Latest Update

Monday, 17 March 2003 

Well it appears that the travelling continues, although we may have reached our destination - Sydney, Australia. This country/continent has so much to do and see that it may take us the best part of a year out here to see at least a little of it! We certainly didn’t come all this way to just go back to the UK? 

Dom and I have done different things over the past month so I’ll recap on each:

Dom: 

Having met Marianne, a lovely Norwegian lass, in Thailand, he did a bit of travel with her back down to Melbourne. She has a round the world ticket and has already visited Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand before coming down to Australia for around a month. Her trip around Australia incorporated Darwin, Queensland and Sydney before moving onto Melbourne and flying onto New Zealand. Next stop is Fiji and then onto the USA, before ending her 6-month round-trip back in Norway, in April. 

 After a relaxing festive season, Dom got back on the bike and headed south again down to Melbourne meeting Marianne. An opportunity to see the Great Ocean Road again was not to be missed and with Marianne on the back they enjoyed a few days relaxing and taking in the wonderful sites along Australia’s favourite coastline.

 Back to Melbourne, Marianne headed off to New Zealand and Dom headed off to Tasmania. Who knows when they may meet again but as travellers do, I am sure it will be soon.

 The “Spirit of Tasmania”, more like an ocean liner than a ferry leaves from Melbourne nightly headed for Devonport, Tasmania, takes around 10 hours. This luxury mode of transport not only accommodates over 1000 people but also carries the 500 cars that those people drive!

 Tasmania, the largest island off the Australian coastline, is also Australia’s 8^th and almost forgotten state. But it is as steeped in history, early settlers were believed to have thought it part of the mainland for a long time. On discovering the Bass Strait, eventually they worked out that they could cut weeks off their journey by not sailing out around the island. 

On his 9 month African adventure in 1997, Dom met and made a good friend of Jason. A born and bred Tasmanian food and beverage manager, he now lives in Penguin, a short distance from Devonport. After not seeing each other for 5 years, it was time for a visit.  

While spending 3 weeks in and around the area, he stayed with Jason for around a week. It didn’t take long to appreciate the relaxed way of life and the wonderful surroundings Tasmania has to offer both in wildlife and culture. Apparently, the best of Australia’s beer comes from Tasmania and the locals certainly know a lot about that! Cascade and James Boags are just 2 of the top export beers that are brewed here. The lifestyle reminded Dom of old Rhodesian/Zimbabwe days, a good old family braai (BBQ) on a Saturday afternoon. These people are very family orientated and have very close-knit families who all live in the same community. 

Now down to the geography and places Dom visited on his bike. Tasmania is very green, has an abundance of dairy, beef and crop farming around the whole region and also a massive timber industry. Mining also generates a large portion of their income with reserves of gold, copper and other rare minerals.

 Directly south of Penguin is beautiful down toward Cradle Mountain National Park. Dom spent a few days riding the lovely winding roads through the valleys and farming regions here. Leven canyon, Hellyer gorge and the Great Western Tiers mountain range offer some fantastic scenery and are easily accessible by motorbike.

Dom covered most of Tasmania in an anti clockwise direction after staying with Jason, which took around 10 days. One of the dangers that stood out was the wildlife hazard on the road at dawn and dusk. Australia is known for this fact with kangaroos, wombats, wallabies and other creatures. In Tasmania it appears that they are more evident, perhaps there is a larger concentration of these animals on this wonderful island. Among the wildlife seen, Dom managed to see his first Tasmanian devil and a rare sight was a duckbill platypus.

 From Penguin the rugged coastline is pretty with some lovely beaches all the way out to Stanley and the most western point of Will North, is home to some of Australia’s largest dairy farming herds. Some of this lush forest area has been cleared for farming but otherwise it is still very wild. Heading south down the Explorers Way, all off road but sometimes good quality, other times deteriorating but manageable. One brave move was to see Tasmania’s highest waterfall, Montezuma, via the 4-wheel drive route. The “short” 16-kilometre journey took over an hour, as the road quality was terrible! Fully loaded with panniers, fuel and camping gear, the rocky road disappeared in front of you down steep ravines and straight back up the other side with a river crossing in between! Getting to the falls was well worth the effort, not that the drought at this time of year could dampen the spirits but the trip back was again taxing and a learning curve. Thoughts of Pakistan come rushing back… 

The south west of Tasmania, home of the massive Franklin – Gordon Wild Rivers National Park is relatively unexplored rainforest area. This very wet area is home to Australia’s largest dams, Lake Gordon and Lake Pedder. They hold 27 times the volume of water of Sydney harbour! The high rainfall in Tasmania accounts for it’s abundance of fresh water and the volume of dams it has. All of Tasmania’s electricity is by Hydo Electric Power plants.  

