Day 434 | Just off Stewart Road: after a terminated excursion into more remote forest tracks

64 km | Heading west total: 15,608 km

I’ve a confession to make. I’ve been round these parts before.

About ten years ago a friend invited me for a non-platonic holiday for two weekends and the intervening week. She’d been attending a conference in Perth and decided that some company would be good for a tour around the south west corner of Western Australia.

It sounded like a good idea at the time.

Actually there’s two things wrong already with the explanation of the trip.

We weren’t close friends, we scarcely knew each other for starters.

Secondly, I don’t know how great my company was having just completed the largest contract of my career requiring long hours for weeks previously before jumping on the plane and not being coherent enough to steer the rental transportation to the required rendezvous.

Then promptly fell asleep for 36 hours. After that I was better functioning but still not up to speed with her idea of gracious holiday living.

Today I treadled past Karri Lodge, own private lake, where we had stayed and it set off those memories. Actually I ended up really enjoying myself on that trip.

Before long it was apparent that my 38 year old friend was in fact on the final dash at motherhood and I was the bloke to supply the missing ingredient.

Riding a bike up these hills is easy in comparison to the regime I was party to. There was plenty of effort expended, many long Sunday mornings lolling about in white sheets.

The results were mixed: she wasn’t happy, I just hadn’t tried hard enough.

After 3 years I was exhausted.

Our relationship turned into something quite like what happened this afternoon when I decided on some further cross country on some forest tracks that started well enough but eventually became bogged in deep sand.

A lot of toil going not far.

On both occasions I saw the light and bailed.

Today it was a right angled turn to make my way back onto a beautiful forest track that wasn’t at all heavy going.