Day 1

Yesterday we rode from Brisbane to Moree which was a tad over 500k's  in less than ideal conditions due to strong head winds. The temperature dropped below 10 degress as we got into Warwick, so we did a quick change into warmer clothes. After a quick coffee and refuel, we had a ride around teh streets of Warwick too look at some of teh lovely sandstone buildings including the court house and St Pauls Church.

The scenery along the roadside has been fantastic after all the rain. it is so green and there are fields of pink and yellow wild flowers all over the place. There is still lots of water laying in the table drains along the road.
We stopped at Inglewood for lunch and a play in the park just for fun..

There's a little kid in all of us.

   

Lunch stop at Inglewood



Flood waters near Moree

When we reached Moree we setup camp and hit the thermal pools at the caravan park. The 39 degree water was wonderful to relax in after the long days ride. 

Overnight in Moree it got down to 4 degrees but we stayed warm inside the tent, though I did feel sorry for Marissa as she feels the cold more than I do, so I gave her my beenie at about 4am.

Touch wood we have awoken to a gorgeous day outside. No wind and clear skies and the ridding is so much easier than yesterdays windy conditions. We're currently at Macca's in Narrabri having breaky before continueing into Gilgandra to catch up with an old friend I haven't seen for 15 years, then heading onto Dubbo tonight to see another friend I haven't seen for a few years. 

Barry and Marissa  

Oh oh! ... We're overweight!

Today is the last day before we head off tomorrow. Had a 4am start to knock over the last of my bank rec's so that I could prepare the latest BAS report and lodge my payment before heading away. It had occurred to me that if I was away when it fell due, would the ATO simply accept that I was going to be late submitting the BAS because I was on holidays? I didn't want to find out, so I figured I'm better off to get it in to them a few weeks early, than a late.

Now that I've finished the last of my business commitments, I'm now just enjoying the last day tinkering with the bike (that means giving it a wash) and making sure we have packed everything we're going to need.

After loading everything into the trailer so that things fitted nicely, I discovered that we're a bit overweight. I'd been advised by fellow Ulysses club members that tow bike trailers that I should aim for around 20kgs of weight on the tow ball. Otherwise it has a detrimental effect on a bikes handling. When I put the scales under the draw bar this morning I found I was closer to 30kgs ... Not good!

So I've spent part of the morning mucking around reorganising where things can go and have managed to get the weight down to a more respectable 22kgs. I then took the bike and trailer for a quick test ride to fuel up and check tyre pressures, and it all seems rather good, though I'm still trying to understand though why when I dropped one of our pillows it landed on the only spot of grease there was on the garage floor? ... That Murphy guy with his laws is a prick!

The weather is looking a bit iffy again here in Brisbane, but the forecast for tomorrow is that the overnight rain will clear early. I'm hoping by "early" they mean around 7am? I'm doubting that, so I'm anticipating we'll be leaving home dressed in our wet weather gear.

We're both really looking forward to getting away now. Can't wait for tomorrow to roll around.

Finally, a couple of friends mentioned that they tried to post comments to the blog yesterday but couldn't. I've played around with the settings a bit today, and have hopefully resolved that issue.

Cheers for now

Barry and Marissa  

Tour of Victoria

Well it's now just 3 days before Marissa and I leave Brisbane to begin our 3 week tour of Victoria on the Honda ST1300. I have been fortunate enough to have toured most parts of eastern Australia by motorcycle many times throughout my life, and have enjoyed some of the best motorcycling roads (and scenery) that our country has to offer.

This particular trip will be a first in many ways. It will be the first time my fiance Marissa has seen any of the areas we will be travelling too, and I'm looking forward to sharing with her some of my favourite parts of this great country that have become dear to my heart.

It will also be the first big trip for me on a bike towing a conventional 2 wheeled  trailer. For a number of years from 2005 I rode a BMW K1200LT with a Unigo single wheel trailer. The Unigo was more of an expensive esky really, as it didn't have much more carrying capacity than a good sized esky. The new trailer we have I brought from a fellow Ulysses club member who had made the trailer at home. As a bonus the trailer was also painted a nice bright red, so it matches the ST1300 pretty nicely.

