Road Trip!

Here's my account of the road trip from Sydney to Melbourne that I took on a rental Motorcycle. May 3 - 10 2005

Pics

Day 1 285Kms Sydney - Batemans Bay (Princes Highway)
Day 2 571Kms Batemans Bay - Wodonga (Snowy Mountains Highway)
Day 3 258Kms Wodongoa - Melbourne (Hume Highway)
Day 4 80Kms Melbourne
Day 5 600Kms Melbourne - Port Campbell - Melbourne (Great Ocean Road)
Day 6 663Kms Melbourne - Wodonga (Great Alpine Way)
Day 7 660Kms Wodonga - Sydney (Hume Highway)
Day 8 50 Kms Sydney

Bike Out - 23094 Kms
Bike In - 26264 Kms
Total Ride - 3170 Kms in 7 Days (Avg 452 Kms / Day)

Day 1
Picked up the bike... it's a nice pretty red CBR600F4i..mmm...speed..hehe... got all geared up, the people at the rental agency are supa nice... got me rain gear, helmets, gloves, jacket, luggage carrier. got all my stuff packed on the back of the bike, strapped it all in, did all the paperwork and I'm off... it was so good to be back on one.. missed it lots... of course I had to ask if they move the throttle and brakes to the opposite side as well.. lol.. nope the bike rides the same... just on the wrong side of the road...lol. Took forever to get out of Sydney, there was a really bad accident on the road, the seats on this bike ain't that comfy... ass was hurting like mad... had to keep adjusting, it was either the bum hurts, or my neck would hurt... need a massage and a jacuzzi...mmm...jacuzzi...any volunteers?

Stopped off at a place called Bulli Lookout... oh my god, it's like you're on top of this amazing town on the coast...well, not like, you actually are on top of it... the view is breathtaking. tool some pics, jumped back on and headed off on my way.

It's amazing on the roads, the rolling hills, green grass, animals, whackjob drivers that are inconsistent, but the roads are great... doesn't even feel like i'm in another country/continent. Stopped at this cafe in a town called Nowsa, nice little place, very trendy looking in the middle of a hick town.. go figure eh? at least they're trying to change the image. got back on the highway and off again, this part was fairly boring... it got dark earlier than I expected, and the headlights on the bike weren't aimed properly, so I got off at a place called Batemans Bay instead of Bega, found a motel, of course they have no rooms available, but the guy had a self contained apartment style room that's usually $100 but he gave it to me for $75, cuz he used to ride a bike... until his wife made him get rid of it... so I took it, didn't know what else to do, offloaded all my stuff, was tired, went and grabbed some grub, and realized that there was NO SOAP or SHAMPOO in the room, and they didn't have any... frickin frack.. watched the telly and headed to bed, hoping for an early start.

Day 2

Left fairly early, I think I was out by about 8:30 and on the road, jumped on the highway to Bega, another boring drive. Had breakfast there and began the trek to Cooma on the Snowy Mountains Highway. The roads were absolutely awesome.. long sweeping turns and more long sweeping turns... I swear I was leaning for like 6-10 seconds on these things at about 90-100km/h... it was amazing... me in full tuck leaning on the tank, felt like a video game... the road went up and turned, and down and turned, it was heaven. then from Cooma to Adimanaby they were long twisty roads... WOW! finally made it to Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia at 1400m, really really high up. Nice little town, great views. I was in the snowy mountains.. of course being the end of summer, there was no snow thank goodness... lots of trees, mountains, hills, wowee.... headed out of Carbramurra and started making my way towards Corryong. These roads were small twisty ones, not bad, but you had to go kinda slow as you were coming down the backside of the mountain. some amazing little man made lakes that they have put in for electricty n stuff.. as I was coming down towards the dam, I see 2 lanes, so I stayed in the left one... ya, it was a gravel bed... next thing I know, I'm on my side, the bike is on top of my leg, and I'm like..OUCH! so the adrenalin is going, it's the first time I've ever fallen of a bike, and I got fairly lucky that I wasn't hurt... got the almost 400lb bike off my leg, got it back on two wheels and moved it off the gravel, did an inventory, I still had all my limbs and body parts... hip felt a little hurt and my leg and knee were a little sore, but thank god no blood or major injuries... figure I must have been doin about 15km/h or so when it happened and the gravel would have slowed it down some more... it just happened so fast... glad I didn't really skid or slide much.
As for the bike... ya, fairing is scratched... the mirror broke and the blinker was smashed... glad the mirror just broke off and didn't crack.. don't need another 7 years of bad luck... once in my life was enough. The dam was a one lane crossing and they really shouldn't have a gravel bed like that... oh well, shit happens I guess.. I just have to be thankful that I'm ok and alive.
Got back on the bike, and continued on to Corryong... ya know, just as well it happened where it did, because the roads from there were pretty shitty, loose gravel and stuff, so I was more cautious then I would have been if I hadn't fallen off the bike... everything happens for a reason..I guess... I even ended up on a full gravel road. I'm pretty impressed with myself that I got back on the bike, didn't really have a choice being in the middle of nowhere, but all the same... I just need to apply the lesson of "gettin back on the horse" to all the other things in my life... ya, like that's gonna happen anytime soon...lol.
Got to see some wild 'Roos crossing the road, they're so cute.. hopping away... lots of roadkill too... so sad... all these poor animals getting murdered by drivers... poor things.. anybody for a wallabee sandwich? hee hee.
Corryong was a kewl little town, pretty dead, but it was pretty much the only town that had any cute girls in it... saw a few.. but they were too young... ah to be 16 again... had a chicken souvlaki at one of the cafe's and then popped off to Wodonga for the night, gotta get a mirror and blinker for the bike... kinda hard to ride without them.. .not the safest thing to do when you can't see what's next to / behind you. It was starting to get dark and I just wanted to park the bike and get some rest. On the way there, I passed one of the most beautiful sights, the sun was setting, the sky was orange and on fire, and as I rode past this lake that had dead trees standing in it, the water was reflecting the orange sky and OMG wow, it was like the water was on fire... that was def a Kodak moment that I couldn't get, no safe place to stop... :( got gas in Wodonga, found a motel room and got all my stuff in there.

