Day 25 Dorrigo to Gold Coast

Today was the end of our Tassie adventure. From here Warren and Kerry will make their way home as quickly as they can and we the Hoppers will make our way around the family before returning home next weekend. But before we close we had one more day and a couple more roads to ride. We woke to a foggy morning but by the time we had had breakfast it had lifted to reveal a glorious day. We head out to the Armidale - Grafton road and turned to Grafton. This road was much better than I remembered it last visit. As it wound through the forest and along the Nymbodia river. It is an hour of turn after turn. It takes some concentration particularly watching for cars and maybe a logging truck coming the other way but it was still good fun.

Fuelling in Grafton we headed to Casino for morning tea and then on to Kyogle and Murwillumbah over some more fun roads to lunch. Here we had a little extra entertainment. The day was heating up and some one had left their car in the street running. I guess with the a/c on so it would be cool when they returned. Just as we got off our bikes there was a loud bang and stream billowed from under the bonnet. It had blown a radiator hose and coolant was now running down the gutter. One of the locals turned it off left a note. By the time we had finished lunch it had been moved.

This was point when Tassie trip came to an end. Warren and Kerry decided to head for home. They headed for the coast and made Gympie for the night and home the next day but not without more Buell drama. It was now leaking oil from the tappet cover on the rear cylinder and on the next day ran rough. They nursed it back it Mackay getting in about 8pm Saturday night. We started our family visit. We crossed back into Queensland in the border rangers and made Ian and Jaynes about 4.30 after a brief visit to Natural Bridge. So ends a great adventure. I will write one more entry to fill you in on our final journey home and some of our reflections.

Day 24 Gloucester to Dorrigo

Today is to start and finish with an Australian Motorcycle Atlas ride. We left Gloucester about 8.45 because I made the most of the free wifi and uploaded the blogs to date. Our first destination was Nabiac, breakfast and the National Motorcycle Museum. The ride down which is the second half (or really the middle part) of Buckett's Way was good fun mostly good road with sweeping corners. Nabiac so I am told was a dying little town bypassed by the highway that was revived when the National Motorcycle Museum bloke decide to move his collection here some years back after a planning dispute in Canberra. True or not we found a bubbling little town with a great little cafe called the Greenhouse. Breakfast was very good and the girls were delighted as they also had great range of jewellery and trinkets ideal Christmas presents for family when you are traveling by motorcycle. Eventually Warren, Robyn and I went up to the museum. $12 each got us in to what was an extensive (800 odd) collection of motorcycles in varying states of repair. I found an example of every bike I have ever owned or at least a version of it. Warren did not do so well. The collection of old british bikes - AJS, BSA, Ariels etc - was very extensive. There was some American stuff, Indians and a few WHA Harleys. A lot of dirt bikes and speedway bikes too. All had their stories attached. In addition there was a lot of personal history about people who rode them. It was nearly 1.30pm by the time we emerged. You could spend a lot longer but you do reach a saturation. On the whole I prefer the Hagleigh one. It has a better range of Japan stuff in a better condition and if you only love Harley's you will be disappointed. Don't be put off it is well worth the visit. We decided that we would just run up the Pacific Highway only because we figured it would be late by the time we left Nabiac and we would need the shortest route. The run to Port Macquarie was pretty good with a fair bit of traffic for a Thursday. When we pulled up we had to queue for petrol and then for food. Back out on the highway we were surprised to find that the road when back to one lane each direction. There were over taking lanes but they achieved little the line of traffic was continuous littered with under powered cars towing vans and P plate drivers only allowed to do 80k/h (what a brilliant policy ???). By the time we made our next stop just north of Mackville I was that full of adrenaline. Bouncing around like I had four cups of double shot coffee. We soon turned west again headed for Dorrigo. The sky became threatening and there was a few spots of drizzle so we stopped and donned our wet weathers just in case. It was now time for Kerry's adrenaline shot, the drizzle had preceded us and winding road up Waterfall way was wet. Kerry's heart was already pumping as she again confronted her fear of heights when she ran the front tyre on to the white line. It slipped for a moment and put the Harley into a tank slap. To her credit she recovered and keep it up right. If the road had been dull it didn't matter she was now wide awake. The Heritage rooms of the Dorrigo Hotel were again a delight. We had tea and then retired to a cuppa on the wide verandah. Our adventure was coming to an end.

