Sunset Motorcycle Adventure
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Sunset Motorcycle Adventure Our Sunset Motorcycle Adventure around Australia began in Sydney in October 2005. First, we rode the two Hondas (Africa Twin and TransAlp) out to Western Australia and spent two months there. In January we crossed the Nullabor and then Bass Strait, and spent February & March in Tasmania. Most of April we were in Melbourne before heading North into the Outback in May. After three delightful weeks in Alice Springs, we reached tropical Darwin in mid-June. After this we headed 3000 kms south and east to the Tropical Queensland coast in July, before slowly making our way southwards back to Sydney in September 2006. David & Sabine Hamilton, New Zealand 3216 October 2006 Email: [email protected] Sunset Motorcycle Adventure Contents Page 1. Great Ocean Road, October 2005 ..................................................... 1 2. Across the Nullabor by train, November 2005 ................................... 5 3. Western Australia, December 2005 ................................................... 8 4. Across the Nullabor by bike, January 2006 ....................................... 12 5. To ‘cool’ Tasmania, January, 2006 .................................................... 17 6. Overland Tasmania, February 2006 .................................................. 21 7. Australian Ulysses AGM, March 2006 ............................................... 25 8. Around Tasmania, March – April 2006 .............................................. 30 9. Melbourne Respite, April 2006 .......................................................... 34 10. Onwards to Alice, May 2006 .............................................................. 39 11. Alice in May - Pure Magic, May 2006 ................................................ 43 12. Darwin: Mid-winter in the Tropics, June-July 2006 ............................ 47 13. The Sunshine State: Queensland, July 2006 .................................... 51 14. Tropical North Queensland, August 2006 .......................................... 55 15. Central Queensland, August – September 2006 ............................... 59 16. Back to where we started, Sydney, September 2006 ........................ 62 17. Reflections ......................................................................................... 65 Sunset Diary 1, 21 October – 16 November 2005 Elapsed time since 21 October 2005: 4 weeks Journey distance from Sydney: 2,483 kms, plus 2,300 on train Great Ocean Road We left Hamilton via Freedom Air on Friday 21 October on a cool, dark, drizzly morning and were greeted by similar weather in Sydney. The Qantas Freight guy who provided excellent help in getting the bikes through Customs and out of the cargo sheds explained that rain was forecast for the next week, “after seven years, the drought has broken”. Reading so much about bushfires and water shortages over much of Australia in recent years, we can’t begrudge this respite for the parched Aussies but it has not been the best of riding conditions for the start of our extended ride around Australia. Cool, wet and windy best describes the weather over our first three weeks, interspersed with the odd warm, dry day. Bikes loaded and ready to leave Hamilton home The weather hit us hardest on the ride into Adelaide yesterday with strong winds, frequent heavy showers and temps closer to 10C than 20. For the first time on the trip we flagged camping and shouted ourselves a cabin at the Adelaide Shores campsite. The storms cleared and gave us perfect weather for our stay in Adelaide – warm, dry and sunny and we took advantage of the excellent (FREE) computing facilities at the State Library to catch up with news, emails and our diary. What a dreadful shock it was to learn of the sudden death of Rod Donald last week. We learned of the passing of David Lange in August about three days late after coming off the Cape Reinga Track and so it was with RD which we learned about after Page - 1 a few days in Lower Glenelg NP (National Park). We were impressed with RD in his TV interview with Kim Hill the week we left NZ. A huge loss to public life in NZ. So far, we have travelled 2400 kms along the NSW, Victoria and SA coasts. Despite the unkind weather things have gone pretty well. No maJor problems to date, the bikes have not missed a beat and until last night we have camped every night. The campsites and national parks have been pretty quiet which is always a bonus. Travelling as we have, weekends are no different to weekdays and it comes as an unwelcome surprise to find that you cannot get into some attractive spots at weekends due to an influx of locals. So it was at Wilson’s Promontory National Park (known as The Prom to locals) – fabulous spot but unfortunately only Just recovering from a massive bushfire earlier this year. Unfortunate to learn that the bushfire was