Pingelly to Wickepin

I got ready, and just as I was all packed up, it began to rain, so I had to don the wet weather gear, and put the protective covers on the small front panniers.
I was thrilled to discover that the strong wind was right behind me, and careered on in light rain, hardly getting out of top gear. I thought I could easily catch up today, and maybe end up in Harrismith.
That was for the first 30k, then something went wrong, I don't know if it was a change in road direction or wind direction, probably both, but I ended up with the wind right in my face for the next 25k, so Harrismith was out of the question, and I went to the caravan park at Wickepin.
It took me about an hour to get the tent up, first I couldn't find a rock to knock the pegs in with, then found an old pair of tongs, to discover that the ground was too hard anyway, and only managed to get two in properly. Anyway, it seems to be holding up ok, and the wind has died down now.
This caravan park has a free washing machine, powder and pegs, which is unheard of in my experience, so I washed everything I've used in the last three days.
There are three other patrons in the park, all permanents, and I've chatted to two of them.

You probably know that Wickepin is famous for Albert Facey, author of " A Fortunate Life". Here's a photo of one of the many Facey sites around Wickepin. Don't know if it is readable, but Facey camped here, at Gilmanning, with his family as a boy.

This other picture is a monument to the pioneers of Gilmanning

Pingelly

I was going to go a bit further today, but I'm tired, and the place I thought was a camping spot wasn't, so this soft option, 40 kilometers with a shower at the end, at the caravan park here at Pingelly was very attractive.
I had a good run, about 15k of dirt, the rest sealed, with a following wind for a change. No trucks or cars, which were a pain yesterday.
Pingelly is a nice friendly town and the caravan park is terrific.

Some nice countryside on the way

More...

The nice caravan oark

Main Street

Perth to Ravensthorpe

I thought I'd have another go at a blog, since I'm having another go at a long bike trip. Well, not as long as the ones I used to do in Europe with Hannelore, but a reasonable distance, it's 480k the way I'm going, cheating by taking the train out to Challis Station on the Armadale line.
Not that keen on riding with full panniers through the suburbs, in fact, I've never done it, and another fact is that I've never done a full pannier tour in Australia.
Challis Station brought me out on the closest route to the start of Brookton Highway, which goes up the Darling Scarp through Roleystone, and you reach the top at the easternmost point of that suburb.
It wasn't easy going, with the weight and the adverse wind.
It continued to be difficult after that as well, because it was quite hot, and because of the wind there were very few "free runs" down hills without peddling. I would have used up the whole three litres of water, that I carried, but managed to score several bottles from fellow travelers.
Anyway, I made the 85k to the camp I selected, set up here, had dinner, and so far have had only one episode of cramp.

Inle Lake and Mawlamyine

We hired a car to take us to Inle Lake, which is a seven hour trip, half through very mountainous country with the road narrow and winding. Our driver used a lot of intuition on blind corners, so half way through the mountain section, we decided to fly out rather than come back the same way.
The big thing about Inle Lake is the fisherman who skillfully row their low slung craft using their leg to move the bottom of the oar. Since the other leg is the only thing attached to the very rear of the boat, and the hands are dealing with the net, it's no wonder we hold them in awe.


The boat we were in was one of these 'long tail' craft, with a diesel engine, which is started by turning a huge flywheel by hand. They career along at about twenty knots making a terrific racket and throwing up a wide 'rooster tail' of spray. This picture is of a group of then in front of the large Pagoda near the markets.


And here's a picture of our young Skipper (looked about 15), having a rest up in the bow.


The locals live in houses on stilts, and I doubt that the water is deeper than two metres in any place. Just my impression. They have many acres of tomatoes on floating islands which are in fact giant wicking beds.


This area is very touristy, but where we stayed, Nygaun Shwe, which is away from the lake, but connected by a canal, is a nice quiet village. We had people stop and ask if we wanted a boat ride, but no one wanted to sell us trinkets, as they have in most tourist places.

We moved on down to the main place, the real reason we came here, Mawlamyine, where my dad was born. On the way, we went to the 'Golden Rock' Pagoda, at Kyaiktiyo.
It's a tortuous 40 minute ride on the back of a truck up a mountain to see it, and it's almost worth it.


Definitely would be worth it for a Buddhist, it is apparently the second most important Pagoda in the country. The gold on the rock is real, devotees (men only),are allowed to apply small patches of gold leaf.


In Mawlamyine, I believe we found the area where the Utting family had their house, Fernbank. We also saw the churches that they attended, and spoke to the pastors.
We visited the seaside where they went for holidays, which used to be called Amherst, now called Kaiyaikkhami. There is a beautiful Pagoda there which extends to the ocean, and is about 2,000 years old.


There is a city not too far from Mawlamyine called Hpa An, which is surrounded by jagged limestone mountains, with numerous caves. We went to the Saddan cave, which is huge. We walked right through the mountain, and out the other side.


From there, there is a low profile punt that takes you back through a different hole through the mountain, then via a beautiful lake to the parking area.


