In order to do the distance and the stops we left Margaret River at 7AM which meant an early breakfast at 5:45AM. Urgh. And this after an excellent dinner the last night at Voyager Estate - just superb.

At Voyager I escaped the fines system very lightly - only really getting stung with cutting myself while shaving my legs and a group fine for not standing when we spontaneously combusted (errr, erupted) into the national anthem as we came into Voyager and saw their humungous Australian flag flying on an equally impressive flagpole.

Anyway, back to toay. Things were pretty uneventful until we hit some roadworks on a back road about 10km out of Margaret River. The gravel road turned into unpredictably-sandy-road and given that Anna and I were out the front it meant that we were trailblazing, trying to find firm parts of the road to ride on.

At one point I was *so* close to coming off with the front wheel going one way and the rear spinning and sliding the other but there was no way to unclip without falling so I just kept on going. Luckily no-one came off so it was all good. And double-plus-good the road wasn't wet so it wasn't mud - just sand.

Just after this there was a string of manure across the road that just about everyone managed to hit. Everyone collected some, errr, debris on their bikes in some way.

After that we followed the back roads until we got to the Bussel Highway outside Busselton. The road surface was reasonably bad so it was nice to be back on the hotmix again.

Anna and I were back at the front for the lead-in to MacKillop College and there we had a rousing reception from the kids. Kim did an outstanding talk, we had a quick refuel and we were back out again. About 30-odd kids and teachers rode out with us through Busselton so we took it pretty easy.

The next 60km to Bunbury was pretty quiet - very flat so we sat on 35-38km/h the whole way with the wind mostly at our backs. Pulling into Bunbury we had done 115km.

The reception at Grace Christian College was excellent - we had lunch and then did the presentation. This time it was my turn to be up on stage - the kids asked some good questions, I said some dumb things (nothing unusual there) and then we were on our way again. Doubtless I'll get fined for something I said.

By this stage it was warming up and the wind was picking up too. Luckily it was from the south-east (mostly) so we headed up the highway towards Mandurah. Just before the highway turns back into single lane we turned right and headed towards Yarloop on the back roads. Less traffic this way but it did mean we had to start fighting the wind a bit and it was 30km longer to get to Mandurah. But still, better than spending an hour or so annoying drivers on the main road and much safer for us.

Coming through Pinjarra we had the usual idiot drivers telling us to get off the road and ride single file - despite the road being a dual carraigeway and it being totally legal for cyclists to ride double file.

In Mandurah we turned south, headed over the traffic bridge and headed to the Mandurah Quay Resort. As we turned of the highway some guy in his ute decided he didn't want to wait for us to turn left so tried to go around us, doing a hand-brake turn into the street we were already on - he had to wait anyway.

Overall, the 235km went pretty well. Other than my bum being a bit sore from sitting on the saddle for close to eight hours, everything else feels pretty good. We shared the load at the front really well - we had three groups of eight people. Each group rotated through every 30km or so and within each group there were pairs of riders that would spend around 10 minutes at the front and then roll off. This kept everybody pretty fresh and we kept up a good pace pretty much the whole day, averaging 30km/h.

At this point, I've got to thank our excellent support crew who shepherd us along the road; provide food, drinks and other fuel; clap, cheer and encourage us at every step of the way; guide us to our rooms; deliver massages; - the works. They've been great over this week making everything look effortless.

At dinner the usual fines and hilarity ensued. Anna and I were fined for holding hands while walking to and from breakfast. I was fined for making a comment about how goosebumps feel when your legs are shaved. And to top the evening off I ended up with the "Poona" jersey which is awarded to the rider who does the dumbest thing on the ride. In this case it was for (unintentionally, I might had but nonetheless) insulting our support crew on the first day in Albany and for a bunch of other (mostly) trumped up charges stemming from my talk at the school. But, fair cop for the support crew comment. All in a day's work. ;-) So, tomorrow I will wear a jersey that has been worn and dirtied (sometimes deliberately) by other Poona nominees during the week. Nice.

Tomorrow we have a 70km roll into Fremantle. Hopefully the winds will be kind to us again.