Journey of Charity with Michael Davey

The ride to Dumbleyung was a challenge. My ribs were very sore after going over the handlebars…had to stop many times owing to the discomfort…
We were offered free camping at Wagin, but getting in and out of the tent would have been a challenge with the pain so kept riding, ending up at the Dumbleyoung Tavern. The owner, Ian, put us up for free in a room, shouted us drinks and dinner…very kind a generous of him!
Tonight we made it to Newdegate and Anne, the owner of Newdegate Myriadena Motel and Caravan park, put us in a motel room for free…once again, very kind of her….also, she is one of the few owners who, along with Ian, made a donation to the Kids With Cancer Foundation. I called them both angels. They call me an angel and I blush and then chuckle and then cry…my ribs can’t stand even a sniffle because they are so sore!

The Dumbleyung Tavern in Dumbleyung about 300 km south east of Perth, an impressive old and historical building. Donald Campbell stayed here when he set the world speed record on water…276 miles per hour…very impressive.

This is the giant ram in Wagin. The towns in WA are sleepy, quaint and every now and then throw up a surprise. The ram appears out of nowhere….Wagin is in the wheat belt of WA but there are also thousands of sheep. Interestingly, 70 per cent of Australia’s grain export comes from WA!

Will ride 130 tomoz, same as today. Ravensthorpe is the destination and Esperance on Tuesday…hopefully the ribs will be better and so the 200 km ride to Esperance and to what heaps of people are saying are some of the most beautiful beaches in Oz will be most worthwhile and hopefully pain free.

Adelaide in 20 days.

Clocked up 9300 km today…..blows us away that we have travelled this far!

Time for zzzzzzz….
Cya 🙂

Sent from my iPad

A huge thank you to Tom at the Collie Motel and Julie at the Collie River Valley Tourist Park for free nights accom. Great places to stay and generous of these people to help us!

Just clocked up 9000 km, but rode into a ditch today and went over the handlebars…ouchhhh!
Landed on my head and right shoulder but seriously bruised my ribs. Got up thinking they might be broken…the ribs, not my head or shoulder I mean.
In heaps of pain just walking so we drove back 50something kms to a hospital where I spent the arvo in casualty. X-rays revealed no breaks….thankfully!
Thanking God that I can still keep riding, but will take tomorrow off, resting here in Collie. A big thank you to the kind and gentle staff at Collie Emergency Ward, although no one donated, unlike the Alpha hospital in Central QLD, where heaps of the staff threw money in out tin!

Gotta love the names in the south of WA….heaps end in ‘up’….check it out on a map….there’s Yallingup, Manjimup, Mumbillup and Gottagetup…..
Ok, so I’m joking with the last one….

Heading south out of Perth I saw a sign that read ‘Secret Bay’ with a huge arrow pointing in that direction. Couldn’t help but thinking, ‘well that’s not helping keeping the secret now is it?’

This is a Tawny Frog Mouth, a very beautiful native bird of WA forests. Interesting that it’s in a shopping centre in Perth. We touched it and it didn’t move….incredible!

The one on the left, although looking like a Tawny Frog Mouth, is me….this is in Freemantle at the Red Herring Restaurant on the Swan River just near HMAS Leeuwin where I spent 12 months as a Junior Recruit in the RAN when I was 15. It was wonderful sitting in the restaurant reminiscing. The only challenging aspect was finding the food on our plate when it was served….there wasn’t much there! Mine was hiding under a small salad!

This is an open-cut coal mine near Collie in south east WA. It’s a great look eh? You think they would try to camo it a bit wouldn’t you?

Rest day tomoz….taking just a few painkillers and giving Barbie strict instructions to not make me laugh!
Cya and God bless u 🙂

A very big thank you to Sunset Beach Caravan Park for two nights free motel room amazing…..and free camping at Green Head and Lancelin Caravan Parks…very kind acts by these park managers.

Sunset at Dynamite Bay, Green Head just north of Perth.

The Pinnacles at Nambung NP. These structures are formed from calcium carbonate combining with sand particles to form limestone…amazing….

Grass tress in the west are amazing….in the background is a sand dune that is as white as snow….

The banksia bushes are extraordinary.

Sunrise over our campsite at Lancelin.

Another shot of the Pinnacles dessert in Nambung NP. Despite the dessert, there exists an extraordinary and rich biodiversity…eagles, black cockatoos, numerous insects and reptiles that feed on them and so on and the limestone spires go on for kilometres.
Gotta love the WA sense of humour. Check this out….