Day 2 Night
Watched some Television program on the DaVinci Code.. all of a sudden was falling asleep, hungry and craving hot chocolate.. of course they didn't have any at the hotel, called and ordered a pizza, asked them if they had hot choco.. they do.. YAY.. but... they won't deliver it... c'mon, even if I say its ok to be cold? nope.. Fine then.. be that way. So I wandered out of the motel, onto the street, saw a pub and asked there, of course they don't serve hot chocolate.. it's a frickin hotel bar.. crap... now what? ok, so I go back to the reception at the hotel, this lady was so nice.. get this, Milk is free, the coffee and tea in the rooms, free, the shortbread cookies (that I forgot to take with me) free! Wow, not bad for $60 bux a nite ... if you're evern in Wodonga Sanctuary Park Motel check it out. So anyways, I see fudge.. lots of fudge.. with all sorts of alcohol fillings... but wait, there is a caramel fudge one there.. so I buy it... $4.50 and I get a bottle of milk.. figure, I can make hot caramel fudge milk.. get the fudge back to my room... it's got mold growing on it... great.. now what.. my precious plans are going awry... k, I go back to reception, ask her if the mold is normal.. she goes.. hmm... I don't think so... of course the other plain one has mold too.. the alcohol laced ones are fine, they're normal.. the mold probably got drunk and passed out somewhere... geez.. ok, so she has a big box of caramel fudge for $10.. I'm jonesin' so I check it and say I'll take that one... go to reach for the difference in price.. she says, don't worry about it... such a sweet old lady.. I'm like Kewl! so I go back to my room, microwave the milk in a mug, spilling it over a few times.. add the fudge.. damn thing don't melt very well.. but I finally get it.. mmm it was tasty.. just what I needed.. Watched SVU, ate my 'za watched s'more telly and off to bed!

Day 3
ended up having some of the most twisted dreams last night... they felt so real... got lots done.. only to realize when I woke up that I had accomplished absolutely.. NOTHING! not sure if in some alternate universe I am all caught up with outstading stuff... ?!?!? finally dragged my ass out of bed, had the best shower in a long time.. hot water, great water pressure, and it wasn't a dorm shower!!! had nice smelling soap, shampoo... mmmm.. heaven... ok nothing beats a bubble bath with a jetted tub.. but this was close enough for being so far away.

