Day 66: Ellendale Pool to Mingenew

September 22, 2022

It was foggy, cold and dewy this morning when I woke up a bit after 6. So I stayed in bed for another half hour. Then I packed up my gear and moved my tent into the sun to try and dry it out a bit. Just after 7, some kids came down for a swim which was very keen of them. Another kid asked me: do you ride your bike on the highway? Why don’t you have a car? I couldn’t really answer that one. It was still cold about 8, but I figured I’d get warm riding back up the hill so I headed off, and it was much warmer up on the ridge. The hill wasn’t too bad, it was just annoying to ride up the hill then immediately drop back down into another valley. Then I turned onto Burma Road, a dirt road to cut back towards Mingenew and climbed back up onto the wind farm ridge. Burma Road was smooth and flat packed hard dirt. I could see tracks from cars/tractors driving along in the wet and cutting it up a little but there was always a nice smooth path for me.

Last view of the wind farm back along Burma Road

I had wandered what the original vegetation was and Burma Road Nature Reserve answered that - low heath

Unfortunately I saw a fox cross the road into the nature reserve. I was on Burma Road for 30k and saw two cars. About halfway along, I passed from the Geraldton shire into the Irwin shire. The road immediately became more gravelly, which was less pleasant for me but potentially a sign that Irwin shire has done more recent roadwork.

Burma Road was pretty continuously up and down. I could see the traffic along the sealed rod for ages as my road came in at an angle. I stopped to eat the oaty slice which Phoebe and Tessa has given me at the corner then started onto the sealed road, with other cars and trucks. It was a rude shock.

There were also some big valleys with long hills which were a bit of a struggle.

I found out that this crop is lupins, in Mingenew. It’s primarily grown for animal food but also gluten free flour.

It was a lovely downhill run to Depot Hill Nature Reserve. The speed limit even dropped down as the road wound around the hills so I didn’t have to worry so much about speeding trucks. I stopped to read the signs and was hungry enough to eat a wrap at the picnic table right next to the road rather than walking into the reserve.

Depot Hill was named by some early Europeans, possibly the Gregory brothers, who left supplies there when they went to explore further up towards Northampton. There was coal found further inland and the first shipment they tried to bring out to Geraldton, they wrecked the cart at the river crossing at the Depot Hill spring and had to spend several days fixing it and “being tormented by flies”. I was only there an hour and I felt tormented enough. After lunch I headed off on the walk. It leads to a training trench built in World War Two. All the signs referred to it as WW11, which seemed to overestimate the number of world wars significantly.

The trench was a feat of will power from the army trainees but the flowers were the main attraction

There’s an amazing amount of colour on the ground

There’s a book you can get that tells you what the flowers are

I don’t have it so I just wander around thinking they’re pretty

Someone had drawn an arrow on the ground pointing to these orchids which was helpful of them

I saw two women heading up the track as I was leaving, otherwise no one. I guess middle of the day isn’t prime wildflower time but it was still spectacular. Then I headed the final 10k into Mingenew. The wind was still firmly south easterly so I wasn’t particularly quick. Once I got into town, I somehow misinterpreted the direction sign to the caravan park and was riding up a road that did not look like it had a nice caravan park on it, before I realised I should’ve turned right not gone straight and when I turned next right, I saw a nice grove of trees and the caravan park behind it. I got checked in by a man who was perfectly pleasant and walked me down to the camping area and I thought the facilities were nice. A natural history group from Busselton turned up and apparently had a run in with the lady working and were very unhappy with the facilities. I was having a nice hot shower and I could hear them walking around saying “this holiday’s taken a turn for the worse”. Clearly they hadn’t been as far north as Fortescue River.

Mingenew also has a road board building that’s now part of the shire offices

The men’s shed put a red windmill here where the spring used to flow

I finally ate a packet of mi goreng which I bought in Katherine with veggies for dinner. The noodles were well pre smashed.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 4,485 km (2,785 miles)

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