This sign we found in a local park south of Geraldton….we were wondering what causes the explosions….dynamite? We had visions of a couple of council workers walking around..one with a match and the other with sticks of TNT…image the effect on the locals….reckon it wouldn’t just be the birds that get sent packing….
But what if they employed the RAAF instead….a low flying F18 with a 30 mm gattling gun perhaps….that’s a descent explosion especially if it breaks the sound barrier!
Anyway, the sign made our day.

Had to have some bike repairs in Geraldton. The chain was jumping off the front sprocket. Had to ride my spare bike, the Specialized. Eventually got to Revolutions Cycle shop who also replaced the rear cluster and chain. Reckon it was incredible that I got over 8000 km without repairs! Very cold riding into Perth so we need warmer clothes and wet weather gear. Just clocked up 8800 km and have raised 16000 for the foundation.
Staying with our friends in Rockingham, David and Frances Sutherland. David and I joined the RAN together when we were 15 years old. He is the president of Gideons in Australia. Spoke at his church campuses yesterday…it was great.
Adelaide in four weeks where we plan to take a week off. We are hoping there won’t be much rain going across the Nullabor….rain and the cold don’t mix all that well with cycling!
Cya and God bless you.
🙂

A big thank you to Wintersun Caravan Park, Carnarvon for two nights free accom and Brian at Hamelin Station Stay for three nights free accom….wonderful of you to help!

Just arrived in Northampton riding 190 km today into a headwind…v tired now. Bike needs repairs…it’s jumping out of gear when I put the foot down…will ride my specialized until I can get Fuji son fixed…hopefully in Geraldton tomoz…

Check out the stunning beauty of Shark Bay World Heritage area….

Another beautiful sunset over here in the west!

Take two…..

Take three…..impressive eh???

Sunrise the next morning from our campsite…

This is Shell Beach…it’s covered in cockle shells, metres deep…amazing!

Our campsite at Hamelin Station…

Geraldton tomoz……zzzzzzz
Cya 🙂

A huge thank you to the Fortescue roadhouse for free camping and the Minilya roadhouse for a free cabin….awesome stuff.

Since leaving Broome last tues we have covered 1270 km and are now at the Minilya roadhouse, 140 km north of Carnarvon. Saw heaps of road trains today…v narrow hwy…v dangerous riding….saw a caravan that was hit by a road train…

Clocked up 7000 km just south of Pt Hedland last week.

Two cyclists I met just south of Karratha. Drew and Pip are riding from Perth to Broome unassisted….v impressive!

A caravan that was side swiped by a road train……incredible…..

The rugged and beautiful Pilbra in WA….

Sunset last night at our campsite…we had dinner sitting around a campfire…

Sunset just outside our cabin tonight….

Carnarvon tomoz….
Cya 🙂

A very special thank you to Sharon at The Cove Holiday Village caravan park in Pt Samson for hosting for free in this amazing cabin….awesome stuff!

The bedroom in our cabin at The Cove Holiday Village at Pt Samson just north of Karatha in north western WA.

Look carefully at this photo…in the background there is a wharf that stretches for a couple of kilometres out to sea…its gotta be the longest wharf anywhere in Oz yeah????

This is the Landing Holiday Park in Pt Hedland where we stayed…the vans are lashed to the ground via heaps of steel cables to make them cyclone proof…amazing…and there are signs everywhere on the roads giving the latest cyclone updates….incredible what the locals have to endure eh?
But they still have a great sense of humour…I was in the dunny after collecting at a pub and one of the urinals ( I was in the men’s dunny) had a sign on it that said ‘Out of order’ and someone added to it to read ‘Out of orderves’
I laughed so much I struggled to…you know….
Very tired now….zzzzzzzz
Cya 🙂

A mammoth thank you to the Landing Caravan Park in Pt Hedland who not only hosted us in an aircon cabin for two nights, but also shouted us dinner, and the meals were brilliant – they really hit the spot! And who are also shouting us brekky and take away lunches…..amazing generosity!

Rode into Pt Hedland today and I’ve never seen so many road trains in all my life…the big ones tow 4 rigs and have 86 wheels all up….they are huge….we had to get off the road so many times…apparently there’s a huge mine nearby and the trains carry the ore to the port ore they might go down to Karratha, I’m not sure. Anyway, we got some great vid shots on the road with these monsters on my GoPro.

