Not A Mid Life Crisis, Just An Extended Tour (Part XX) - The Sydney Contingent Arrive

DAY 26

We tucked into the complimentary hotel breakfast with slightly heavy hearts. Today was the group’s last day in Tassie as we would board the Spirit of Tasmania and be spirited back to the mainland and thus, reality. Mt Owen put on a spectacular farewell for us.

Mid - Tour Tyre Thoughts

 

I have ridden approximately 10 800 kilometres(6720mi) so far on this tour of south eastern Australia and thought I might break the trip blogs up with some thoughts on the tyres I have used or am currently using. For reference, the bike is a 2018 Africa Twin Adventure Sports (243kg wet) that is loaded with my camping gear (approximately 25kg) and I weigh about 95kg in my riding gear.

 

Not A Mid Life Crisis (Part V)

 DAY 8

After a reasonable nights sleep with only one train that sounded like it went through my room 😄 we were up pretty early as my mate, Andy had to fly home for work today. This meant getting to Launny, dropping his bike at the local Honda dealer for it's 6000km service and him juggling gear in our storage shed, then getting himself to the airport. I was happy just to tag along and do whatever he needed to do as I wasn't flying home until tomorrow.

Not A Mid Life Crisis (Part IV)

 DAY 6

Despite not needing to be up early, I was up pretty early. The Golden Age Hotel puts on a complimentary breakfast so I tucked into that. There was no sign of the BMW guys. I think they might have been wearing out from all the frivolity of the last few days. 😆

No problem though as my bike was parked at the back of the group and I could get it out to load up. I was on the road by about 8am, still with no firm plan on what to do. I didn't have to worry for a while as the only course of action was to ride down to Bruthen on the Great Alpine road - and yes, it is pretty great, especially where it follows the Tambo River. No photos as I wasn't stopping.

Through Bruthen toward Bairnsdale and big time civilisation. Boo. I wanted to avoid the highway as much as possible so typed Maffra into the GPS. This took me right at the first roundabout on the outskirts of Bairnsdale and back out into the countryside. 

When the GPS started to take me back North I thought it was getting a bit too adventurous and commanded it back to Stratford - and the Princes Highway. 

Fuel and food in Stratford, then a planning session in Apex Park under the shade of a tree. It was nice not to be in a hurry and I sorted some accomodation thanks to input from users on the Netrider forum. Cheers guys for the suggestions. 😉

Looking at my old Hema road atlas I noticed the highlighted road across the ranges between the highway and the coast. The Grand Ridge Road! Of course!! Reading the blurb (it is one of the recommended 50 best rides) and I was sold. Topping it off is that it would take me through Mirboo North. We always used to go through there on the way to The Island.

I thought about getting off the highway to Maffra again and crossing the Princes at Rosedale and then on to Gormandale. I should have stuck with that thought. Instead, I did the highway to Sale, then crawled for kilometres in the 40km/h zone through the extensive roadworks. D'oh!

I eventually got off the highway at Rosedale and passed through Gormansdale. Boy, it was getting hot now with 35C showing on the bike.

The road south out of Gormansdale wasn't a bad one at all but before I knew it I was turning West onto The Grand Ridge Road. I had no idea how long it was but I had a full tank of 91 and all day to explore. Bring it on!

Looking back north east to where I had come from this morning.

And just after that, looking south west some direction, toward Bass Straight.

 (I was sure it was southwest at the time but the shadow under the bike confuses me now…🤔)

It was a cracking day but getting bloody hot! As I got into the tight, twisty sections of the road my speed was down to about 20km/h on the loose gravel corners in case of oncoming logging traffic. Not a problem per se, but with 38C temperatures I wasn't getting much cooling airflow. I was drenched!

I had to turn around to get this photo as I had blasted past before I registered what it was.

I kept going for quite a while before I came to a nice little gully that was more open than the last hour or so had been. I took my jacket off here and had a bite to eat, plus a good slurp of water. Did I mention it was HOT?!!

A couple of kilometres further down the road and the track began to open out a lot more. I could hit 60km/h between corners and the cooling airflow was sensational! I was soon back on the sealed stuff and the speed shot right up. This bit of road into Mirboo North is a cracker and seemed familiar. I think we used to do part of it "back in the day".

I stopped at the Grand Ridge Brewey for a photo. That was all. No beer. 

Steve and I had got on it here once, back in the late '90s and I still don't think I'm recovered enough to go back...there may even be a photo of us at the door....😆

Once I fuelled up at Mirboo North I decided against the last bit of the Grand Ridge road as it was HOT and I was a bit too rooted to do any more tight dirt on this big rig. (I've since been told it is sealed - my road atlas is at least 20 years old 😆) 

No, it was just get on with it, through Leongatha, Korumburra, Koo Wee Rup, Tooradin and into the outer Melbourne suburbs. I eventually found my way onto the South Gippsland freeway, then the Monash and finally Citylink to South Melbourne and my digs at the City Park Motel. I think this was what happened but not sure about the freeway names. Good to see the freeway slowed to 60km/h for extensive roadworks though. It made me feel right at home!

I quickly checked in and unloaded the bike. I sure was glad to get off it today as it was HOT behind that big screen!

It was relatively early in the afternoon so I chased up a laundromat and washed some stinking gear.

After loading up the machine I slipped down the road to the Limerick Arms for a cheeky pint, then back to put the dryer on and back to the Limerick for another cheeky one. Dinner was easy to find as well - it's Melbourne. Food and booze is everywhere! Pizza and red wine went down a treat.

Todays distance is a bit less than indicated on the map below because Ride With GPS has done some funny aresarounds on the freeway on and off ramps. Can't be bothered fixing it and the rest of the route is spot-on, so lets call it 500km for the day. 😵

DAY 7

Well, today was a pretty easy day distance wise. I had 4.5km to do to get here...

...because I was going here....

A quick breakfast on the way to the boat then I joined the loading que. I am so glad it wasn't raining (because it looked like it might - bloody Melbourne weather😄 wasn't it 38C just 12 hours ago? ) as we were quite a while. Maybe the experienced hands just board last so they don't have to stand around forever?

Anyway, all that waiting helped me notice that I was 2995 kilometres from Brisbane. The Twin hadn't missed a beat.

Once all tied down I climbed up to Level 7 for a coffee and to watch Melbourne slowly recede in the window.

24 knots became 28 knots once we were through the heads of Port Phillip Bay in open water.

That is Point Lonsdale, to the West.

The other Spirit Of Tasmania mid Bass Straight. The crossing was like sailing a mill pond today. Hooray!

While on the top deck for the above photo I bumped into a bloke who wanted to talk bikes. We ended up chatting for several hours. He was on his way back to Tassie after racing at Sydney motorsport park in what used to be the Barry Sheene Festival Of Speed. We had a good old yarn and he turned out to be Terry Morris, brother of Graeme Morris who was Aussie 600cc champ for much of the '90s! It was great to meet him and hear his stories. I will come and check out the mtb trails at Georgetown too!

Eventually, we were coasting into Devonport. The motorcycle deck was one of the first off so I made haste and was on the road to my overnight accommodation in no time. 

The ride along the river, just on dusk, to Railton was magic.

I found my workmates Africa Twin tucked under cover out the back and wandered into the pub. Despite the late hour the publican and his wife couldn't do enough for me, feeding and near drowning me. Awesome hospitality and just a stones throw from the boat!

Twin Twins.

Not much riding for the day today. But I'm in Tassie now!!

To be continued......