Day 23 Bathurst to Gloucester

We started early today and headed into the Blue Mountains. We did not take the direct route to Lithgow but went about 20 km back the way we had come yesterday and took a road that eventually lead us past Lake Lyell into Lithgow. Some of the road surface was a bit ordinary but it was a very pleasant ride in the country. We pushed on toward Windsor, into the rugged landscape of the Blue Mountains along Bell's line of Road before stopping for breakfast at a great little family run eatery at Bilpin. After fuelling up we made our way onto the Putty Road. When we were last through here in the eighties this was one of the two must do Australian motorcycle roads (the other the Great Ocean Road). My memory of it was as a declining road in poor condition. I had the impression that the powers of that time saw that it had served its purpose and with the development of the coast road its use would fall to just local traffic. So I was delighted to find a great wide and well maintained road that was really good fun. Although the fun police had been out trying the slow the rabbits with 80 and 60 km/h speed signs. I guess they don't know rabbits can't read. The other significant improvement is a great cafe at the halfway point. It was clear how popular this road is with motorcyclists. It was Wednesday and the front of the cafe were 20 bikes. There was plenty of opportunity to talk bikes. We enjoyed a great morning tea. They even provided a squirty bottle and towels to clean helmet visors. By the time I made Singleton my back tyre was shot. Singleton Motorcycles provided a great service and by the time everyone had had lunch I had a new tyre. From here to Gloucester was a matter of programming the GPS and seeing where it lead. The roads we covered were just patches on patches and for the most part required the up most of care. Other than a bloke with a trailer ruining most of the ranges in this section because he would not pull over and the fire services vehicles rushing around the address a small grass fire that had broken out it was uneventful. Eventually we turned north on to Bucket' s way and followed it into Gloucester. We were all a little tried after so many rides. Chinese for tea and then bed. Another satisfying day.

Day 22 Albury to Bathurst

Today we had a lot more freeway riding and the a motorcycle road from Goulburn to Bathurst. The highlight of first part was a stop for breakfast at Gundagai's Dog on the Tuckerbox. We (the Hoppers) left Albury early. Tysoes stayed for breakfast with Jeff and Ailsa so they caught us up here. The dog is still there but there was no where we could find the story. The bronze statues of Dad and Dave have been moved into Gundagai township. The family who commissioned them donated them to the town. Next time we will make time to go in and visit. We told the kids the story best we could remember. May be a google opportunity sometime. The lady at the shop is a little OCD or maybe just ODD. We witnessed lady try to order hot chips " We don't do hot chips only what's on the board" she barked back.
We went on to Yass where we got another Donkey photo - putting the Ass in Yass. Finally after 370 odd kilometre of freeway we finally made Goulburn and stopped for lunch at the amazing Trappers Bakery. It is a biggest rustic shed type place turned into a cafe. Just near the big sheep with the evil eye. (Ask some time and we will explain). The run up to Bathurst over the Abercrombie river was a fair part gravel 10 years ago but is all sealed now. We pulled up at the river and cooled our feet in the stream. A pleasant stop. The road had some rough spots but for the most part was fun except for the gusty winds in the open parts. We arrived in Bathurst about 5.30 booked in, unpacked and headed for the race track. You have got to love that this major race track in a public road. We rode around the track (at the 60 km/h speed limit) and had photo taken on the starting grid then rode it again. On the seconded time down Conrod straight we met the highway patrol car coming up. That is why you only do the speed limit. I guess plenty find the temptation too much. Need a good nights sleep tomorrow is all motorcycle roads.