Got dressed, checked out and headed for the Honda Dealership in Wodonga, Bob Crosby's Honda, to see if they have a mirror for the bike.. umm... "no, we only to quads and stuff" ... grrreeat! so they send me to the Honda dealership in Albury, about 10 mins away... do they have one.. ummm "no, you'll have to go to Melbourne"... grrreat! so I did end up buying a blinker from them, needed one, bought 4 for $80 bux b/c they don't sell singles... grrreeeat!. the guy at the parts counter put it on for me... oh well, at least it's a start...

off to Melbourne.. the weather was getting a little shady, so I jumped on the M31 highway which goes straight to Melbourne.. they are sticky on limits here, lots of warning signs and stuff.. so I pretty much did about 115-120 in a 110.. can you believe it? ha ha, neither can I, I got lucky and was able to shadow 2 cars doing 130-140.. hee hee.. made it to Melbourne finally, as it starts to rain, glad I didn't get hit when I was on the highway, that would have sucked the big one... so I get lost, get on High street, keep going, where the heck am I? ask at a gas station.. he has no clue.. luckily one lady that was paying for gas helped me out and gave me directions.. the roads here in Melbourne are Shit, confusing and backwards... yuck. See a couple of weirdo's on the street, find the damn dealership, get my damn mirror and put it on the damn bike, $100 for 1.. ONE.. UNO... MOJA ... EK ... ONE .. FREAKING MIRROR!!! anyways, done venting, pop the mirror on, looks good, head off to St. Kilda, by the beach.. it's overcast and raining and cloudy and cold... yuck... after navigating the crappy one ways and don't turn here and you can't do this and turn here not there one way ..AARRRGH it was about 45 minutes to get on the St. Kilda road, BTW: What's up with all the cops? saw 9 cops at ONE intersection... that's the way to give tickets.. forget giving the Donut Hunters cars.. just have them stand at intersections to give tickets... Bleh! Riding down St. Kilda.. I feel something hit my leg when I was stopped... light turns green, I go... check my pockets at the next light... guess what? no map!! it fell out of my pocket at the last intersection.. the guy behind me was nice enough to tell me. Finally get to St. Kilda, riding around, I find the hostel, BASE BackPackers.. not a bad place, so far, rooms are roomy, have their own bathroom and shower (YAY) so we'll see how it goes, will decide tomorrow to stay or not for the next 2 days... I wandered around town a bit to see what's up, found a Nando's... will go there for din din I think.

Back from Nando's, pretty good chick'n .. this is crazy, unintentional, but crazy, have had Nando's in Vancouver, London, Nairobi, Dubai and now Melbourne.. crazy eh? went to khane, got lost, just made it for the end, not a bad place, nice and small, not too many people tho... got lost coming home as well, the roads here are ridiculous... metup with Shazma for coffee (Thanks Sana) got the inside scoop on Melbourne and Travelling adventures... nice cafe's and stuff here..

So I get back to the hostel... wow, this place rocks! DanceFloor, good dj, stripper poles, wet t-shirt contest, Karaoke (ok not that cool), the bathrooms are stylin.. hell the glass partition between the ladies and the mens is translucent, so you can see shadows through the stalls... I see a shadow of a chic and I'm like, what the hell is she doin in here... she's not, she's next door.. .lol.. pretty funky place! Met some peeps from Ireland, they been here a month partyin.. this place is nutz! probably will stay the rest of the days here... plus it's great to have secure parking for the bike underground and card access... :)

before I forget, back to the Weirdo's that I saw downtown today.. saw the same ones walk past me into the little shopping centre that they have in St. Kilda... it was like I'd seen them somewhere before...lol...

Day 4
Got up, barely slept a wink, lots of noise outside, changed rooms.. so hopefully now I'll be ok. They are very accomodating here. Was Starvin' headed off to Grill'd for a burger and fruit juice, bought a bus pass :) asked one of the bus guys which Tram to take, jackass tells me the wrong one.. so I'm on my way into the burbs before I know it... grr... but just as well, I get off at one of the main roads, look at the Tram that's going the right way, but it's on the wrong side of the road, so like an idiot, I wait and then watch it go the right way... grr... wait for the next one.. YAY it's early, get on.. then the conductor gets off and about 10 minutes late the new guy shows up and we leave to go towards downtown. See Chapel street, get off there.. way cool stores and stuff, hit the French Connection store because I can't resist.. :) didn't see anything too too exciting, walked to the almost end, got on the tram to the station downtown and I was on my way, checked out the visitor info booth, not much happenin there, then it was off on the free City Circle tram that goes around the CBD or Central Business District I assume it to mean.. it might mean Crazy Bloody Downtown for all I know..lol..