Met this amazing bloke last night who is walking around Australia…that’s right, walking!….his name is Mike Pauly. He is raising money for arthritis research and men’s health. He has arthritis himself but blow me over with fairy floss, he’s still walking around Oz….astounding really when you consider he’s pushing this trolley ahead of him and it weighs close to 100 kgs….just as well it’s not a shopping trolley eh….it would go everywhere except where Mike would want it to go! I used to be certain they had a mind of their own but one day I checked and no they don’t….
Anyway here’s a photo of Mike from Perth heading north on the Great Northern Hwy…..

That’s Mike on the right…coincidentally, that’s Mike on the left as well and that’s Mike’s trolley on the far left. Custom made, it has solar panels and a hand brake on the handlebars….impressive eh?

We had dinner together and chatted about his experiences. His were amazing such as being bitten on the crutch by a bull ant (ouch!) and also on the eye (even more painful) having regular interviews with Macca, unlike me who can’t get on, walking unassisted in the middle of absolute nowhere, having heaps of people giving him water along the way, seeing remarkable lightning storms and walking during the night…it must be a real sight for night drivers to see Mike walking down the Hwy in his reflective gear…imagine seeing him way off in the distance in the dark wondering what in the world is that???
I know what I would say,
“I didn’t know kangaroos had reflective fur!”

Check out what we saw in the toilet in one of our ensuites a few days ago…

This green goblin could really jump….one second he’s in the dunny and the next he’s flying outta the toilet onto the wall!

The green goblin turned around and eyed us off and we bolted….he could jump unbelievable distances…..

Rode 140 kms today. On to Dampier tomoz, 210 kms down the Hwy…..
V tired now….zzzzzzzz
Cya. 🙂

A very big thank you to the Sandfire Roadhouse and Pardoo Roadhouse for hosting us for free in motel rooms…v comfy indeed!

Well, Broome is halfway so that means we’re going home! Despite the remarkable and generous people we are meeting and the extraordinary adventure we are on we always miss home, family and dear friends. So, turning the corner at Broome was sentimental indeed.

Rode 250 km on Tuesday and 170 yesterday. Being lower in latitudes means things are cooling down and riding is getting easier, especially because there is no humidity. I’m still drinking heaps of water and taking some electrolytes also…if I don’t do this I cramp terribly during the night and it’s excruciating! Another 170 today should see us in Port Headland today. Tomorrow I will clock up 7 000 km.

The most challenging aspect for me about journey of charity is the collecting that I do at the end of a big days ride. But, the remarkable generosity of locals and travellers continually astounds us. I’m sitting at dinner last night and people who saw me collecting earlier came and donated. A bloke in a pub sees me collecting and withdraws money…a barmaid throws in all her tips..a pub owner puts in 100….we’re greatly touched by the Australian way of helping others. So far we have raised $14 000 for the foundation with over $10 000 being collected on the ride in our tin.

Time for brekky…..
Cya
🙂

…one of the most beautiful places we have ever seen!

A huge thank you to Kimberley Entrance Caravan Park, Derby and Cable Beach Caravan Park at Broome for hosting us free! Amazing acts of kindness by these people.

Check out these photos….

On the wharf in Derby…gotta live their sense of humour eh?

The prison boab tree where indigenous men, who we’re taken prisoner to work on pearling ships and put in chains, were sometimes incarcerated…hard to imagine that white Aussies could do this eh…but they did…heartbreaking yeah? …it was called black birding and wasn’t isolated to derby….

This is the first in a sequence of sunset shots at Cable Beach in Broome..the most beautiful sunset we’ve ever seen

Take two…

Take three…

Take four…

Take five…..

Very impressive sunset eh?

Time to zzzzzz…..plan to ride 250 tomoz….
Cya 🙂

A huge thank you to the Fitzroy River Lodge for putting us up in this amazing safari tent for free!

Our safari tent at Fitzroy River Lodge.

This is an amazing formation on The Great Northern Hwy. I was up above the road and Barbie wants to join me. She was on the other side of the road on a blind corner and yells up at me, is the coast clear?
I yell back that despite my elevation I can’t see the coast!

The same formation as above, but where Barbie walked from.

Today I clocked up 6000 km.

We have green tree frogs in the toilet of our safari tent….they gave me the greatest shock when I lifted the lid! They are a v pleasant change from all the cane toads we’ve seen, even if they are in our dunny!

The view from our safari tent.

Another view just minutes later.
At the moment there is a full moon and outside it’s stunning!

240 km at 36 km/hr……zzzzzzzzzzzz
Cya 🙂