Hi guys,

Well the last 3 days have been something!

After my last email, I finished loading up the bike in front of the hostel.  Once I had everything loaded, I fired it up and just sat on it nervously for a few minutes.  It was hard to believe that I was about to start the adventure that I had been planning for so many years, and that had taken so much of my time and energy.  Plus I wasn't looking forward to riding through Sydney traffic - on the wrong side of the road no less!

But I navigated through Sydney without problem.  It's really not that hard to ride on the left when there's so much traffic and other cues.  I crossed the Harbour Bridge and headed north.

A ways north of Sydney I took a detour to West Head and the scenic overlook.  It was nice, but probably not worth the $11 I paid to get into the park.  Then it was back on Highway #1 and north.

This first part of the ride is not the most exciting.  The highway runs inland so there are not many views of the ocean - just lightly forested hills.  And the wind picked up just to add a little fatigue to my first day of riding.  Eventually I got to Port Macquarie where I found a room near the water.  I rode about 270 miles that day, and was sore and tired.  I guess I'll get in better riding shape soon enough :-)

The second day more than made up for the first.  I got off the main highway and headed into a region called New England.  It really reminded me of New England with rolling green hills, dairy cows, and some rocky mountains in the background.  Then the road starting climbing into the mountains, with lots of switchbacks and waterfalls.  It was one of the greatest motorcycling roads I've been on.  And to make it even better, the sun was out and it was about 70 degrees - nearly perfect.

Eventually I looped back to the main highway and continued north to Byron Bay.  Byron Bay is the new age capital of Australia - lots of hippies, surfers, and tourists.  I found a campground right on the beach, and my tent door looked out onto the water.  I slept that night with the pounding surf all around, not to mention about 100 kids partying right outside my tent!

Today I guess I had to pay for the fun yesterday.  It rained almost the entire day, sometimes heavily.  At least I got to try out all my rain gear!  Some worked better than others - my rain jacket kept me dry, but my goretex gloves weren't as successful.  Well that's why I have the rubber rain mittens, but they only work if I wear them :-)

Because of the rain and heavy traffic I only rode about 300 miles today.  I was hoping to ride 400 so that I could do the same tomorrow into Airlie Beach.  So now I have a long 500 miles tomorrow, or I'll break it up into 2 days.  I'm still sore and not in top riding form, so I don't know if I'm up for 500 miles.  Also, it's getting dark here around 5 PM, so I can't really push too long into the evening.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Here are some observations on riding in Australia.  First, I'm amazed at how courteous the Ozzie drivers are.  They actually drive the speed limit, and they stay in the left lane except when passing!  Unheard of from my driving experiences around the world!  I regularly ride about 10 km an hour over the speed limit, and almost no one ever passes me.

Riding on the left side hasn't been a problem.  The only time I get confused is when I pull from a side street or gas station when there's not traffic, I always want to head to the right.  I'm getting better at keeping left though.  I still get startled sometimes when a car crests a hill coming towards me.  For a split second I catch my breath that the damn car is on the wrong side of the road!!!

And I don't like the traffic circles that are everywhere.  There are 2 lanes of traffic going through these circles, and you have to remember to look right for oncoming traffic which has the right of way.  I'm still getting used to those.  My recollection is that they aren't as numerous once I get into the interior.

The bike is running excellently.  It has considerably more power at sea level, and it's handling the gross overloading very well.  So far this bike has been perfect for the type of riding I'm doing down under.  We'll see what I think when I get onto the poor roads of SE Asia!