing.
I knew that it was going to be tight for space, I've not really culled the amount of gear that I have with me down to a level that I'm happy with. I have little doubt that my poor bike is groaning from the load. In a few days i should be able to offload some of the additional gear that i thought i 'might' need. Whether i need it or not only time will tell, but I'm starting to think that there's quite a lot of stuff that i don't actually NEED. Anyway, after a carb/protein/fat laden breakfast I set off from my good friend Chris's house at approximately 11am - probably two hours later than I had hoped - but I ran out of daylight the previous night to pack/organise my gear.
Regardless, it wasn't a really big deal as my leg today only consisted of approximately 65km, down to Mandurah. Apart from a few small detours via some winding bicycle paths which led to nowhere(what?! who does that?) it was a fairly uneventful journey. At about the half way point, I stopped on old Mandurah road at a small general store for a chocolate milk and chocolate bar for a little pick-me-up. I spoke with one other customer about my trip, who asked things such as "Where are you going? All on your own? How long is it going to take you?". He was somewhat amazed that someone was doing such an "epic" journey all on their own.
After heading another 20km or so south, I stopped off at a roadhouse for a break, and had my remaining chocolate bar and some water. It wasn't long before i realised that I was joined by about a dozen medium sized kangaroos grazing in a nearby field.
With only another 7km to get to my destination I powered on for the next 20 minutes and arrived at another friend's(Takoma/Jay) house in suburban Mandurah in tired, but good spirits. I have no doubt that my legs will be sore tomorrow - I've not been training as much as I should have been previous to my departure - trial by fire for the first month I guess!
Final statistics for the day are:
Distance today: 67.8km
Average today: 19.2km/h
Maximum today: 37km/h
Overall, not too bad for a first day. Max speed was getting a bit high for my liking - trailer is only rated for 40km/h. The average speed i'm pretty happy with though - if I can maintain that for the next few days then it'll be a good start to my trip! I am hoping to raise it later on in my journey though! Now the only thing on my mind is what smells like a fantastic dinner, and whether I try to make it down to Bunbury in one day or two - it could mean I could have a rest day in Bunbury to let my body recover from the shock of being on the bike all day. Other option is two-day trip which would be easier on the body, and have a stop-off at one of the national parks tomorrow night. I'll do a few calculations tonight and see what the plan is.
Again, for those who haven't checked, my progress is viewable online with updates roughly every 12 hours with the following link: http://tinyurl.com/chig-does-australia
Signing off!
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