If you do make it out to Tasmania there is some interesting history surrounding the area of Queenstown. The thriving mining industry, over exhausted by mankind in the late 1900’s, turned a once lush and green region into a sulphur polluted, eroded landscape. The gold and copper rich area was mined to the detriment of the surrounding habitat and even today the Queen and King rivers that pass through this area are so toxic that they are stained orange. Nothing can survive in them.

Having spent a few days in Strahan, where there is a thriving tourist industry, a visit to the newly reopened Abt railway is not to be missed. Originally constructed over a century ago, this railway system was a key element used in the transportation of gold and copper from the mines to the harbour through some of the states wildest wilderness. Due to the steepness of the terrain, this steam rack and pinion railway was built to carry these loads along up to 1 in 20 gradients! 

Another bit of interesting Tasmanian history is that Huon pine comes from these south western parts, known worldwide for it’s boat building qualities. Macquarie harbour, similar in size to Sydney harbour, was once a thriving port when the mining industry was in it’s hey day but now is just a massive haven for weekend sailors.  

Tearing himself away from the wonderful lush, green pastures of the west coast, Dom decided he’d had enough of the wet weather and so next destination was Hobart. This is the capital city of Tasmania and a beautiful setting. The surrounding hills around this area allow spectacular views of the wonderful coastline where you can see miles out to sea, islands and beaches aplenty. This place reminded Dom of Sydney, though it’s minute with a population of just over 100 000 compared with 4 million.

 Life in and around Hobart has plenty to offer. The peninsulas of Tasman and Forestier have some rugged terrain with Port Arthur, at the southern tip, a day trip opportunity. Heading north via Swansea, the Freycinet Peninsula is a splendid place to spend a few days out hiking. There are some wonderful treks out into the hilly area and if you prefer the beach, some of the best white sandy beaches are not far away either. 

North bound, Dom stayed on the pretty coastline and visited the Bay of Fires; the most outstanding feature of this area is the orange granite rock face overhanging the crystal clear ocean below. Here there is a thriving fishing industry and with the beauty of the clear blue sea, many sporting enthusiasts use this area for scuba, snorkelling and spear fishing too. 

Crossing from the east coast, Dom headed back to Penguin and Jason’s house across some stunning scenery. The highlight of the trip back was the wonderful winding roads, superb for motor biking. The roads are something that the whole of Tasmania has an abundance of, whether you choose to go off road or stick to the sealed roads. 

Overall Dom covered 1200 miles (2000 kilometres) and of this around 300 kilometres was off road. 

Once arriving back in Melbourne, he headed back to Sydney for 2 weeks before going to Auckland, New Zealand for a week. This was really just to renew the tourist visa for another 6 months where if he left and returned he would get another 6 months on his current visa. 

Monday, 13 January 2003

Well after almost 8 months, 228 days to be precise and 21 425 miles (34 280 kilometres) we finally reached our destination of Sydney! Yes, our quest to ride motorbikes from London to Sydney has been fulfilled!

Our final stretch from Perth to Sydney was ridden in some extreme conditions, both freezing cold and very hot. We were again put to the test but we were very fortunate that the 1200 or so kilometre stretch across the deserts of the Nullabor Plain were overcast and not the usual 40 degrees plus. The last stretch from Adelaide to Sydney was in comfort as George and Jacqui, Gary's brother and his wife, joined us in a luxury, fully equipped campervan.

We left Perth on Wednesday, 4 December, the day of the solar eclipse and rode south via Banbury and the wine farms of Margaret River before camping at Northcliffe for the night. We visited the Cape Leeuwin, where the Indian and South Oceans meet, but could not spend long at the coast due to the cold sea breeze chilling us beyond comfort!
The thought which lasted was how very dry this region was with the drought taking a strangle hold on much of the landscape. The wine farms are not the expected luscious, green plantations but the dry red earth and wilting vines. It is surprising that Margaret River is such a rich wine producing region, one of Australia's most popular. Our Gore Tex jackets came in handy as the coastal breeze became almost European winterish! We had thought of posting these onto Sydney, thinking we'd not need them in sunny and hot Australia! We soon realised we wouldn't have survived without them!

