Day 216, Saturday, 31 October, 2009

Distance travelled – 33.5 km
Avg speed – 12.8 kph
Max speed – 38.2 kph

Perth to Mundaring

Our plan today was to ride as far as York. Our proposed route involved using part of the Rail Reserve Heritage Rail Trail to climb through the Perth Hills to Mundaring before returning to the Great Eastern Highway and then the Great Southern Highway to York.

The rail trail follows the route that the old Eastern Railway followed between Fremantle and York. First constructed in the 1880’s the railway tracks are now long gone and have been replaced with a smooth gravel surface. We joined the rail trail at Darlington and followed it most of the way into Mundaring. We stopped a couple of times on the trail and morning tea was particularly relaxing on a park bench next to a small waterfall with singing bush birds all around us. Listen to why we lingered so long, (1MB MP3).

The only downside of using the trail was that our speed was slower than if we had kept to the sealed road, but it was far more relaxing than mixing with the traffic. But this meant it was well after 12.00 before we arrived at the Sculpture Park in Mundaring for lunch. After such a relaxing morning we both did not have the desire to ride the next 60km to York so we agreed to call it a day and stay the night in Mundaring.

As we looked for a suitable café for afternoon tea we came across a group of 5 cyclists from the Over 55 Cycling Club from Perth. They were on the first day of a 7 day mountain bike ride along the new Munda Biddi Trail. Construction of this trail began in 2001 and when finished it will provide a 1000km trail between Perth and Albany. To date 500km of the trail has been completed. Munda Biddi means “path through the forest” and if our experience this morning along the rail trail is anything to expect we will have to come back and ride the Munda Biddi when it is finished.

We discovered a nice yoghurt today – Brownes Yoghurt and Grains – Peach, Nectarine with Oats and Barley.

Zoom into the map and use the 'Satellite' layer to see our new location.

Elevation profile for our journey today.

Resting half way up the hill to Darlington. Darlington is the level section at the 12km point in the profile above.

Resting beside the small waterfall on the Rail Reserve Heritage Rail Trail

Denise on the Rail Reserve Heritage Rail Trail

One of the sculptures in the Mundaring Sculpture Park called 'Tourists'

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