November 2, 2020
Mundaring to Wungong Hut
The day before I had riden out of my front door and along the Heritage Trail to Mundaring Weir, stopping off at the Mundaring Pub for lunch with my family and the mandatory Northern Terminus photo. I wanted to ride to the Mundaring Weir and stay the night at the Mundaring Weir Hotel which is a 26km ride from my home and 6 km into the Munda Biddi. The day I set out was raining and cold, I was drenched and freezing by the time I got to Mundaring and I was doubting my sanity while taking the photo at the Northern Terminus, I was convincing myself "at least its not 40 degrees" because it was very hot earlier in the week.
I set out early from Mundaring Weir, I had ridden this section before and remembered it to be tough. I was pleasantly surprised that there had been a directional realignment and it wasn't as bad as I recalled. I arrived at Carinyah Hut mid morning, I wasn't impressed by the hut, it had vehicle access and subsequently there was a bit of damage and rubbish around so I decided to carry on.
The ride from Carinyah Hut to Wungong Hut had some tough terrain and I thought about the recent End 2 End challenges from south to north and marvelled at the hills they had gone up that I was coming down. The pea gravel is a beast all of it's own and I recalled a story I was told about the Japanese coming out for the Targa Rally and ended up taking pea gravel back to Japan in order to work on a tyre prototype (not sure how true this is) but I do know pea gravel can be slippery as hell with out the right tyres! I was thankful for my knobbly MTB tyres and travelling light.
The wildflowers were still out and had been revitalised by the rain, it was cool and a beautiful day for riding and although I was not far from the greater Perth region it felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, I saw emus, kangaroos and blue tongue lizards.
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The last 10km on the longer days always becomes a mental game for me, the fatigue sets in, I start to set goals with little rewards, ride 2km and stop and eat etc. Today was no different and I was glad I had ridden the 26km from home the day before and started out at Mundaring Weir.
I arrived at Wungong Hut at 3.00pm, it's a beautiful location surrounded by bushland and I was serenaded by the birdlife, especially the Kookaburra song that accompanied me most of the day-yes I know they are laughing at me! And the hut was all mine. I set up camp and had an early dinner, replenished all my water supply for the next day and was in bed on sundown.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 75 km (47 miles)
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