Mawlamyine has been great, it doesn't seem to be touristy at all, for example, for the first time in my life, I actually wanted to buy a tourist T shirt, just 'Mawlamyine' on the front. In places like Mandalay tourists are harassed to buy such things constantly, but not here.
Here's a picture of the mighty Thanlwin River (Salween previously), taken from our hotel window.


And another, after sunset, walking along The Strand. (They have retained a few colonial names).


So that's it, where back in Yangon now for a couple of days, back to Perth on Wednesday.

Inle Lake and Mawlamyine

We hired a car to take us to Inle Lake, which is a seven hour trip, half through very mountainous country with the road narrow and winding. Our driver used a lot of intuition on blind corners, so half way through the mountain section, we decided to fly out rather than come back the same way.
The big thing about Inle Lake is the fisherman who skillfully row their low slung craft using their leg to move the bottom of the oar. Since the other leg is the only thing attached to the very rear of the boat, and the hands are dealing with the net, it's no wonder we hold them in awe.


The boat we were in was one of these 'long tail' craft, with a diesel engine, which is started by turning a huge flywheel by hand. They career along at about twenty knots making a terrific racket and throwing up a wide 'rooster tail' of spray. This picture is of a group of then in front of the large Pagoda near the markets.


And here's a picture of our young Skipper (looked about 15), having a rest up in the bow.


The locals live in houses on stilts, and I doubt that the water is deeper than two metres in any place. Just my impression. They have many acres of tomatoes on floating islands which are in fact giant wicking beds.


This area is very touristy, but where we stayed, Nygaun Shwe, which is away from the lake, but connected by a canal, is a nice quiet village. We had people stop and ask if we wanted a boat ride, but no one wanted to sell us trinkets, as they have in most tourist places.

We moved on down to the main place, the real reason we came here, Mawlamyine, where my dad was born. On the way, we went to the 'Golden Rock' Pagoda, at Kyaiktiyo.
It's a tortuous 40 minute ride on the back of a truck up a mountain to see it, and it's almost worth it.


Definitely would be worth it for a Buddhist, it is apparently the second most important Pagoda in the country. The gold on the rock is real, devotees (men only),are allowed to apply small patches of gold leaf.


In Mawlamyine, I believe we found the area where the Utting family had their house, Fernbank. We also saw the churches that they attended, and spoke to the pastors.
We visited the seaside where they went for holidays, which used to be called Amherst, now called Kaiyaikkhami. There is a beautiful Pagoda there which extends to the ocean, and is about 2,000 years old.


There is a city not too far from Mawlamyine called Hpa An, which is surrounded by jagged limestone mountains, with numerous caves. We went to the Daran cave, which is huge. We walked right through the mountain, and out the other side.


From there, there is a low profile punt that takes you back through a different hole through the mountain, then via a beautiful lake to the parking area.


Mawlamyine has been great, it doesn't seem to be touristy at all, for example, for the first time in my life, I actually wanted to buy a tourist T shirt, just 'Mawlamyine' on the front. In places like Mandalay tourists are harassed to buy such things constantly, but not here.
Here's a picture of the mighty Thanlwin River (Salween previously), taken from our hotel window.


And another, after sunset, walking along The Strand. (They have retained a few colonial names).


So that's it, where back in Yangon now for a couple of days, back to Perth on Wednesday.

On to Mandalay

How's this for tourism? We went by a convoy of these horses and carts for this excursion to a monastery at a place called In Waa. Apart from just walking, we've also traveled by Tuk Tuk, gondola, coach and mini bus


Here's the gondola ride, at a place called Amarapura, which has the longest teak bridge in the world. Not that there would be lots of teak bridges, but it is very long. The idea was to watch the sunset from the gondola whilst sipping cocktails, but there wasn't much of a sunset.


Here we are with friends at the 'Taj Mahal', aka Myatheintan pagoda. This was very close to the boat and just the day before we left it.


This last picture is of is on our last night on the boat, toasting our impending departure of next morning with a couple of "Blue Irrawadies".


So, we're having another day in Mandalay, then off to lake Inle for a short time, before getting back to Yangon, then on to the main reason for the visit, Mawalmyine.

Bagan and the Irrawaddy

This is the boat "Kalaw Pandaw", that we're traveling in up to Mandalay, on the Irrawaddy River, (The road to Mandalay). It can take 32 passengers, but on this trip they
have only 10, because a number of people cancelled for whatever reason. I must say I'm very comfortable with these numbers.


Pagodas and stupas blanket the fields in Old Bagan. A stupa is a solid monument, a pagoda can be entered into and sometimes contains a temple for worship.
Both structures can be any size, from small to huge, gilded or just plain brick.


Hannelore observing the stupas, Bagan.


This picture was taken from a pagoda on a hill with a wonderful view of the Irrawaddy below us.


A group of monks insisted on having their picture taken with Hannelore. People here often ask to have their picture taken with us, strange as we're invisible at home.


This is the dancing elephant, at rest. Two young men operate it, and they need to be very fit, as they have to lift each other up for some time during the performance, (as well as the apparatus, which is quite heavy).


The food on board is really good, with vegetarian options, but I'm not going to post a food picture.
We're well over half way into our loogsury trip, I'll do another post after Mandalay.