Last day! Northam to Perth 97km

At long last! How can it already be coming to an end? What a mix of emotions we felt on the first morning.

Primarily though, the feeling was of dread, because we knew what was coming. Hills. After weeks of blissful flat plains the final stretch would take us over 300 metres skywards.

And yup, it hurt. We were givin’er though, every scrap we had because we knew there was no need to keep anything in reserve. One funny thing that happened was some guys who pulled up and were waving madly at us to stop, freaking us out a little. It turned out they’d seen us at Cocklebiddy and they’d gone out and bought a camera in case they saw us again so they could take a photo. Gosh, we should have charged for all those shots that were taken of us along the way. It was like being a celebrity for not really doing very much, highly entertaining for both of us, and it made us forget about the yucky climbing for a few minutes.

We made it to Mundaring, 30k out of Perth, by lunchtime and from there it was all downhill, top speed of 65k per hour.

Getting through the city was a little terrifying – try being thrust back into heavy traffic after four weeks of barely seeing a traffic light. But we made it, and even tackled the final challenge of Mounts Bay Road to get to King’s Park. Any Perthies will know how crazily steep this hill is! I think it was the worst one of the trip, especially because we both gave it one hundred percent. Must have been a funny sight to see a fully laden tandem flying up the hill like that with two people grimacing as they made their way up.

My parents and brother were madly waving at King’s Park to welcome us. We were so beat from that climb we could hardly stand up but it was smiles all round – we made it! My cycle clock tallied up 3695 kilometres of cycling over the 32 day period. Heaven knows how many pedal strokes it had taken us!

Made it! That's Perth in the background

Garrett and I felt tired and sore but very happy as we cycled the last tiny bit into Subiaco where a nice cup of tea and a properly cooked hot meal were waiting.

So that’s it! What an adventure, I still can’t believe we actually made it (well, mostly). I hope if you’re reading this it will inspire you to go for a bike ride – however long or short. If you’d like to see more photos check out our flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/29037965@N00/sets/72157617327870048/

If you’re planning a similar trip  and have stumbled across this blog leave us a comment or two and we’ll gladly get in touch with some tips!

Happy cycling

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