We started relaxed and full of motivation from Perth in direction of Mundaring, where the Munda Biddi Trail starts. To get there, we had to climb over 400m – our first hills in a long time. Around 1pm we arrived and after a rest we went on the trail. The nice lady in the tourist information told us that the first parts are the hardest, but we were sure that we could manage it. it was just described as an easy mountain bike trail.
Really soon we had to realize that it was a proper mountain bike trail. The first sections were steep up and down hill with deep pea gravel parts. With our heavily loaded bikes it was often not possible to keep cycling. We had to push the bikes and a couple of times we even had to push one bike together as it was that steep. After the first 20km the sun was about to set and we ended up asking a local woman called Trish if we can pitch a tent on her paddock. We had a great evening together.
Next morning, she told us a short cut to skip a bit of the trail and stay on the road. We started to do the easy bits on the trail and look for roads next to the trail for the harder sections. We found beautiful roads and could enjoy the forests even more. We haven't seen that many trees or lakes for a while. Everything was green and totally different to the rest of the West Coast.
We made our way South and met a lot of nice people along the trail where we stayed for the night. In Manjimup we even stayed an extra day with Glenn and Lara. They took us for a drive around to Pemberton and to the Diamond Tree. It's a giant karri tree that was used as a bush fire lookout and you can climb up without any safety. You get a bit scared when you're at the top platform on 52m and you know you still have to climb down again. Two nights we also spent in the huts the trail provides which are really nice and clean, meaning you could do the track without a tent.
Right after we left Manjimup we reached 10.000km on our bike this year – woohoo!! We got closer to the coast and the weather got bad. It was raining when we arrived in Walpole. The last time we had to cycle in the rain was the day we arrived on the cattle station in May. The trail stays close to the coast on the way to Denmark and Albany and is not that steep anymore so even we could cycle it. On the part before Denmark we had 4 smaller snakes on the trail. From Denmark to Albany we stayed on the road most of the way, because the weather still looked like rain. After 10 days we arrived in Albany and relaxed for a bit. We didn't do any touristy stuff there, because in around a month we will be back with our parents, who are visiting us for Christmas here.

Keep cycling :)
Cheeryo,
Jonas, Vroni and Droni