Melbourne, Australia
10 August 2009
Praise the Lord, we have arrived in Oz. All tucked up in bed at the cousin’s house. Now only 8 hours ahead of South Africa.
Melbourne
15 August 2009
We arrived Monday evening in Melbourne, and are currently staying with Yolanda in their lovely house on the outskirts of the city. We have not done much here yet, but that will change soon. The weather seems to be quite cold at the moment, even colder and wetter than what we experienced in Auckland. Yolanda took us for a drive out to the nearby mountains and forest. What a beautiful sight.
We’ve been looking for a bike for Charmaine, and it seems that we have found one. We’ve decided to use two bikes travelling through Australia. This will be more fun for Charmaine and also will let us go on more adventurous trails in the Big Red centre. We’re looking at a Suzuki DR200 for her, got hold of a very neat DR, and the price suits our budget just perfect. It will also be cheap to maintain and run, so should not affect our overall travelling costs too much. We are also in the privilege possession to do work legally anywhere in the country if we run short on money further down the road. At this stage, our aim is to get ourselves to Perth by the 8th of October. It should give us about two weeks to ride the 4000km across the country. Once we reach Perth, we will try and get some work in order to stay in the southern part of Western Australia for a few months before we will plan to continue north.
That is all for now and we’ll keep you posted.
3 November 2009
We’ve received emails from ‘worried’ friends to ask where we are and where we’ve been, so here is just a quick recap. We are currently still in Croydon, Victoria. Croydon is about 35kms outside of Melbourne, a bit like Brackenfell to Cape Town for our friends back home. We have been blessed by Richard and Yolanda to stay and eat for free in their house while we are here. Thank You, Richard & Yolanda.
We arrived in Melbourne in August with high expectations and wanted to travel around the country before settling down somewhere. It was decided that Charmaine would ride her own bike here, so we bought her a second-hand Suzuki DR200. I fabricated a carrier and brackets for saddlebags, so she can carry some luggage when necessary. The DR is a small bike with a big heart. It will slow our pace down a bit, but not by that much, as the speed limit down here is slow anyway and we are past the stage of racing through places. We entered the country with new residents’ visas that got issued after a two-year application process (it is a long story). As new residents, we had to register for a few things first and get the local Driving License. We had three months to do this. The car driving license was a challenge, and I even failed my first test, Charmaine was the better driver and passed it the first time (another long story). The motorcycle licence was fun and easy; we both did well and got it without problems. The problem with these registrations and licenses is that everything cost $$$. Then the GS arrived, and we were soon reminded and introduced to the cons of a First World Country, it’s expensive! Because we intend to keep the GS for more than 12 months in the country, we had to import and registered it locally. This process sucked about $4,500 (US$4000) out of our travel budget and was the final nail on the coffin for our Australian Travel plans. At this stage, we regretted buying the DR for Charmaine, but the deed was done and she likes her new mode of transport. The good thing about our visa is that we can work and stay anywhere in the country, so we started to look for work. It proved to be tougher than what we expected.
We have done some travelling in Victoria to job interviews, but not the exciting kind of travelling that you would want to read about. Victorian scenery is lovely and there is plenty of nice motorcycle riding roads. People are friendly and helpful. We saw some amazing animals in the wild; some species I never knew existed, like the Wombat and the Echidna. The Echidna is one of only two known mammals that lay eggs, and the Wombat is the type of creature you just want to hug, it is so cute. Yes, and of course we saw some kangaroos, grazing next to the road. Many of the birds down here are colourful and the variety in bird species is great. After one month of seriously searching for various kinds of jobs, a good offer came our way and we have made up our minds, we are going to Perth! It could not have come on a better time, as we are almost completely out of money and will scrape some scents together to ride the 4000kms across the country to Perth. The nice thing about this ride will be the fact that there is a job and an income waiting for us on that side, something to look forward to. This way we also get to see the southern part of the country, and Charmaine gets to ride her DR200 across the country. So jc4ever will be on the road again soon, for the last leg of our RTW ride and we’ll keep you informed.
Kennett River, Victoria
12 November 2009
250km gery, kamp in die bos langs die pad en die see,by ‘n boom met ‘n Koala! Nou lekker koel na ‘n warm dag.Can’t get better than this. Ons is naby Kennett Rivier. Charmaine het rit baie geniet en elke keer as ek haar sien , sien ek net tande soos sy glimlag. More mik ons vir Port Fairy.
Adelaide
15 November 2009
We are safely at CMA’ers Wayne Shepherds house in Adelaide. Another hot day 43’C. We plan to stay two nights and then leave early from Waynes house on Tuesday. Weather is hot like Namibia and not humid like Dubai, but still very hot.
Adelaide, South Australia
16 November 2009
After 4 days and about 1200km, we have made it safely to Adelaide. The route we took along the coast from Melbourne is absolutely stunning. Parts of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria reminds us of the road next to the Med in Turkey. We had good weather up and until yesterday when the temperature shot up to over 40degC as we got closer to Adelaide. Yesterday we saw lots of bikers too, mostly local Adelaide bikers going out on a Sunday ride. At one fuel station, there were a large group of club bikers on their cruisers and they made some kind of a remark about the amount of luggage I had strapped on the GS. As we saddled up to get going Charmaine told them we were heading to Perth (another 3000km away), well, you must have seen the looks on their faces when they realized she was only riding a 200cc bike. We’ve heard all sorts of interesting remarks before, I remember when we pulled up at a pub/cafe in New Mexico (USA) and a couple of local bikers asked us where we are going, as bikers do to start some kind of conversation. Without hesitation, I answered Argentina (as that was the case). He immediately replied “ok” in a tone that would have been the same if I said we’re just riding to the next town. That was the end of the conversation and he turn to his buddy to continue talking. I knew the guy did not realise what I said, or maybe he didn’t know where Argentina was, or maybe he thought I was pulling his leg or something. Nevertheless, it was one of those priceless moments that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Along the road, we were blessed with such great scenery and wildlife. The road was full of colourful birds and we saw Koala, Wallaby, Kangaroo, Deer and Emu so far. We love this country already.
The GS, as always is performing 100% and the DR has also proved to go well. Charmaine is smiling all the way and is enjoying herself tremendously. We’re riding at about 80-90km/h on the open road, a speed that seems to suit both bikes. So far we had our longest day (In Australia) yesterday with 400km.
We are spending the day in Adelaide with Wayne Sheperd, a member of CMA South Australia. They invited us over and we will share our photo presentation of our RTW journey with the rest of the CMA chapter here in Adelaide tonight. We plan to get back on the road tomorrow and do a few 500-600km days until we get to Esperance in Western Australia, where we will hopefully have the time to take it easy. We will see.
17 November 2009
We had an awesome time with Wayne and the CMA here in Adelaide. Now we are on our way and we are hoping to cover
at least 600km today.
Williams, Western Australia
21 November 2009
We are in Williams WA! Have done 4160km and only have 160km to go to Mandurah, The DR broke a wheel bearing and the silencer which has been fixed and the shock is gone too, but still going strong. Scenery awesome.
Mandurah, Western Australia
22 November 2009
We are in Mandurah Western Australia after riding 4300km in 10 days, this might be the end of the road for our round the world tour too! We have done 116000km from Cape Town to Perth the long way up, down & around.