Day 96 (Perth - Rest Day)

April 7 (Sunday)

This morning Matt and I went to a local market at the Subiaco primary school. This was great and I thoroughly enjoyed the set up. It is a great example of utilising open space that would otherwise be dormant. The primary school is a perfect place for such small scale local markets as it has all the required elements - power, toilets, shelter, open area for children to play, and a host of other features.

After this Matt took me to Kings Park. This is a beautiful park located right next to the main city centre. The park is very large, bearing a large proportion of natural bush land. I found this very interesting as most city parks are completely defunct of natural bush. It was an interesting contrast looking at a finely groomed landscape (thick dark green grass freshly mowed, European trees, open space) to that of Australian shrub land (yellow from dryness, burnt looking, thickly clumped together). It made me wander on the biodiversity of the scrubland, whether it would still be active being so close to the city centre. It also reminded me of a few weeks ago when I was riding through Margaret River region and I saw on one side of the road a thick pine tree plantation that spanned for many km's, and then on the left side of the road natural thick bush land that also spanned for many km's. On this occasion it felt like I was looking at two worlds. The pine tree plantation, although being green and hiding any bare ground, was completely desolate of any animal life. I couldn't hear one bird chant or see one nest in the trees. On the left side however, full of native vegetation, the birds were in full flight making many beautiful sounds and from the angles I could see having many nests throughout. I must of looked at bit crazy at this moment, swerving from one side to another listening to the sounds of the birds!

This made me think about the environmental connection of Aboriginal people. How distraught they must of been when first colonised. To see rapid transformation in the landscape must of been what the apocalypse is to Christians. The provider of life would so suddenly be destitute of this very thing, along with rich stories, sacred places and connections with ancestors. I think very few people may ever understand this connection. It will be a great day when modern society can incorporate this deep respect back into our earth.

Later on today I went back to my friend Luke's. Tomorrow pick up my bike and start getting my gear ready!

Day 95 (Perth - Rest day)

April 6 (Sat)

This morning I was up before 6, the first time since I've been in Perth. I tagged along with my mate Matt to a triathlon he participated in. It was a perfect morning, making I even harder for me to watch. I would have love to have entered as well.

After having a nice swim Matt, I and a few friends of his, went out for some lunch. I thought a $6 sandwich was acceptable as I have been doing it pretty cheap here so far.

In the afternoon Matt was buggerd and we lazed around on the couch. This suited me as it meant I could watch my football team on the television.

Tomorrow check out more of Perth!

Day 94 (Perth - Rest day)

April 5 (Friday)

Today was great. I took my bike first thing into Perth and arranged some small reparations. The main concern being tension in spokes, screws replaced if required and applied with necessary lock grip. I was informed it will be finished tonight, but will plan on getting it Monday next week. Price for maintenance being $60.

As I haven't had any response for work, I now feel inclined to leave Perth earlier then I anticipated. I was hoping to get at least a weeks work to help fund this second half of my trip. Either I've had no response at all or when I have it's been that there are already many foreigners on a waiting list to labour anyway. It now appears the trip up north is going to have to be extremely frugal and lacking many of the luxuries I've had for the first half of my trip. The luxuries I talk about are such things as cakes from a bakery, cold drink from a roadhouse or even the odd caravan accommodation. Now I will have to be more resourceful with food, sleep in in public spaces or the bush on nearly every occasion and decline any other tempting options that may pop up along the way.

I am very fortunate to have free accommodation here in Perth. In the three days I've been here I have spent on average $2.50 a day. This is on minimal discounted foods so that I don't have to scrounge off my friends.

I met up with my friend Luke in Fremantle. I spent around two hours in the Didgeridoobreadth Shop in Fremantle practising the Didgeridoo with a nice guy in there. He taught me many unique sounds and we practised circular breathing. It felt very surreal in this shop, as it is the same place I actually bought my sliding didge from online. They had the exact same one in the shop so me and the other fella practiced on the same type. After this my mate Luke took me down to Cottelsloe beach and we enjoyed the afternoon there.

Tonight I met up with my other friend Matt. We went into town and I managed to catch up with a friend who is around for a few days from Melbourne. We went to a pub, but I must admit I felt very uncomfortable. Too many pretentious people, drunken slobs, and too much make up on the girls for me to even look twice. The biggest benefit of going here is that I collected six dollars off the ground. I'm now contemplating returning another night by my self, solely for the purpose of collecting money off the ground from all the drunken people.

For now I have to get some sleep before my friend Matt's triathlon tomorrow. I was also keen on participating but an $80 entry fee was enough to make spectating more appealing.

