Saturday Photo #5 – Pain in the hills

Some may claim they did it easily, but most of us suffered between Busselton and Balingup on the Great WA Bike Ride.

GREAT WA BIKE RIDE, AUSTRALIA – re cycling tall timber

Some of Australia's greatest forest is in Western Australia's South West. And how better to see it than from a bike saddle?

GREAT WA BIKE RIDE – the next adventure

Is there no end to my appetite for physical punishment? Tomorrow I fly to Western Australia to prepare for the Great WA Bike Ride, starting this Saturday.

Up to 2000 riders will tackle the 540km course, which looks to be a beauty – a loop through the southwest of the state, from Manjimup down to the big karri forests of Pemberton, out to the beach at Busselton and up the coast, then back inland to Manjimup again.

I enjoy these big rides, though there are certainly less enjoyable aspects to them. The 2010 Great Vic Bike Ride had about 4000 riders and volunteers. While it’s great that the event is so popular, there are disadvantages to having such a huge crowd.

AUSTRALIA’S BEST BIG RIDES – Spring on the bike

There are many reasons to hate mass organised bike rides – the crowds, the bottlenecks, the collisions, the toilet queues. But there are plenty of reasons to love them too.