This morning, with a heavy heart (and a much lighter wallet than 3 weeks ago), I packed up the tent for the final time and headed towards home. Echuca to Bendigo The road out of Echuca starts off being very flat, and the countryside gradually becomes more undulating as Echuca is left further behind. After making a right-hand turn in the middle of a little town called Rochester (it has been claimed that this was named after Jack Benny's man-servant but I've been unable to verify this) the hills become more... umm... hilly until finally Bendigo comes into sight in all [View Full Entry]

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Today was spent being a tourist in the inland haven for tourists. I chose to begin my day with a walking tour of the 80 most interesting historical buildings/sites in the old port town. The tour started of in a most interesting way by taking me directly to McDonalds. I was a little puzzled at first, thinking that perhaps this was a clever marketing ploy, but on reading the tour notes I learnt that there had once been an old building on this site. I stopped after site No. 18 because it was getting too hot to continue walking, and transferred [View Full Entry]

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Today I took the 'scenic' route from Balranald to Moama. Rather than going directly to Swan Hill and then along the Murray Valley Highway to Echuca, I went the longer way via Moulamein and Deniliquin. I stopped in Moama for the night because staying in NSW makes me feel as though the holiday freedom will continue for a little longer. The Moama Riverside Caravan Park is a very quiet park with a very pleasant pool to relax in or beside, but the campsite was dry dusty gravel and took the prize for bending the most tent pegs of any that I've [View Full Entry]

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Today I took a trip down to Swan Hill to have a quick look at the area. At the Information Centre I heard about the Lake Boga Flying Boat Museum and, being a bit of a plane geek, I just had to go and have a look. Lake Boga has been completely dry for a couple of years bacause of the drought, so the various aquatic facilities look strangely out of place. It's hard to visualise it with yachts and speedboats zipping around, let alone as it was during WW2 with flying boats taking off and landing for servicing at the [View Full Entry]

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Grenfell to Griffith The day began grey and overcast, but warm enough to be comfortable. The wind was very strong from the east, with many extra strong gusts, so I had to continually wrestle the bike to keep it on the correct side of the road most of the way to an early lunch stop at West Wyalong. Continuing on to Griffith, I was in the Irrigation region and the countryside was filled with citrus groves and vineyards as far as the eye could see. No sign of pot plantations, but then the Underbelly series is set 30 years ago and [View Full Entry]

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With the rain continuing for 24 hours and not looking like clearing, I checked the BoM website to see if the weather was any better further down the coast. The forecasts contained little except varying degrees of rain for the next week as far south as Lakes Entrance. But further West there was good weather predicted so I changed my plans and headed West. The rain continued all the way to the Blue Mountains and in Lithgow the temperature was down to 13C. I was beginning to question my sanity at this point, but one of the signs of insanity is [View Full Entry]

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The rain has settled in, but in a sporadic way. Heavy showers are interspersed with dry spells where the heat of the day converts the wet-weather gear into a mini-sauna. Consequently I'm wet both inside and outside. My first stop for the day was at the Peacock Hill Winery. It was a good excuse to get out of the rain for a while, but I decided to taste a few wines (very small tastes only) and soon discovered that they produce a very enjoyable fortified wine. I took a chance and purchased a bottle which was very carefully packed in the [View Full Entry]

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Sydney to Wisemans Ferry Not wanting to spend more time in the traffic of Sydney than necessary I plotted a course out via Berowra Waters where the bike and I had our first nautical experience together on the ferry crossing. The road north traversed a mixture of farmland and bush, and the rain was restricted to an occasional light shower which barely dampened the road surface. Wisemans Ferry to Maitland The road out of Wisemans Ferry is quite picturesque with the wide expanse of the Hawkesbury River on the right and the sandstone valley walls on the left, with a variety [View Full Entry]

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Narooma to Nowra The heat has finally gone and I've had to dig deep into the panniers to find all my warm clothes. The ride from Narooma to Nowra was uneventful, with the highway passing through a rolling countryside of farms and forests. I found a nice pie shop just north of Ulladula where I stopped for a morning snack and a break from riding. After that the sun came through the clouds occasionally, leaving me overheated for a while until the clouds returned and the temperature was lowered again. In Nowra I spotted the Kawasaki dealership and made a quick [View Full Entry]

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Just a quiet day today before hitting the road again tomorrow. I went for a walk North along the beach for a couple of km to see what was past the rocky point. The answer, perhaps obviously, is another beach and another rocky point. I continued on like this for a while before realising that I didn't know whether the tide was going out or coming in, and therefore I didn't know if I would be able to retrace my steps without the risk of being swept out to sea never to be seen or heard from again, much to the [View Full Entry]

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