It was great to spend our first night outdoors camping. It had been months since we'd last camped way back in Europe. Australia is certainly geared up for campers and overland travellers, more so than Europe. We have been very impressed with the lovely facilities at the caravan parks and campsites all along the route and, after Asia, it was a pleasure to get back to civilisation with self-catering kitchens, hot showers, braai facilities and all at really reasonable prices. It is also worth mentioning how friendly the Australian locals are, wherever we spent some time we met some really lovely people. This country certainly has a lot going for it!

We visited one of the beautiful gum and pine forests where the both the most ancient and enormous trees exist around Pemberton. There are 3, which can be climbed so we chose the tallest of the 3, Bicentennial, which stands at some 68 metres. If not the height of the tree, then the hundreds of metal stakes hammered into its side grab the attention at once. But, after deciding to climb this monster, you begin the ascent and before long you are staring down, wondering if you made the right decision! It is certainly worth the journey up to the top as the view from the 2-ton metal tree house is exceptional. It's not for the feint hearted or those afraid of heights though!

We continued along the national highway 1 along the chilly coast through Walpole and Denmark to Albany for lunch. We were going to stay here for a night but with the wind chill factor at around zero we decided to push inland a bit to get away from the cold. We headed toward Mount Barker and camped inside the Stirling National Park.

We were fortunate the following day when, on our way east, a cold front started to push in from the west. In overcast and cool conditions we rode most of the day to reach the lovely coastal town of Esperance. After finishing the daily chores of setting up camp and shopping at the local supermarket for dinner, we explored the lovely coastline around Esperance. It certainly is a lovely little town, surfers enjoying the waves in one of the bays, people walking their dogs over the scenic paths overlooking the 15 or so islands in the bay and other people enjoying the fantastic sunset on offer.
Unfortunately we could only spend a short time in this area, but it certainly could have been a place where spending a week would go by unnoticed.

The Nullabor:

The great Nullabor was ahead of us once we left Esperance and it proved to be some of the most desolate terrain we have ever come across apart from the Sahara desert. It reminded us very much of the Karoo in the Cape region of South Africa.

It took us 3 days to cross the Nullabor from Norseman to Port Augusta, stopping at Ceduna on the second night. With the cool weather conditions, we managed to do some of the longest distances to date on our trip. We bush camped near Madura on the first night and did a record 464 miles (742 kilometres) to reach Ceduna the following day, missing the solar eclipse crowds by just a few days.

The only way to describe the Nullabor is a road heading east with nothing but savannah like bush on the left or right for as far as the eye can see. The cross winds were very taxing: spending 8 hours on the road, laying the bike at 45 degrees to stay upright is not my idea of fun!
One of the "highlights" was travelling along the 90 mile (146 kilometre) straight! It is a section of tar 90 miles long without a bend in it!
The view does change once you reach the coast near the South Australia border but the road doesn't offer much of a view of the Nullabor cliffs or the Great Australian Bight. You have to travel off the road to appreciate a change of scenery and it is spectacular so worth the effort.

Something worth mentioning was the number of cyclists we saw, spoke to and passed along the Nullabor. We saw at least 6 individual riders, spoke to 3 of them and were amazed what these guys were up against! We worked out that what we travel on our bikes in 1 hour takes them at least 1 day to cover. One chap had only 1 leg….so when you are down, always remember that there is always someone worse off than you!

Once we reached Port Augusta, the Flinders mountain range escorted us in towards Adelaide but it was still a very warm and barren stretch. The crosswinds were still very strong so we assumed the proverbial 45-degree position for the day on the bikes, again!
We watched some small fire fighting aeroplanes taking off on the dusty runway to douse a fire high up on the hill, a common sight at this time of year as the hot and dry conditions make the fire-fighters lives a 24 hour job!

