Western Australia
 

This winter break we headed to Western Australia, to go bicycle touring. We flew into Perth, took the bus to Albany and started bicycling back to Perth. We biked for two weeks, but unfortunately Zoë had a ruptured appendix shortly before we got back to Perth. As I write this, Zoë is still in the hospital in Perth.


Our guardian angles, Dave and Jane. They've been insanely kind to us, helping us take care of Zoë in the hospital.
On the beach in front of our campground in Albany.
Bicycling out of Albany. How beautiful is that?
This national park campground had a wood fired water heater for the showers!
Cheesy I know, but you've got to do it.
We stayed in a couple youth hostels along the way, which were great for meeting people, even other families.
Some of the beaches on the south have tons of Sting Rays right on the beach, this one was about 2 feet from me - some people were petting them.
Another wild and crazy New Years Eve for the Paesel/Holder clan. This one had us playing Monopoly and in bed by 9:30.
There's a couple good breweries in the Napa Valley like wine region of Margaret River.
At Princess Margaret Hospital in Perth.
 
 

 

Putting together our bike outside our hotel room in Albany. We were surprised at how much easier it was to put together the 2nd time.
Our first night in Denmark (a town). Unfortunately, not our last, or even consecutive night! Our derailleur malfunctioned on the way to Denmark, so we did half the days ride in 1 gear. We had to bicycle back to Albany in 3 gears, get our bike fixed and then bike back to Denmark, where we stayed in teh exact same camp spot! 3 days to go 65 kms!
Our LP said this fish and chips shop at Emu Point near Albany is a "classic". I say any fish and chips shop that lets you BYOB is a "classic". That's all I'm saying....
"Green Pools" between Denmark and Walpole, a beautiful beach stop. The locals like to say, "There's the SOUTH pole, NORTH pole and WAL pole!". (It's a small place with not a lot going on!)
We bicycled through amazing forests, with trees almost as tall and big as the redwoods in CA.
On a tourist train near Pemberton.
In a couple places, we biked large parts of the day through forests decimated by bush fires.
Towns were very far apart! This night we camped at a rest stop between two towns. Sometimes it was a challenge to carry enough water and food between towns.
Lots of cool caves near Margaret River.
 
Bicycling through the vineyards.
page created on January 21, 2012