Checked out the Rialto Tower, really high up, observation deck, outdoor viewing.. wow that was high up, got some kewl pics... saw a really boring video on Melbourne... pretty city.. then it was back on the tram for little italy or Lygon St. found another FCUK Store, again, nothing overly exciting... and a kewl cafe / restaurant called Milano... the kitchen wasn't open, so I had Cheesecake and Cappucino for lunch..mmm... got back on the tram and back home I was... exciting day eh? had a shower, met some cool blokes from London, and then off to Khane. Got there on time this time around, I was impressed with meself. Met some new people there, we headed over to a place called Shine, restaurant downstairs and dancefloor bar upstairs... and then it was back home for me.. .got lost again, but managed to find my way no problem... gotta go to bed now, early morning ride to the Great Ocean Road !!! :)

Day 5

Got a txt from Zahra at 6:45 am.. rolled out of bed around 7:48ish... got ready and then it was off to see the Twelve Apostles and the Great Ocean Road. It was cold, chilly, cloudy and the sun was nowhere to be seen when we left Melbourne, stopped for brekky (Mmmm Hungry Jacks... aka Burger King... .. Whopper with Cheese) and it was off to the Great Ocean Road..... got on it, and yes, this road is GREAT! You're right on the coastline, with stunning vista's of tall cliffs and waves rolling into light brown sandy beaches.... saw THE most awesome sign of all time... "Next 27 Kms.. Twisty Road" 27 Kilometres of twisties... way cool.. stopped and filled up gas along the way and headed into Apollo Bay for lunch.. had a chicken burger with chips, it was cool to have someone along for the ride... one heck of a crazy first time sportbike experience... so if you thought the coastal roads were awesome.. then you head out from Apollo Bay to the Twelve Apostles which are these big rocks in the middle of the water... such a beautiful view, we got there just as the sun was heading down, not quite sunset, there was still an hour and a bit to go... took us about 6 hours to get there on the Scenic route from Melbourne... luckily the sun was out for most of it once we were out of the city. Saw a crazy 3 car car crash in the mountains/hills that we drove through.. beautiful, nice twisties, and loads of great scenery, I'm talking ocean on one end, and then these great forest valleys on the other. WOW! I was shaking my head quite a few times... Once we got to Princetown area and saw the apostles, it was a rush to Port Campbell to get petrol and then up a shortcut to the Highway that runs straight to Melbourne.. had to get on the highway before it got dark, b/c the inside roads would be mildly treacherous..... got on the highway just in time... grabbed a mochachino, brownie and hot chocolate (thanks Zahra) at Maccers (rotten ronnies, McDicks, McDonalds... whatever) and then it was cold straight highway riding until we got back to Melbourne... Freezing cold... some rain, not too bad tho... we got really lucky...good to be back.. I'm bloody exhausted... izz time for la la.. but first din din...

Ate some Malaysian food, coughing like crazy, went to bed early...

Day 6
Woke up around 8:00, snoozed till about 8:30 got ready,checked out and it was off, got gas and a map and it was onto the highway for me. Headed out from St. Kilda and jumped on the M1 to Dandenong. Grabbed a bite there... there are lots of brown people in the mall,I was quite surprised. When I left Melbourne,it was sunny, as soon as I hit the highway,it got cold and cloudy,it was dreary when I went to get brekky (mmmm lamb and chips) but as soon as I got out of the mall, the fog and clouds were gone... YAY.... turned out to be a beautiful day! jumped back on the highway and headed off towards Bairnsdale. Got there in pretty good time, boring road tho. From Bairnsdale it was nice on the Great Alpine Road to Omeo, great views, the road wasn't that exciting, but it was fairly fun. but wow, the drive from Omeo to Bright over the top of Mt Hotham was incredible... you end up getting to the top (1800m or so) and WOW! the views of all the other mountains are breathtaking, When you get to the top, you realize exactly how high up you are,b/c the road is at the edge of the mountainside and it's straight down........pretty scary, especially on the way down, you really have to go slow...lots of the turns can't be done at more than 35-50km/h and let me tell you,it's bloody cold at the top. After that it was a rush to get out of the mountains before dark.... Passed through a Lavender Farm on the way out... smelled soooo good... managed to make it to Wodonga in pretty good time... luckily I was driving west at that point so the sun pretty much stayed where it was for a while. Got on the main highway just after the sun set,and I was good to go... saw an amazing array of stars, out here it's amazing, no light pollution....and even though it was freezing, there would be these stretches of road that had warm air and others that had cold air, it was so cool... first you're freezing, then you're like..aaahhhh warm air.... it's great! Checked back into the same motel I was at last time... same great student rate! I'm still freezing and shaking and sore from all the riding... can't beleive I did a trip like this, but am so glad that I did, some of the views and the roads were spectacular... definately a must do, would love to do it again sometime, and mark it as one of the most exciting things I've done.... WOW.... gonna go grab some grub, get to bed,got about 560km to do to get back to Sydney, the good thing is that it's all freeway (almost) so I'll do pretty good time I hope... ta ta...