I can say that I had a few reservations about towing a trailer behind the bike, but after a test ride through the Gold Coast Hinterland several weeks ago I became more comfortable with the ST1300's ability to handle a loaded trailer on the back. The bottom line though was that on this trip we intend to camp as often as weather permits, and without the trailer, there just isn't enough room on the bike for the 2 of us and all the gear needed to camp in comfort.

The preparations for this trip over the last 6 months have been an adventure all of there own. Deciding what we needed to take to make the trip as comfortable as we hope it to be was assisted greatly by the vast number of options available at our local Downunder camping store, and my personal favourite BCF.

We eventually settled on a Malamoo X-TRA 3 second tent. It essentially springs into shape all by itself in, well, you guessed it, 3 seconds flat. It's also large enough to fit our thick self inflating mattresses, sleeping bags and pillows, and still has enough room to store our gear such as helmets and jackets etc overnight, though we'll store them in the trailer overnight while we are camping. We also needed to pack a small gas stove to boil the billy and cook the occasional meal, a pair of folding chairs, pots, pans, plates, cups, breakfast bowls, thermos, cutlery, toolkit, first aid kit, toiletries, power leads and power board to recharge all the electrical devices such as our mobile phones, GPS, Camera's, Camcorder, laptop and Mp3 player.

The biggest single challenge however was what to do about towels. The idea of carrying around two wet towels didn't seem such an attractive idea, so we opted for 2 large personal chamois's from Kathmandu in Brisbane. These are a synthetic material and are a cross between a towel and a car chamois and successfully resolved the challenge of carrying wet towels.

I also imported a set of pannier and top box liner bags from the USA to store all our clothes and other necessities that we want to keep on the bike. They cost less than a hundred bucks with the Australian dollar being strong at the moment, and are a super convenient way to store your gear on the bike, as they are made to the exact shape and size of the panniers. The company I brought them from were even kind enough to embroider my name into the bags to add that personal touch.

I also ordered a new screen for the bike from the UK, but unfortunately it will not arrive in time to use on this trip. The standard ST1300 screen falls a bit short on protection for the pillion in particular, and the new screen being 4 inches wider and 2 inches taller should be a significant improvement in that regard.

The Route 

So where to next?

Even though I've travelled most of the roads we plan to travel on this trip, it will be all new territory and new experiences for Marissa. This will be the first time Marissa has traveled through any part of outback NSW and rural Victoria. Marissa she has lived in Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory for a number of years, so she's not unaccustomed to the wide open areas that rural Australia has to offer, but each region is uniquely different and beautiful in its own way. And after the early spring rains this year I'm anticipating the countryside will be looking spectacular this year. I'm hoping there will still be some snow on the high country as Marissa has never seen snow before. So I'm hoping she will have her first opportunity to build a snow man, and have her first snow fight during this trip!

Our first day will see us ride from Brisbane to Moree in north western NSW. This is our longest day of the trip at just over 500k's, and we plan to get there in time to enjoy the relaxing thermal pools that Moree is known for.

After Moree we head to Dubbo and will stay the night with friends I've known for years from my days when I used to live there. We'll then continue heading south to Tumut, then ride the Snowy Mtns highway over to the coast at Tathra.

From there we enter Victora and spend the next 2 weeks crisscrossing the Victorian countryside to take in Lakes Entrance, Mt Hotham, the Great Ocean Road and The Grampians before heading back to Thredbo to take part in The Snowy Ride which is a great event held each year to raise money for the Children's Cancer research Institute.

One of the must sees on the trip for me is Craig's Hut near Mansfield. Craig's hut was the hut they built for the Man from Snowy River Movies. It's one place I've always wanted to see that's been on my bucket list for ages. Hopefully the roads into that region will be open when we get to that area!

Craig's Hut, near Mt Stirling in Victoria

For now there is still lots to do before we head off on Saturday the 16th of October, but we will use this blog to keep friends and family updated on our progress, and use it as a place to upload photos and comments about the trip as we get under way. Feel free to leave comments and suggestions of places to camp, things to see and do along the way, as local knowledge is often priceless.

Regards

Barry and Marissa