50 Days crossing Europe

A few more days will wind up 5 months of touring Australia over 2 visits.

We've ridden many of our K's (6,300 for myself and 2,600 for Shirley on this visit) along incredible bike paths.

Finally I photographed more black cockatoos than I could count. 

They are about 200 mm fromm head to tail,

They call out "Aweeyah", very different from other parrots or white cockatoos.

The commuter trains were excellent for getting to different riding locals.

We foun hat salt water didn't do much for removing the sweat from riding.

Shirley takes a dip in the ocean more often than I. 

We are not looking forward to facing the snow at home.

!Get rid of the stuff will you! We leave paradise in only 3 days.

Strava Challenge Results

I came in second Worldwide in the Feb distance Challenge. Congratulations to 1st place Ben Merritt who seems to knock off 1st place effortlessly many months while doing his regular rides for the fun of it. Good show the rest of you Participants.

What a ride you women riders! Good go Shirley Dodman my wife who placed 5th in Women Worldwide. I bet she'd get first if she tried hard, as she just did some of her regular daily distances.

No I didn't ride a camel during the Strava Challenge. But I did ride up along the Kwinana Bike Freeway where I stopped daily to throw these camels some fresh green grass. They were waiting for me at the fence.

I have to work hard to squeeze out a 200+ km ride. Yet some riders do it in a fraction of the time. here I stopped in South Perth along the Swan River to photograph these black swans taking the babies for a dip.

This huge lizard barred my way along the bike path. Same goes for a few poisonous snakes where I didn't stop for them to pose.

Funny the things that go through your head on long rides. Especially the songs that pop up. I started singing 'Ahab the Arab' by I think Roger Miller, an oldy. But I couldn't recall too many of the lines.

Shirley says that's her last Challenge for a while. I know I'll be back in a couple months after plans for riding in the USA are put together.

Day ride to Peron Point

I was looking all around, but Shirley was looking up and spotted this eagle sitting on a light post.

Peron Point is a park like setting just south of Rockingham.

CLICK A PHOTO TO ENLARGE PHOTOS

After our month of long rides for the Strava February challenge, we took a couple days to rest our muscles and tour. I've been here in this area for a month yet I hadn't looked at the sea shore.

The rock formations off Peron Point are similar but not as majestic as those on the Great Ocean Road which we visited last year.

Shirley Visits Penguin Island

Just a short boat ride off Rockingham West Australia is a reserve called Penguin Island.

Some brave people actually walked over the 1 km or so to the island.

When on the island, they want you to pay to see seals. However you can just go look at the beach and see them for free?

Catch us on Srava for a couple weeks.

We will not be posting many Blog photos until March as we're both aspiring to get to the top of Strava's distance challenge for February. Right now I'm 3rd worldwide out of 43,000 competitors, but anything could happen as it gets competitive near the end of the month.

The elusive Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo at last!

Finally, after around four months of touring Australia over two visits, a flock of Red Tailed flew into a tree near where I had been waiting for 2 hours or more.

It is amusing to watch the antics of the parrots as we ride along through the parks. I especcially like it when to white cockatoos fight and roll around.

Or when the get romantic.

There are hundreds ow cows sitting around the town of Cowaramup.

But disappointingly, it was not possible to get scooped Ice-Cream anywhere in town! They're missing a great business opportunity.

Valentine's day, 1 month stay.

We celebrated Valentine's day together with guess what? A 100K or so ride. During the ride, we had Ice Cream along the Swan River shore in Perth. We had a romantic lunch which we bought at the IGA, eating on a park bench.

We're done the daily travel from town to town. Instead we're in a nicely equipped 2 room Holiday Cabin at a Caravan park just outside of Rockingham West Australia.

A John Bennett type road

Suddenly the nice sealed road turned into a bad sandy road. But just because the sand was too deep to ride, and we had to push our bikes along the bush for over 2 km, that doesn't make it a John Bennett road.

You need more dimensions to the hardship, which there were, like hordes of nasty flies.

It also helps qualify as a JB road if there are obstacles, such as downed trees.

Margaret River and beyond

I've been trying to get a pic of the black cockatoo since a year or more ago. This one was with his crew at about 80 feet up in the trees munching on pine cones. Since this, we have spotted another variety - the red-tailed black cockatoo. So another goal is to get their close up.

A bird in the had is worth two in the bush. Green parrots will eat nuts from your hand in certain areas where they are tame.

At Shannon river National Park we had showers that were heated with a wood-fired water tank. That was a pleasant surprise.

Today we are in Margaret River for almost an entire day, after a short 50km ride to get here.

We expect better data rates as we head nort towards Perth, so we'll catch up with some of the photos we have missed. Back with you again from Busselton in a couple days.

Our free! Australia Day Weekend on the beach

We tried to use the campground outside of Denmark. Regular sites were filled and for $40 they would hae given us 10 square meters on the gras in front of the toilet. So we left on a cycle trail where there were huts all along the beach. We picked one and stayed for 2 nights for free.

I was going to set up a hamburg stand, but there was no traffic. So we just enjoyed the sort of Gilligan's Island accommodation.

Shirley is sitting on an antique cement couch made in 1938.You just can't take a lady to the wilds; they still are ladies.

We had an entire beach mostly to ourselves while it was a madhouse weekend in town.

This little lizard shared our hut with us and kept us entertained.

Click a pic, get a larger one. On both evenings we had a spectacular sunset

A trip outside of Albany

We did a nice short day ride to see 'The Gap' and the 'Natural Bridge' just outside of Albany before hitting the road for fully loaded touring and tenting. 

We're back on the Web, having had a poor internet connection for almost a week.

3/G is one thing, but you need a decent data rate to upload photos and work on the blog.

Fun on the beach on January 22nd

Some were getting a 7 - 10 meter lift off the water.

I need a head rub.

Is anybody hearing me?

All right! That feels good!