Melbourne has changed a lot, there are a lot more high rises and its development has spread. The south side of the Yarra river is much more developed and they have a casino there amongst the hotels and restaurants. There was no gambling back in the day, only the horses at the TAB. If you wanted a casino you had to take a coach trip over the boarder to New South Wales!
So the end of an epic trip, what are the stats and what have I learnt:
Time away – 6 ½ weeks
Distance travelled – 9,811 km (6,132 miles)
Petrol used – a shit load (Averaged around 4.2 Ltr/100 km = 413 Ltrs at average $ 1.65 a Ltr = $ 681 = £ 370 not bad)
Crashes – one (broken clutch lever, bent gear lever, twisted handlebars – fixed clutch lever (took one of his own bike to keep me going) and new rear tyre at McPeake Motorcycles, Adelaide
mcpeakemotorcyclesbmw@hotmail.com and managed to avoid any charges from BikeRoundOz)
Beer drunk – lots of many different varieties
States ridden in – 3 (Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria) – I flew to Darwin. It does mean I have visited every state and state capital in Australia though.
Country Australians are very different to town Australians.
Country towns are little more than villages to us.
The girls at the Auski Roadhouse near Karijini are awesome. Roadhouses in general are great.
Spare fuel cans expand more than you think and leak in the extreme heat.
Washing fuel off your skin with water from a Camelback only makes it burn more.
Riding in temperatures of 40 C is uncomfortable and at 48 C is just plain miserable.
Klim Induction Jacket was very good in all but the most extreme heat (over 40 C) and made riding comfortable, needed a fleece at temperatures below 20 C.
Klim Switchback Cargo Pants worked great at keeping me cool.
SIS (Science in Sport) Hydro Tablets at 2 per Camelback fill make the drinking water taste nice, Camelbak was good at keeping the water cool for most of the day even in high temperatures.
Been back a few weeks now and my thoughts are dominated by “where do I go next ?”.