July 1: I’m Starting to Get the Lay of the Land...Sort of

Starting tomorrow, the rain is returning, so I wanted to get a ride in. Cathie had been saying she should take me to Point Walter. I looked on the map, and decided I could ride there instead (Cathie was making cupcakes and going to a baby shower today). 

Point Walter is on the south side of the Swan River. Along the way, there are some nice parks. I saw lots of people windsurfing and kite surfing on the river.

A couple of kite surfers.

I also saw this trapeze school.

Did he catch her? No, he did not. I guess when you are learning, you are not flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

At times the path was very close to the water.

There is a house on the other side of the wall.

I resisted taking a photo of the pelican I saw, but couldn’t resist all these black swans.

Black Swans a plenty

I arrived at Point Walter. There was a cafe and kiosk, so I stopped for a little snack. This being a rather nice Sunday, there were lots of families out and about. It’s nice to see people getting out in the middle of winter (oh, wait...winter here is a bit warmer). I stopped to take this photo of the sandbar. In the summer, it is possible to walk on the sandbar over to a little island.

Boaters beware, it’s shallow there!

I found a fun, but narrow and winding bike path that stayed mostly along the water. I did have to watch my speed as there were a few people walking. It took me to where I could continue riding into Fremantle (I didn’t want to go back the way I came). I had an idea that the way I was going would take me to the shipping container rainbow. 

It did! See Tilmann? 

This time, coming through Fremantle, I went by the train station, and to the bike path that goes along the Coast. That path also took be by the Round House where I had fired the cannon. I went past Fisherman’s Harbor where Cathie, Marlene, and I had eaten lunch (at Cicerellos). I was trying to get to a point where I would fire up my Garmin and see if it would take me back to Cathie’s a different way. I waited until I got to CY O’Connor Beach (where Cathie and I took sunset photos last week). I turned on the Garmin. It told me to go back to South Beach. I did, then got on the road. Before too long, I realized it was taking me to the way I had gone back when I went into Perth last time. Oh well...so much for going a different way. 

I climbed all the hills as I made my way away from the ocean. I did turn off the Garmin when I got to a road called Bibra Drive. I knew I could go on Bibra to a different road than what Garmin was telling me. I still ended up on the freeway path back to the house, but I did route myself there. 

I’m starting to get the lay of the land...at least as far as biking goes. It’s not as easy as you would think. The Swan River is very serpentine-ish. However, now I’m starting to understand it. I don’t know if I’ll have many more opportunities to ride as the weather is not going to be great, and we are going on a little trip down south next week (to part of the Southwest I didn’t go to). When we go, it’s unlikely I will have WiFi, so I’ll have to wait to do a post when we get back. Then I’ll just have a few days more before I leave Australia on July 10th.