How to take a holiday (in four hours or less)
I needed a holiday. Desperately. Of course, I had no foreseeable consecutive days free, and almost no money, and yet... I really, really needed a holiday.
As it turns out, consecutive days off and money are both superfluous to a holiday. I booked out on my bike for an afternoon away from all the things that had been getting me down. It was surprisingly effective, and tremendously enjoyable, and took three and a half hours and a few bucks. (I could have cut it down to about six bucks' worth of fuel, but I could at least afford coffee, cake, and a couple of souvenirs.)
This then is that story.
12:30pm
Set out. Headed in the general direction of the Swan Valley, then to head up Great Northern Highway to Bindoon. Pleasant enough run - it's pretty country around there. Every time I go out far enough to be at the point where I'm out of the suburbs, I'm reminded how much I want to live in the country. Some interesting sights. Heard a plane pass low as I went past the RAAF Pearce base. Traffic slowdown at Bullsbrook because they're "upgrading" the highway. I seem to recall traffic snarled at Bullsbrook last time I went through there - a year ago.
1:00pm, maybe
I needed to stop off and get petrol at some point on this trip, as I'd planned about 180km and didn't have quite enough fuel for that. Saw a shiny new-looking sign by a gravel off-road for Fuel and Roadhouse, and turned off that way. After navigating carefully along the road (my bike is not designed for off-road and feels a bit disturbingly uncertain on gravel), found what looks like a couple of large, disused corrigated iron sheds. There's a pile of rusted farm implements, a foreboding "this is where the bodies got left" look to the biggest shed, and no sign of habitation or petrol. Bemused, I returned to the highway and got fuel further down the road.
1:40pm - Bindoon!
Last time I set out on a long aimless ride I decided to go to Bindoon but didn't get all the way. This time I made it! (It's a long ride and last time it was hot and I hadn't brought water and all the roadhouses were closed.) But due to trifling shortage of a key point of knowledge about local geography, didn't finish all my goals this time. More on that later. I noted a couple of places I wanted to stop and get a look at on the way back - stopping from 100km/hr when you see something beside the road doesn't work that well, especially if there's something behind you, and turning around is annoying.
Had very good coffee and better lemon meringue pie at the Giddy Goat Cafe. Tasty!
In the back garden of the cafe they have this thing I couldn't identify. Wacky. Across the road is Bindoon Tractors, which, for some reason, I really like the look of. It's just a nice building, somehow.
2:15pm
I set out again, still north. Now, earlier I'd seen signs which, at that point, indicated:
BINDOON 50
GINGIN 56
Which, of course, meant that from that point, Bindoon was 50km away and Gingin 56. What I didn't realise was that to get to Gingin you have to turn off on the Brand Highway about 30km before Bindoon, I couldn't readily go on from one to the other. (I'd THOUGHT that seemed a little close together for two separate towns...) When I found the turnoff to get from Bindoon to Gingin, it was another 22km, and I was tired.
On those long highways, you don't stop at traffic lights, so you don't ever really stretch your legs. After about 45 minutes of being in the same position and vibrated, my knees ache, and at high speeds the tension of holding my knees together (or at least, against the tank) against the 100km/hr wind force makes this muscle I don't know the name of on the insides of my thighs start to ache (this is the down side of my preference for naked bikes), and so I went back.
I stopped at the Post Office/Visitor Centre for a couple of little souvenirs of my holiday, then headed on back. The roadside range markers stopped being NN (New Norcia) and started showing P (Perth); home.
One place I'd noted on the way north I did remember in time to stop at on the way south. The Holy Trinity Church, built on a land grant from Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, is worth a stop. I spent a few minutes walking around its authentic 19th-century churchyard and reading the tombstones (some of them 19th-century). Some of them tell inherently tragic stories (read the second inscription), but it's hard to be completely moved by the tragedies of over a century ago. It's too remote.
It's good, I think, occasionally to get away alone. The time I spent there was silent, with no interruption to thought or consideration of other people's priorities or wants in the exploration, and I liked that. I do, though, also like doing this sort of thing in company, so I'm not sure which I prefer, really.
4pm
I got home. It was a nice holiday anyway. Certainly a good holiday for ~$25 including food, fuel, and souvenirs...