Day 7

Had Chinese food for dinner last night... mmm.. good! I ordered veg spring rolls, and they came and said, we don't have any, do you want a veg curry puff instead? then they came back and said, we don't have any... do you want shrimp toast instead? ok... finally got my food, tied it to the bike and back to the motel to eat it while watching back to back episodes of CSI!

Woke up in the morning to the alarm at 7, hit the snooze button, slept for about 3 minutes, woke up and looked at the time... it was 8... there was no snooze button on the damn alarm... grrreat eh? amazing how time flies... literally I though it was 7:03... hmph... and then these idiots with Harley's start their bikes up outside... I mean really, does it have to be that freakin loud? is it a compensation thing? I just don't get it. Then to top it all off, I find that I don't got shampoo... here I am looking forward to this amazing shower again, and there's no damn shampoo.... waaa...waaa... so I called reception and they brought me some... YAY...had another amazing shower, got ready, packed all my stuff and I was off for the marathon ride back to Sydney.

Stopped in a town called Gundagai for lunch/breakfast, had this really good steak sandwich... it was actually a sandwich, with 2 pieces of toast...mmmm... and a cappucino...mmm.. I'm still chasing the flavour from the cafe at Bondi... gotta go back soon... headed off to a bakery down the street... the oldest working bakery in Australia, they had this pastry thing with cream custard and strawberries..oh my god, yummy... Got out of there and it was smooth sailing... the highway was nice and sraight, concrete and some blacktop, 130km/h all the way back, the roads are great, the view was ok, but lots of rolling hills and trees and sheep... kind of reminds me of Calgary.. minus the sheep... very picturesque (it's a dictionary word, if I spelt it wrong, sue me) decided I had to have some fun, so on the on ramp to the highway did 13,000 RPM in Second Gear... WOOOHOOO this bike has power...got to Sydney finally, these roads are crazy, the drivers are mad, they just zip by you... went under a really really long tunnel by the airport... really stuffy and smoggy inside.. had to hold my breath for a while, but didn't do any good, had a bit of a headache when I got out of the tunnel.. they really don't make 'em moto-cycle friendly. Then had to pay a toll... I can't beleive they charge bikes as well... morons.. the time spent looking for change and stuff.. bleh... made it back to the hostel, had to fandangle parking in an alley nearby, thank god I didn't get any tickets... the parking tix are like $160 out here... ya, that's dollars, not rupees. Got my room, they got a special, book for 6 nights and get the 7th free... YAY, brings the cost down to $24 per night... get to my room, there's a weird guy that smells really bad... great... more entertainment.

forgot to mention some of the roads that I passed on the trip...kept seeing names of people I knew... nutz eh? Grossman Way, Noble St, Audley Road

Went to Khane, got lost, made it there late... traffic was bloody insane, there was construction, mad crazy drivers... it was frickin nutz! had exit the motorway and get back on, ended up paying a toll twice... WTF?!? finally got there, got to blow up balloons for little kids, met Gav's Cousin Natashya, she just moved to Sydney last week, crazy eh? Salima convinced me to go to rotten ronnies for dinner ... mmm Double Quarter with cheese .. showed her the pics from the road trip and gave her the highlights.... then ... then we left to get back to the city... what a drive.. .topped out at about 162 km/h hope I didn't hit any speed cameras... oopsy... but it was pretty good, about 120-130 most of the way back.. a little cold outside.. but other than that, lots'o'fun! back at the hostel, gonna check out the bar and head off to bed... gotta move the bike at 8:30 to another parking location... geez...

Day 8
Got up at 8:30..actually got up earlier than that... got an early morning email from Zahra... thanks!..not!..got out of bed at 8:30... moved the damn bike to another spot in the alley... and went back to bed. Rolled my ass out at 11:00 and changed, hopped on da bike for my last ride to return it. Got to the rental place, they took a look at the bike... not good news.. they figure between $1000-1500 to repair the damage to the bike... I'm hoping it won't even be close to that amount, but will have to see... got my fingers crossed that the quote won't come out to that much.. I was hoping for $500 - 800 tops... will have to wait and see I guess... :( Said bye to the bike.

End of the Road Trip Story. I had a great time, it was worth it, the views and the scenery were incredible... I wish I could have captured more of it in pictures, but hopefully these will give you some indication of the amazing beauty that is this island called Australia!