It had taken us 7 full days riding to get from Perth to Adelaide, which is about 2 200 miles (3 700 kilometres). Looking back at the Nullabor stretch, I am not so sure you'll catch me there on a motorbike again - ever!
We arrived in Adelaide on Tuesday, 10 December to meet George, Gary's brother, who had braved the 26-hour train journey over from Sydney.

Adelaide:

Adelaide was our introduction back to "civilisation"! After crossing some pretty vast, uninhabited, barren terrain, it was a welcome sight! We found a campsite about 10 kilometres out of town and set up camp where we would spend 4 days to explore the city and surrounding areas. The highlights were riding through the mountains north just outside of town and visiting the Barossa wine valley. Adelaide seems like a great place but we did have to get used the different and, sometimes dangerous, way in which the locals drive. Wheel spinning V8 sports ute's seem to be the way forward…

Jacqui, George's wife, flew in on Saturday morning and we started our travels back to Sydney in convoy. George and Jacqui hired a luxury campervan that had a shower/toilet, fridge and stove, etc. so we were able to upgrade our travelling by motorbike to first class! We put our entire luggage including panniers in the van and so didn't have to carry a thing.
It certainly was a pleasure to travel this way and perhaps a little too comfortable to return to our normal rough camping in the future? But we were not complaining by any means!

Most days included a minimum of about 4 hours travel but with a full breakfast in the van and then a well-prepared lunch the time flew by! The evening meals were real home cooking and with a cold beer in hand, we were really living like kings, those tough days out in Pakistan on the bike now long forgotten….

After a wine tasting day out in the Barossa valley where we visited some of the great Australian vineyards of Jacobs Creek, Penfolds and Wolf Blass among others we started our journey east heading for Sydney.

Great Ocean Road:

After a late start from Adelaide on Sunday, 15 December, we drove east over the Adelaide hills and Murray River through another of Australia's many wine regions to reach the picturesque Mount Gambier by sunset. We visited the volcanic crystal blue lakes this area is famous for and enjoyed the lovely green scenery that surrounded us.

The Great Ocean Road lay ahead of us on Monday so we had an early start. It is fairly flat and uneventful in the first section, not quite like Chapmans Peak, but it did get a lot more interesting. We visited the touristy spots including the 12 Apostles, London Bridge and the many gorges, natural hole-in-the-walls and cliffs that are so beautifully contrast against the blue ocean.

George swapped transport with me and I drove the campervan while he and Dom tried as much as possible to get their knees down on the corners through the forests. We drove on to Port Cameron and stopped for the night at Apollo Bay. After sundowners on the beach and a swim those willing to brave the cold water, we headed back to our campsite for a lovely cooked dinner and some Australian beer and wine.

Tuesday, 17 December was a continuation of the Great Ocean Road and this day was more like the Chapmans Peak we know. The lovely winding road snaking it's way up and down the mountains but the road was cut deep into the side of the cliffs that fall to the sea below, perfect for motor biking! Geelong's beachfront was the lunch stop before we navigated our way into Melbourne for 2 nights.

Melbourne:

We found a comfortable campsite some 10 kilometres from the CBD with a lovely pool so after checking in we spent some time relaxing and swimming. Paul Healey, a family friend from South Africa now living here, was kind enough to offer us his time and superb knowledge of Melbourne. He drove us around the city and surrounding areas before we had dinner on the waterfront in St. Kilda. The highlight was being driven around the Albert Park F1 track, as it is just a normal road apart from that one weekend in March. The following day we explored the CBD by tram and did a Yara river cruise down to Williamstown and back.

On Thursday we were once again greeted by an awesome sunrise and after an early start we left Melbourne headed inland towards the east coast. The mercury reached into the late 30's and early 40's so Lake Hume was a good place to spend the night. The Murray River runs into Lake Hume and also forms the border between the state of Victoria and New South Wales (NSW). Unfortunately this region is feeling the effects of the countrywide drought so the lake is only at 10% but this didn't stop us from spending a few hours swimming in it. We headed back over the Murray into Victoria up into the overlooking mountains for some sundowners and to watch the most awesome sunset.

The penultimate day was again very warm so after an early morning swim we headed off eastward on the M31. Today the terrain was uneventful, dry and warm so we looked for another lake where we could spend the night. Unfortunately Lake George was off our route so we adjusted and did 30 kilometres off road. But on reaching Lake George we realised that this "lake" was nothing more than an empty basin!