As it turns out, consecutive days off and money are both superfluous to a holiday. I booked out on my bike for an afternoon away from all the things that had been getting me down. It was surprisingly effective, and tremendously enjoyable, and took three and a half hours and a few bucks. (I could have cut it down to about six bucks' worth of fuel, but I could at least afford coffee, cake, and a couple of souvenirs.)
This then is that story.
12:30pm
Set out. Headed in the general direction of the Swan Valley, then to head up Great Northern Highway to Bindoon. Pleasant enough run - it's pretty country around there. Every time I go out far enough to be at the point where I'm out of the suburbs, I'm reminded how much I want to live in the country. Some interesting sights. Heard a plane pass low as I went past the RAAF Pearce base. Traffic slowdown at Bullsbrook because they're "upgrading" the highway. I seem to recall traffic snarled at Bullsbrook last time I went through there - a year ago.
1:00pm, maybe
I needed to stop off and get petrol at some point on this trip, as I'd planned about 180km and didn't have quite enough fuel for that. Saw a shiny new-looking sign by a gravel off-road for Fuel and Roadhouse, and turned off that way. After navigating carefully along the road (my bike is not designed for off-road and feels a bit disturbingly uncertain on gravel), found what looks like a couple of large, disused corrigated iron sheds. There's a pile of rusted farm implements, a foreboding "this is where the bodies got left" look to the biggest shed, and no sign of habitation or petrol. Bemused, I returned to the highway and got fuel further down the road.
1:40pm - Bindoon!
Last time I set out on a long aimless ride I decided to go to Bindoon but didn't get all the way. This time I made it! (It's a long ride and last time it was hot and I hadn't brought water and all the roadhouses were closed.) But due to trifling shortage of a key point of knowledge about local geography, didn't finish all my goals this time. More on that later. I noted a couple of places I wanted to stop and get a look at on the way back - stopping from 100km/hr when you see something beside the road doesn't work that well, especially if there's something behind you, and turning around is annoying.
Had very good coffee and better lemon meringue pie at the Giddy Goat Cafe. Tasty!
In the back garden of the cafe they have this thing I couldn't identify. Wacky. Across the road is Bindoon Tractors, which, for some reason, I really like the look of. It's just a nice building, somehow.
2:15pm
I set out again, still north. Now, earlier I'd seen signs which, at that point, indicated:
BINDOON 50
GINGIN 56
Which, of course, meant that from that point, Bindoon was 50km away and Gingin 56. What I didn't realise was that to get to Gingin you have to turn off on the Brand Highway about 30km before Bindoon, I couldn't readily go on from one to the other. (I'd THOUGHT that seemed a little close together for two separate towns...) When I found the turnoff to get from Bindoon to Gingin, it was another 22km, and I was tired.
On those long highways, you don't stop at traffic lights, so you don't ever really stretch your legs. After about 45 minutes of being in the same position and vibrated, my knees ache, and at high speeds the tension of holding my knees together (or at least, against the tank) against the 100km/hr wind force makes this muscle I don't know the name of on the insides of my thighs start to ache (this is the down side of my preference for naked bikes), and so I went back.
I stopped at the Post Office/Visitor Centre for a couple of little souvenirs of my holiday, then headed on back. The roadside range markers stopped being NN (New Norcia) and started showing P (Perth); home.
One place I'd noted on the way north I did remember in time to stop at on the way south. The Holy Trinity Church, built on a land grant from Queen Victoria in the late 19th century, is worth a stop. I spent a few minutes walking around its authentic 19th-century churchyard and reading the tombstones (some of them 19th-century). Some of them tell inherently tragic stories (read the second inscription), but it's hard to be completely moved by the tragedies of over a century ago. It's too remote.
It's good, I think, occasionally to get away alone. The time I spent there was silent, with no interruption to thought or consideration of other people's priorities or wants in the exploration, and I liked that. I do, though, also like doing this sort of thing in company, so I'm not sure which I prefer, really.
4pm
I got home. It was a nice holiday anyway. Certainly a good holiday for ~$25 including food, fuel, and souvenirs...
posted by Sami at 11:00 am
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