Bridgetown Day 1 : The ride there

Saturday morning Nate, Billy and myself were planning to head down to Bridgetown on the bikes. Sue and Sarah were driving down with our stuff and would meet us at the house we had rented for the night just outside Bridgetown.

Tony Chung had decided to come along for the first part of the ride to Dwellingup on his new CBR600RR (even though he cannot legally ride it yet). We got out of town late, as was expected and blasted down to Byford along Tonkin hwy. After Byford, Tony had to stop as he thought he needed fuel, unfortunately he doesn’t know how to work a petrol pump and was walking back and forth into and out of the petrol station thinking they had run out of fuel.

Eventually we got back on the road and headed along Del Park road to Dwellingup. It’s a fantastic run with a great surface and long sweeping corners that go 180 degrees. It was mad fun and we all arrived in Dwellingup with big smiles on our faces. We stopped for some food and then bid Tony farewell as he headed back to Perth and we continued our journey.

This is where things started to go wrong. We turned off at the road for Williams but then got confused and thought we’d turned off too early. We then backtracked and went another 30kms along some excellent roads. Unfortunately it got us to Albany hwy, which was about 50kms in the opposite direction as to where we wanted to be. We ripped along Albany hwy to Williams averaging about 230kmh. It was good fun, although the road was a little boring and we were beginning to get a little sore. We filled up in Williams and then got on the Williams-Collie road and headed for Collie.

There were some roadworks along the way but nothing to tragic. Overall it was a fantastic road and Nate led at an excellent pace as we averaged about 170kmh through some brilliant country twisties.

We hit more problems when we got to Collie, as we were expecting a sign that told us which way to go for Donnybrook, but there was none. We picked what we thought was the right road and set off. All was going well, the road was fun and in good condition, running through the Wellington Forest. Unfortunately the road soon went unsealed and the three of us plodded along the dirt road at about 40kmh for around 20kms. Nate and Billy amused themselves by trying to do rolling burnouts on the dirt and get their bikes sideways, however they mostly just succeeded in sending rocks and dust in my direction. After what seemed like forever we finally returned to a sealed road and continued out to Dardanup and then Donnybrook.

We stopped in Donnybrook for fuel and sat down for a bit. The half hour on the dirt track had really taken it out of us and we were getting frail, both physically and mentally.

We set off to do the “triangle” which is the main reason we had come all this way. There is a triangle of roads connecting Balingup, Nannup and Bridgetown that run through the forest and are tristy and brilliant. I wanted to ride them before I left Perth. The ride from Donnybrook to Balingup was fine, and then we set along the first side of the triangle. It was tight, twisty and bumpy as fuck. Not exactly what we were looking for after nearly 5 hours on a sport bike. We got to Nannup and started the second side of the triangle towards Bridgetown along the Brockman hwy. This road was heaps better and would have been an absolute blast if we all weren’t so shagged by this stage. We got into Bridgetown and got off our bikes and nate had a conniption as he’s was tired and cranky and needed a cuddle. We called the girls, who were shitty at us as it was now 5pm and they’d been at the house since 1:30 waiting for us. We got directions to the house, however there was a miscommunication between Nate and Sue on the phone, so again we rode about 10kms further than we needed to, including turning into the correct driveway, deciding it was wrong and then leaving as the girls were waving there arms and screaming at us from the house as we rode away.

Finally we got to the house. Got off the bikes and endured the girls cutting sick at us as we all took off our bug and dust encrusted leathers, boots, gloves and helmets. Nate and Billy attempted to comfort their women, while I lay down on the grass and looked up at the evening country sky, very sore. But also very contented with what I had accomplished. This was a real country ride. I was proud that it was long. I was proud that I was sore. I felt like I had a little tiny snack size serving of “the long way round”.

After having a shower and getting our shit together we all went out in Bridgetown for dinner, and laughed about all the stupid shit that had happened to us along the way.

We planned to get smashed that evening, but everyone was so shagged after the day that we sat around drinking and watching Sydney beat Hawthorn in the footy. Sue and Billy fell asleep on the couch and the rest of us headed to bed soon after.