We drove to the nearest town of Goulding and spent the night there before finally heading into Sydney, only some 200 kilometres away, the following day.

Sydney:

The day had finally arrived; we were finally heading into Sydney! Another 30-degree day and we were greeted with some fantastic scenery on entering the outskirts of Sydney. It almost appears that water surrounds the most populated in Australia, no matter the direction you look is the sea, a river or an estuary. The past the airport, which is built into Botany Bay and then we crossed over the majestic Harbour Bridge with the Opera House and Darling Harbour in full view. Wow, this certainly is something I'll not forget for some time to come, this is a beautiful city!

Christmas:

Over the past few weeks we have spent the festive season enjoying the Australian lifestyle in Sydney. We were very fortunate to get tickets to see the Australian symphony orchestra at the stunning Opera House, nothing like a bit of a culture shock after being on the road for so long! It was a superb display of music and an education!

Our Christmas day was a picnic lunch spent in a park close to Chinamans beach with family and friends. The highlight was swimming across the estuary and playing some rugby in the park. This is certainly a change for the better after spending so many cold Christmas days in Europe over the past few years since leaving sunny South Africa.

New Year:

New Year was certainly one to remember as a family friend, Brad, arranged a top floor apartment in the prestigious Kirribilli suburb. The flat was on the water overlooking both the Harbour Bridge and Opera House, the perfect setting for the awesome fireworks display. A superb evening followed with hundreds of thousands of people lining the banks of the harbour, some people had been camping there for a few days just to secure their place! With a population of 4 million, Sydney had certainly had the right idea for a party. The fireworks displays, estimated to have cost some A$5m, were placed on the bridge and on various ships/barges within the harbour. The New Year was welcomed in with some cold Windhoek's and champagne while we enjoyed the huge fireworks that ignited the sky and welcomed in the New Year.

There is not a day that we were not busy during the festive season. There is so much to do here; it's impossible to be bored! We visited the Hunter wine valley for a day as a group, some on motorbikes, some in cars as it's a 2-hour drive along the north coast.
We hired a boat and explored the harbour from top to bottom, it is such a huge place it would take you a few weeks to see it all! We have spent some time enjoying the sea and lovely beaches of Manly and Bondi. We managed to get tickets to see the last day of the last ashes test and it was a memorable one for England with the Barmy Army offering free entertainment.

Itinerary for the past few weeks:

Wednesday, 4 December
Perth to Northcliffe via Banbury and Pemberton, distance 314 miles;

Thursday, 5 December
Northcliffe to Stirling National Park via Walpole and Albany, distance 225 miles;

Friday, 6 December
Stirling National Park to Esperance, distance 260 miles;

Saturday, 7 December
Esperance to close by Madura, distance 419 miles;

Sunday, 8 December
Madura to Ceduna, record distance of 464 miles;

Monday, 9 December
Ceduna to Port Augusta, distance 299 miles;

Tuesday, 10 December
Port Augusta to Adelaide, distance 243 miles;

Thursday, 12 December
Ride around the Adelaide hills area out to Murray River via Hahndorf, distance 187 miles;

Friday, 13 December
Ride out to Glen Elgin and the beach south of Adelaide, distance 62 miles;

Saturday, 14 December
Campervan trip up to the Barossa wine valley, no riding;

Sunday, 15 December
Adelaide to Mount Gambia, distance 303 miles;

Monday, 16 December
Mount Gambia to Apollo Bay on Great Ocean Road, distance 226 miles;

Tuesday, 17 December
Apollo Bay to Melbourne, distance 133 miles;

Wednesday, 18 December
Day in Melbourne sight seeing, no travelling;

Thursday, 19 December
Melbourne to Lake Hume via Albury, distance 265 miles;

Friday, 20 December
Lake Hume to Goulding, distance 249;

Saturday, 21 December
Goulding to Sydney, distance 134 miles.

Dom has since set off down to Melbourne to visit the Great Ocean Road again, as it was so good, and to get down to Tasmania for a visit to an old friend. He will continue to travel for some time to come around Australia while Gary settles down in Sydney for a while.

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has had a helping hand in the success of our lifetime trip. To our sponsors, K&N, HEL Performance, Michelin, NGK, DID and SKF bearings, a special thank you for providing us with world class performance products, it certainly made our life much easier out on the road.

