Today was hard to say goodbye. I said goodbye to Bee last night as I knew I'd miss them this morning for the Margaret river market. The German couple have plans to head to Melbourne so I have a feeling I'll be seeing them again.
My plans were to get to Margaret River today and set up camp around there. I left pretty early as I was hoping to see the farmers market, which closes before 12:30midday. It's around 90km to get there so I thought if I left around 7ish then I could catch the end of it. I was also see how Bee and Stuart set up their stand and the way they went about selling produce. I have wandered since I've been here how these two go about selling their produce. They are both farmer types and don't have quite the best communication skills, in particular Stuart. My impression is that they would lose business based off this fact, and have thought that they would perhaps benefit from employing a outgoing spokesperson for the day. Unfortunately I didn't see the stand today so missed out on this aspect of the farm.
Yesterday Stuart had a permit inspector come around for his food van. This reinforced my previous beliefs of exorbitant regulation and suffocation to the growth of small localised business. The inspector has said that the van is "To small for business". This made me feel bad for Stuart and Bee, as they purchased this van fully kitted, aluminium bench tops industrial flooring, operating appliances and everything else required under the regulation. It costs a large amount of money to get a van in this condition that is capable of meeting the required guidelines. Stuart and Bee were de estates when they were told that everything was good but "The work place to small". The worst thing about this it's nothing they can replace or fix, as they are left with a non permitted food van that they will probably now have to sell at a loss. This answers further reasoning as to why we have a non-food culture on the streets and are left to expensive roadhouses, cafes and restaurants.
I only decided to stop briefly at Margaret River. I realised the beach was still quite a distance from the town and didn't want to spend excess money in Margaret River. I rode to a spot called Gracetown 15km past Margaret River. It's a beautiful beachside town, providing a nice selection of places to set up my tent. I've set up my tent on the edge of a small beach cliff, overlooking the beautiful coast line.
I'm a little concerned on the condition if my bike as today's ride was predominantly on poorly kept gravel roads. This caused a lot of vibrations to my bike, additional pressure on my spokes and wheels.
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