caused not by vandals, delinquent picnickers or smokers but by the Parks Dept people themselves – a controlled burnoff became uncontrolled – the date, you wouldn’t believe was 1 st April 2005!! Camping at Mimosa Rocks National Park, NSW Our first night was spent at Werri beach Just south of Wollongong, nice spot but the tone was set for our first month when a hailstorm struck about 10 minutes after setting up camp. Lonely Planet alerted us to Mimosa Rocks NP for the next couple of days, a Page - 2 fabulous beach park named after the Mimosa which sank on the rocks some 140 years ago – the Captain claimed he hit uncharted rocks but the location of the wreck suggested he was sailing too close to the coast. We then spent nights at Eden (NSW) and Lakes Entrance before going to The Prom for the Melbourne Cup long weekend (Question: Why is Melbourne always hit by massive sickness the first weekend in November? Answer: The first Tuesday is a Public Holiday for the horse race and so a sickie on the Monday yields a 4-day weekend!!). We had five days off the bikes when doing the southern loop walk on The Prom; after that we took the ferry from Sorrento on Mornington Pennisula to Queenscliff, thus avoiding Melbourne city itself. Following a couple of days in Geelong, the riding highlight of the trip so far was the Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide. Special, and fully Justifies all the superlatives describing it – pity about the weather. Another great view on Great Ocean Road Petrol has varied in price from $1.16 per litre in Sydney to as high as $1.40 in remote spots. Disappointing that ice cream cones are not easy to come by, and when they are, they’re quite expensive, in fact things generally in Australia seem to be a bit higher than NZ, from groceries to camping. When riding we like to stop for an ice cream in the afternoon and single cones come in at around A$2.50 compared with NZ$1-1.50 at home. Our Aussie waves are developing well (nb. The Aussie wave has nothing to do with greetings or surfing, but is used frequently to disperse “friendly” flies). Page - 3 We managed to get the bikes on the train to Perth thus avoiding the long, long ride across the Nullabor Desert – at first they wanted to charge us the same as for two cars, but eventually we found a sympathetic bikie on the railway desk who agreed to take our two bikes for the price of one car. So now we are baking in Perth – 32C today. Perth 15 November 2005 Page - 4 Sunset Diary 2, 16 November – 3 December 2005 Elapsed time since 21 October 2005: 6 weeks Journey distance from Sydney: 3,279 kms, plus 2,300 on train Western Australia Our Journey out to Perth had a strange start for we arrived at Adelaide Railway Station about 6 hours before the arrival of the Indian Pacific not knowing whether we had a 3- day train ride or 7-day bike ride across the Nullabor ahead of us. In the end Sabine managed to persuade the guy on the desk that it was both illogical and unreasonable to charge the same for two bikes as two cars – and they agreed to allow our two bikes to go for the price of one car. Helped that the guy on the desk was a bikie himself. A relaxing train ride, generally travels at 60-80kph giving plenty of time to take in the scenery. We left Adelaide on Sunday evening – delayed for an hour by a carriage derailed whilst shunting and arrived in Perth on Tuesday morning. On the Monday evening we had three hours to wander around the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie. Tuesday morning takes you through the impressive wheat belt, which had Just been harvested, on the run-in to Perth. Recommend the train trip if you get the chance. We spent a couple of days Perth – very hot temperatures into mid-30s, so any thoughts of tripping north where it would likely be even hotter were abandoned in favour of heading south and hopefully cooler temperatures, as it turned out. On the run south from Perth there are masses of new housing developments – you can buy your spot of “paradise by the beach” at a dozen or more spots, 30-100kms south of Perth. They’re extending the motorway too, so that will give you a quick commute to your Job too!! (Thanks, but no thanks). Page - 5 Refuelling stop for the Indian-Pacific at Cook in the Nullabor Met with son Robert’s friend from Palmerston North BHS days, Chris Ridge, wife Jo and family who live on a fabulous bush property close to the wine growing centre of Margaret River. They looked after the bikes for us while we walked the Cape to Cape Track from Cape Leeuwin to Cape Nuturaliste, all 120kms through the National Park. Hard going at times along the beaches and cliff tops but super views with some whale watching and much satisfaction in completing the walk. We are now in Karri Forest country about 150kms south of Margaret River and mightily impressive too. Huge stands of Karri trees – a variety of eucalyptus that reaches to 100 metres tall.