To our family and friends who have been out there supporting us both in the preparation stages and while we were out on the road, your patience, support and help has been greatly appreciated. Special thanks to Karen, Damian, Kelly, Andy, Rulan, George and Jacqui.

A great big thank you to "mom to be" Wendy for the design of our fantastic website!

And to all those people that we have met, both in person, and via the Internet, we have thoroughly enjoyed all of your help and company along the route. It's amazing how many people are travelling or who have an interest in this type of travel. We have had almost 3000 hits on our site, and emails most days to reply to, which tells us that there must be some interest out there!

For all those people with ideas of travelling here are a few words of advice:
Get out there and do it, you'll be amazed at how rewarding all those months and years of planning are!

A Happy New Year to you all in 2003 and we certainly hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as we have!

Tuesday, 3 December 2002

We are currently in Perth, western Australia. We have been on the road 210 days and covered 17 522 miles (28 035 kilometres).

You may ask yourself, wasn't that our last update: Perth and no more mileage! That is correct but when we last wrote this we had yet to get our bikes so it's been almost 3 weeks since we arrived in Perth and only a few days since we got our bikes.

In the past few weeks Gary did an organised trip up to Exmouth (2000km) and back while Dom spent some quality time with his sister, Rulan and husband Andy.

Last week we were notified that our bikes had finally reached port Freemantle, close to Perth and that we could go and collect them. But we were in for a few surprises:

When collecting them the "agent" who had acted on our behalf charged us more to simply unload the bikes from the ship than it did for the entire shipment from Malaysia to Perth (US$260)! Ecu Line are a large shipping organisation but they certainly know how to rip people off! To take our crated bikes out of the ships container cost A$300 per bike and another A$75 to steam clean them. There were a few other charges for administration, etc. so we ended up paying A$550 (US$ 310) per bike just to get them from ship to warehouse, absolutely incredible. Unfortunately there is little you can do to stop this from happening and it's that simple: they had our bikes and we had to pay!

We put this down to experience (it would have cost the same to fly the bikes and we would have had them the next day!) and proceeded with the Australian regulations:

1. Visit the licensing department and got some temporary movement permits (A$13) along with an examination for roadworthiness (A$63);
2. We arranged at the same time to meet the customs official along with the quarantine official (A$94), they can be done independently but it's quicker to do it together;
3. Assemble the bikes and ride them out of the warehouse;
4. Take them for a roadworthiness test at the local testing centre, both bikes passed ok but Dom had to change his chain and sprockets before he went;
5. Pay for the 3rd party insurance for the validity of your UK road tax. On a carnet you are only permitted to use your vehicle in Australia for the validity of either the UK tax disk or the carnet, whichever expires first.

We had expected some costs to enter Australia but not quite as expensive as when they eventually added up to around US$ 725 per bike! (US$ 260 for Malaysia and US$465 for Australia!). Advice: fly!

Once we had done all that we were up and away but it took the better part of 3 days to sort all this out and thanks to having Tommy, Rulan and Andy's Toyota land cruiser for transport, we were able to do it quicker than catching busses or taxis.

Over this past weekend we did a service to both bikes (oil and oil filter change), though Dom adjusted the valve clearance on Maggie and also got his carburettors balanced.

Tomorrow we will be leaving sunny Perth to start our journey across to Sydney hopefully in time for Christmas. The number 1 highway, which circumnavigates Australia, shows the distance from Perth to Sydney at 4500km so we will have our work cut out. It is the middle of summer now and the weather forecast for most regions is in the 30's though some reach the 40's! The south west coast is beautiful and green so we'll spend a few days around Margaret River, Albany and Esperance before crossing the Nullabor Plain, a trek of over 1000 kilometres through the barren outback. From there we meet Gary's brother, George, in Adelaide where he will accompany us back Sydney. Christmas and New Year are not far away, can't believe it's that time again, only seems like a few months ago it was last Christmas, and we'll be spending this in Sydney with some family and friends.

We shall not be updating the diary until we reach Sydney so please bear with us during this transition period of a few weeks, we will be contactable via email as always.

Gary will end his adventure in Sydney and Dom has still to decide what to do, whether to continue his quest to ride around Australia or settle down and find a job…

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