Day 93 (Perth - Rest Day)

April 4 (Thursday)

Today I headed back to the museum. I spent a very long time in the stolen generation section yesterday and was keen to look at the other sections on tribal history and detail on W.A's traditional nations today. This museum is really incredible and details every little note on the most particular areas that many other cultural centres and/or museums fail to cover. I try very carefully to note associate Aboriginal culture or knowledge with museums, as a museum is not where we should be looking to learn this information. In many cases this knowledge is still strong, and I see this as somewhat demoralising to refer to a living culture as bound to a museum. Nonetheless the Aboriginal section had gave a good insight into life on the cattle stations up in the north west, the fight for equity amongst workers and right through to the current days and how conditions are now. A very important place to visit if ever in W.A. Unfortunately I didn't finish this whole section so will have to come again at some point.

The rest of the day I spent looking around Perth. I researched the location of a bicycle shop to drop into tomorrow. I want to get my bike up to scratch before I tackle this next section. My concerns at the moment are mostly the tension in my spokes, worn cables, loose screws, chain and cassette wear plus general maintenance.

Home made spaghetti with $2 organic vegetarian mince made from fungi. Perfect.

Day 92 (Perth - Rest Day)

April 3 (Wednesday)

This morning my body was feeling very lethargic. I'm now wandering if last nights footy training session was a good idea..

I had a great sleep in and then started the day doing my stretches. Sometimes I dread doing my stretches more then riding the bike, as the pain is often unbearable. I must admit the foam roller is perhaps the best thing I've brought on this trip.


In the morning after my mate went to uni I went into Perth city. I searched for aboriginal cultural centres but the only thing coming close was an aboriginal section in the West Australian museum. I went in the museum and had a good look at the natural world section. I am amazed at the amount of information this museum has, in particular on the stolen generations of our indigenous people's. The section describes the motives in detail, including letters from the actual policy makers authorising the abduction of children. This made my blood boil, I felt like punching a hole through the wall. Every time I am exposed to information on the treatment of Aboriginal people it's a nostalgic type feeling. Its as if I've known about it in the past and it flares up old memories. I don't know whether this is something inherited from my British Australian ancestors, perhaps a feeling of guilt on behalf of their ignorance, stupidness and inability to speak out against something so obviously wrong. Or perhaps a hidden bloodline I don't know about.

I looked around to see if anyone else is as angry as I am, or even anyone that I can vent frustration with. No one seems to be bothered, everyone in the museum just dawdled around, playing on their phone and taking photographs. The museum literally describes an attempted genocide - with a section specifically highlighting the UN definition of genocide and how the treatment from the Australian government on Aboriginal people fits in this definition. This genocide policy was terminated by government only in the 70s, nearly 40 years after World War Two. Despite the government policy being terminated records have shown further abduction into the eighties. The museum described the separation of children based on blood quantity e.g. one mission had half casts, another mission had quartets, and another quadroons. This was to ensure "breeding" wouldn't take place between their own kind. Depending on the colour of the quadroons they may sometimes be let out into white communities to try further exterminate the Aboriginal gene pool. The museum described that every Aboriginal community in Australia has been impacted one way or another from the government policy. The museum had stories from the people who were in the missions. It showed notes from fathers and mothers pleading the government agencies to give their children back, saying they couldn't sleep and that they were becoming permanently sick without them. Taken from the love of their mothers, forced into big dormitories with dreadfully dirty beds, bugs crawling all around them and freezing cold through winter. The deviates who managed the missions would sneakily change the sheets and put extra blankets on when photo times would come or when outsiders would inspect facilities.

I wander how different Aboriginal people would be now if these policies never happened.

After spending the whole day in the museum I headed back to my friends place to enjoy a nice risotto that he made up. Tomorrows plans are to head back to the museum, hopefully get past the Aboriginal section this time!

Day 91 (Mandurah to Perth)

April 2 (Tues)
Day: 85km

Today was very hot, which made for a hard days riding. I am amazed by the natural shift in climate by cycling only a few hundred km's northward from the south west coast. The air feels a lot more humid and the heat is hard to escape.

I slept a lot better last night then I did the night before. I did however have a couple of young guys on a motorbike wake me up again. It was around 12:30 midnight and I woke to the voice of a male saying to his mate "go on steal it, we stole the mo-ped [in the past]". I thought, here we go... I quickly put some shorts on and was about to hop out. Luckily as he came closer he realised I was camping. He yelled back out to his mate "Shit!! Someone's camping!", his mate replied "That's awkward! Jump on". They rode off and I had no other troubles for the rest of the night.