Day 22 Werribee to Albury

Logan and Andrew left us today. They loaded the bikes on the trailer and head for Toowoomba. It was a pretty good effort for Logan. This is the longest he has ever been away. It has been a delight to share this trip with him and his family. It was sad to see them head off but we are grateful they came and contributed to a memorable holiday.
Today was never going to be a big day although a bloke from the Ducati club suggested a far better way for motorcyclists to go to Albury than the Hume. In the end we opted for the quickest route with a small detour on to the old Hume at Seymour to Longwood. As it turns out you have to rejoin the highway at Avenel as the a sign there claims that it is a no through road from this point. We did not really have time to challenge the sign so we went back to the freeway. The freeway was the freeway we survived it. The highlight for the day then was the hamburger at Seymour from a small block building near the park on the way into town. Our motorcycle atlas refers to it as the hut and although under new management the burgers are very good. May be not as good as the Warrnambool but they were pretty good just the same. We got into Albury about 5.30, had tea at the pub that was in walking distance and came home and watched the Edinburgh Tattoo on TV and went to bed early. Warren and Kerry went back to Kerry's dad's place. Sounds like they had a much more entertaining time seeing what the village residents dressed up in for their New Years Eve "T" party. We decided to get away at 7 so we needed a fairly early night anyway.

Day 21 Warrnambool to Werribee.

I got up first and headed across the road to Maccas for a cuppa and free wifi to up date this blog. In about half an hour later Robyn joined me and eventual everyone was there so we had breakfast and then headed back to pack up. We were on the road- that's the Great Ocean Road - about 11. We had agreed to stop at all the lookouts. It took us until about 1pm to get to the twelve apostle. It had changed a lot since we were here last in 1986. We had a great chat to park ranger who filled us in on some of the details we had missed in the last 26 years. Not only had London Bridge collapsed and one of the apostles had gone down but they had rebuilt parts of the road and some of the bits we had ridden on last time had fallen into the ocean too. The best story was that the day after London Bridge collapsed the rangers had planned to take a backhoe over it to renovate the walking paths. Very please it happened the day before.
It was a perfect day weather wise and the first one they had had for a while. Everyone was out. I mean everyone. I reckon there could have been 10000 people at the Twelve Apostles. It was amazing. The great ocean road was like to great Chinese dragon as we wound our along the coast. Next time I come I am going to get up early and not stop just ride the road before anyone else want to use it. They have done a good job of creating pull off areas for slower vehicles. Unfortunately no one regardless of how many cars and motorbikes are follow consider themselves slower vehicles.
It was 4pm by the time we made Apollo Bay for lunch and 8 pm before we got back to Werribee. Adam had the pizza oven going when we arrived and in no time we were enjoying some of the best pizza we had ever had. Catching up with Adam and Bec has been one of the highlights of our trip. Tomorrow we start on our way home.

Day 20 Melbourne to Warrnambool

We arrived in Melbourne at 7.40am. Most of us had not the good nights sleep we had hoped for. The passage was pretty rough. We came off the boat and turned left much to the annoyance of the bloke directing traffic. We then got caught briefly in the traffic getting on the boat. We parked up and in not time Aunty Thalia and Georgie arrived for breakfast. Warren and Kerry left early and headed to a tyre shop to replace the rear tyre on Kerry's bike. It was great to catch with Thalia and Georgie. Thalia had just been to see Leonore and she had all her news too. We heard about their holiday to Alice Springs and yarned until the parking meter ran out. The next step was to drop the car at Adam and Bec's and then we when to a near by servo and waited for Warren and Kerry. It was a great stop we all wish we could have had breakfast here. the food was better although we would not have had the company. We were all a bit tried so we took the trip to Warrnambool in small steps and again detoured off the main road to avoid the cars. Stopped for lunch in Colac. It was clear we were now in Victoria the places are much bigger. It was great riding though the countryside at milking time. We pulled into our motel about 4.30 and were please to stop for today. We went for a hunting and gathering and found a hamburger shop that claimed to be one of the top 50 in the world and 46 on the RACV list of tourist attractions. The burgers were good but who really knows. It was off to bed for an early night. Great Ocean Road tomorrow. That should be another highlight.