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Well it's now been two days since heading off on this trip. I am sitting on the balcony at The beach hotel in Byron bay waiting for my dinner to cook and enjoying a lemonade to get some sugar. Here's how the last two days have played out.......
Waking up at 6am, and loading the bike up with all the equipment took quite a while longer than I had expected. With chilly fingers. I tried to strap eveythibg down, only to find that they were a little too numb to get any purchase and so thing were quite loose. Sophie dad,Phil showed up to take Sophie to a track day at eastern creek. As they took off, I reflected on whether I really am an adventure motorcyclist, or perhaps I should just stick to around the street riding and track days... I was so jealous that they were heading off to the track. He I was, about to head on an epic journey and all I was doing was doubting whether I was doing the right thing.
Breakfast was great at Parc Cafe on globally road in randwick. Mum, dad, Emilia and Justin were there, but so too was Christina Lawrence, Dominic gauchat, Andrew Schofield, Paul Passman, Ed Lancaster Andrew Stanwell and holly hearne... A great group. Everyone was so excited and it really put me at ease to have then all there... Thank you Cristina for keeping me sane while we were sitting there...I was very nervous and you made me much better. :)...
Upon leaving Sydney, Skoey and I headed up the pacific highway.... So cold, so boring... It wasn't until we left the highway after Newcastle and went inland towards Gloucester where we stopped and had lunch with Dionne Bolla, a friend of mine who I met at Tas n Ellys wedding in Avoca.
After leaving Gloucester and heading towards Walcha, 2 police cars and a fire truck shot past us. we weren't more than 40kms outside gloucester when we came across a log truck that had rolled onto it's side and lost all it's load across the road. The driver was looking very shaken with cuts to his face. Seeing as the police were already there, we decided to continue on. Soon the temperature started to drop and I startedto feel pretty bad for Andrew who didn't have warm gloves on. As we pulled into Walcha it was obvious that neither of us wanted to camp and so we pulled into the local pub and sat by the fire to thaw.......
We were in bed by 7:30pm.....
Things were not much warmer this morning... Afterstruggling out of bed, we thawed out in overly hot showers and threw on all our gear, only to find a layer of frost had covered our bikes and the temp had dropped to -2 degs....
Luckily for us, this didn't last too long and we were soon barreling towards the coast with one eye on the road and the other at the ever increasing mercury on my dash monitor..
As the temp rose, so too did my level of excitement as we travelled along what I consider to be the best road I have ever been on... 130kms of twists n turns, many switchbacks and lots of rollers... The only thing interrupting the focus on the challenging but enjoyable road was the occasional valley vistas peeking through the trees.... I say challenging with a little inside joke that Andrew and I had as there was a 2km stretch which seemed like it was a road to imminent doom..... The road signs read like this (in order).....
Twisty......... Motorcycles Wary...... slippery when frosty...... Rough service...... Soft shoulder...... Caution trucks turning......... and to top it off... Caution, livestock roaming unfenced for 30kms..
After negotiating the dream road of death, we pulled into wauchope where we got a very belated breakfast at 11:45am..... At 12:30pm, at the emotional location of United Petroleum, we said our goodbyes, had a quick photo and were off .... Andrew turned right to head south towards Sydney and his princess, Kristy.... While I turned left and made my way north.....
I was on my own.....
A million thoughts had already gone through my head over the past day and a half and now they all hit me with a resounding hollowness in my stomach.... I have never had nerves like this before... At one point I wanted to turn back, I'm not sure why... but I kept going and soon I was on the pacific highway heading towards Byron bay.... This was a familiar road and it settled me substantially. Through kempsey, coffs harbour and then grafton, my confidence built as the kilometers flew by... before I knew it I smelled the aroma of sugar cane burning and I smiled through my helmet... I was travelling on my own, and I was happy.
As you know, had dinner at beach hotel, then came back to camp.. Met some lovely people from Sunderland... Emma, Natalie, Michael and David. Great chat about everything and nothing.
As I lay here now in my tent in Byron bay,I am so excited for what lies ahead of me.. It is a trip I am doing on my own, but I am sure to meet a million new people along the way. .
Good night...... It's been quite an interesting start.....
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