There and Back Again. A motorcycles tale.

Apologies to tolkein for the title but it seemed appropriate.

Some things about the trip I wanted to write so here goes.

In total it was 10756k long. My shadow, travelled about 2m further than me as I started in the morning, ended in the afternoon. I was riding for about 133 hours, averaging about 80kph

Highlights from the trip for me were

  • Riding to uluru
  • Spending time with the family at night stops and tourist attractions.
  • Spending time with my brother
  • Seeing mt Isa and where I stayed many years ago
  • being able to say I’ve done it :-)
  • being self sufficient on the bike
  • soverign hill
  • flagstaff hill
  • 12 apostles on the pretty good ocean road
  • working out the waving protocol once and for all
  • Riding through all the places I had looked at on google earth while planning the trip
  • got to see how fast the bike could go (well, as fast as I was game to push it)
  • getting uluru photos at night with stars out
  • riding from 2 degrees to 34 degrees
  • crossing the tropic of capricorn
  • taking the kids on the back of the bike around uluru
  • having Libby on the bike for some short rides

Things that are not highlights are

  • running over a kangaroo’s neck
  • hitting budgies at 130kph
  • freezing cold mornings
  • getting lonely when by myself at nights and at attractions (the last 2 weeks)
  • cleaning bug guts off the visor every night
  • a sore ass, back and neck

Overall I am very glad to have done it. I wouldn’t do the same trip again but am still happy about it. The bike worked perfectly (It would suck to not have cruise control) and all the preperation seemed to work out very well. Of all the stuff I took, I inly used about 50% of it but as there was spares and emergency tools/supplies etc, I would probably still take them again.

I think I would have to be really careful about travelling with someone even though by myself had lonely times. Theres proably a very smal set of people who I could travel with I’ve decided. I also think I may not be the easiest person to live with either.

So overall, I’m really happy. I’ve learned much about what I want, what I do and what I think is important. I had lots of time to think and blogging it made me remember it more than I otherwise would. I think next time, I would probably use a voice recorder and podcast it instead. That way I could rant while on the bike and would be more verbose. On second thoughts, this may not be a good idea as I probably rant enough already.

Also, as I went clockwise and we drive on the left, I think, all other things being equal, I travelled about 7.53m further than if I had have progressed counter clockwise so its true to say I went the Long Way Round.

4 Replies to “There and Back Again. A motorcycles tale.”

  1. kev … you’re a legend! …. what an adventure ! … I’m sure in years to come you’ll be able to stretch the experience a bit and keep the grand kids on the edge of the seat for hours …

    cheers don

  2. Thanks for taking us along for the ride Kev, glad you made it back in one piece!

  3. Hi Kevin,

    Glad you made it back safely and enjoyed yourself. I enjoyed reading about your travels! Thank you!

    Cheers,
    Lucy = )

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