I've had good fortune as I no longer have to pay accommodation in Fremantle, or Perth, as my friend has invited me for an indefinite time to his house. He is house sitting a 3 bedroom house for his cousin, who is currently working in the mines. After three weeks on he returns home for a week and then goes back out to the mines.

I had planned to ride along the coast so I could avoid the major freeways. After talking with a local this morning I had learnt that there is actually a bike lane adjacent to the freeway all the way into Perth city. This was a lot more direct so I decided to take this route. My friend lives in a southern suburb to the east of Perth in a town called Gosnells. I had to make a few turns off the Fwy and then go down the Tonkin Hwy to get to his house. I was surprised as the Hwy actually had signs saying no bikes. In general it is the Fwys that bikes are not allowed and Hwys are alright. As I was only 19 km off my mates and it was boiling hot I decided to ride on the Hwy to his house. The alternative was to ride around 40 odd km and backtrack the way I came. I had the luxury of riding on a well kept bike path and then had to shift to a major Hwy. I switched my hat for my bike helmet and then rode as hard as I could to get to the turn off to my mates. I was surprised that despite all the signs saying no bicycles allowed, motorist appeared not to be phased by me cycling on the side. I must admit the side was fairly wide so I was well away from any traffic.

I was very relieved when pulling into my mates house. He was home early from uni luckily and was very welcoming. I hadn't seen him for over a year, since we were on exchange in the Netherlands together. He mustn't of recognised me as I now have a wild beard and the amount of layered sunscreen combined with crystallised sweat on my face would have made the remainder of my face hard to recognise.

He has taken me to a beautiful spot where we can jump into the swan river, just near the mouth into the ocean. The afternoon has been amazing, it really feels surreal to be out here and to of made it on the bike. Later on today I tagged along with my friend (Luke) to his football training. I reckon I'll be sore tomorrow..

Day 90 (Bunbury to Mandurah)

Day: 100km

The first day of April! It's been three full months since I've left, yet time very rarely entering my mind since I've been on the trip.

Last night was crazy. I had a car full of ravers partying on the footy oval next to where I was camping. I am not sure if they saw me, as I was nestled between a few bushes in the back corner, yet the bushes were spread far apart and the tent would still have been easy to notice. I would assume they didn't see me, as if they had of then I imagine they would of approached the tent. I was deep asleep and then around 1am I woke up to the thumping of heavy techno, the type of music you'd associate with skin head druggies. They then rode around for about two hours on a peewee 50 motorbike, although sounding more like a chainsaw. To my luck they left with no contact.

This morning I woke up feeling very heavy. I had very minimal food last night as it was late and I was very tired when pulling in to town. I decided to not cook my own food as I didn't want to draw attention to my camp site at the footy oval. I tried finding a shop, preferably supermarket to get cheap food, yet everything was closed. The only three shops open were a bottle shop, McDonalds and KFC. Although probably seeming as normal for a city and perhaps 'good' to the average person in a city, this to me is a good way of explaining a modern western society. Macdonalds KFC and a bottle shop. I bought a banana smoothie from mcdonalds in the hope it would suppress my hunger. The thing was disgusting and full or artificial banana flavouring and sugar, possibly not even containing proper milk.

It was very warm and humid this morning and I felt physically sick for some reason. I have associated the stomach cramps to the Mcdonalds last night as I haven't consumed anything different besides that in the last few days. I have been expecting a call from a few friends in Perth so I can arrange how long I can stay with them for. I have a few friends there, which I am looking forward to catching up with. In the mean time I am trying to figure where I will go before Perth. I don't want to go to Perth now as it is very expensive for hostels or campgrounds, especially that campgrounds are a fair distance from the city.

I decided to head to Fremantle as the hostels are cheaper and it's still close to Perth. On my way I felt even sicker in my stomach. The ride was very difficult for me. The weather felt unbelievably hot, considering it was high thirties and I've ridden close to 50 degrees in the past. I ran out of water ten km before any stop, so was dying for a rest. I stopped in Mandaruh for a break, with Fremantle being another 70km away. As I was not feeling well, the heat being unbearable, a hostel seeming expensive and Mandrah being a coast town with shoreline to camp I decided to rest here.

It was 14:30 when I arrived so I've just been lazing around the beach and reading my book. The shoreline is not very wide and its surrounded by small dunes. Out of fear that the shore would get covered in high tide I decided to sleep in a little park area. This appears to be a wealthy area so I'm not expecting the same type that interrupted my sleep last night!