Day 2 Bathurst - Henty eventually!!!!

Well I thought yesterday was a tough day today took the cake!!
It started out OK... because we were waiting to find out about my bike we had a little sleep in and Dave bought croissants for brekky yummo.  Leigh and I decided to take a little walk around town and check out the old buildings Dave had seen on his run.  We decided that we would all meet at the bike shop.  Leigh and I got there to find no David, we spoke to Barry for a while and then left again just as we walked out of the shop David pulled up and said he would talk to Barry so Leigh and I went in search of an ATM.  While we were in the shopping centre Dave phoned to say that we would be delayed till at least 12 midday so we got some bananas and apples and went back to the hotel for a cuppa to wait... the hotel staff had kindly allowed us to stay a little late.  While we waited we decided to pare down our stuff in case we ended up on 2 bikes.  So lots of my clothes, our thermos, mugs and morning tea provisons were put into a bag that we had arranged to leave at the hotel.  Dave rang Barry at 11:30pm and great news my bike is ready!! so after Leigh and I did a happy dance in the carpark we rode over to get it.  the air filter had been full of petrol and the spark plugs were shot so they replaced both of those, they just hadn't taken it for a test ride....so Dave rode it round the block while he was gone my phone rang and I thought uh oh but it was Sharon Freeman ringing to see if I was home for a visit.  Dave 'coasted' the bike back into the yard and that immediately spelt BAD news.  It wasn't fixed afterall sooooo my bike is having it's holiday in Bathurst and we have rearranged our itinerary and instead of staying in Dunedoo the night before home we will come back to Bathurst and pick up my bike and our extra stuff.  So we got going around 12:30pm.........after a few false starts..

A few kms out of Bathurst it started to spit and we kept riding down the road until we came to the crest of a hill and over the next valley we could see the rain was quite heavy so we stopped on the side of the road to don our wet weather gear.  It was bucketing down and we had a couple of slippery episodes which made the ride a bit hairy.  We stopped under a service station awning in Cowra and asked the petrol pump attendant if we could leave the bikes there while we went to get some food (well out of the way not blocking use of pumps) but he said NO so we stood there anyway and used their loo.  We then rode onto Young where we had another very short break before pushing onto Junee.  Just before Junee Dave's bike started to cough and splutter so he put it on reserve and then it stopped completely, those of you who followed last year's Tassie trip may remember the petrol cap was sucking and wouldn't let the petrol through so we pulled over took off the cap and sure enough it was sucking again so off we went and then just before Junee it really started to cough and splutter and we limped it into a service station and got fuel but it was doing something weird so after our enormous cups of tea, a nice hot drink because we were all wet and cold, David removed the air filter from his bike to check it and it is filthy so he took it over and tried to blow some of the dirt out with the air hose and that seemed to work it gave another bit of a splutter but then was fine all the way to Henty.

We are staying at the same B&B as last year an old pub converted into a B&B they are fully in the throes of getting ready for a family wedding there are tables all laid out downstairs and everything so we are not the only ones here tonight.

We hurried over to The Doodle Cooma Arms for dinner, steak for me, schnitzel for David and pizza for Leigh I was starving and really looking forward to a beer mmm it was fantastic!!!

Bathurst Court House

Memorial Park

War Memorial with The Royal Hotel in the background

War memorial if you look closely you can see the eternal flame

Day 1 Home to Bathurst with a little hiccup oops

Well off we go left right on 8am my brakes feel good the weight of the bike doesn't feel too much different our comms are working perfectly.

We stop at the Pit Stop in Salt Ash for petrol and are quickly on our way to meet Leigh at Maccas Rutherford.
The traffic in Melbourne St is horrendous so we get to Maccas a little after 9am.  A quick nature stop and sync our comms and off we go!!
Leigh says our trip starts as we turn off onto the Golden Hwy as she hasn't driven on this road before we get stuck behind some slow moving traffic but not for long.  My bike starts mucking up backfiring, blowing smoke and going slow and losing power up the hills.  We get to Rylestone at 1:30pm and order lunch at The Globe Hotel and while we wait for our food Dave takes my bike to the garage to see if they can fix it, he soon comes back and they don't have parts so we decide to push on after lunch.  Our lunch was yum and the garden was so pretty.  After lunch my bike goes from bad to worse and shortly after the turn to Bathurst near Kandos it stops altogether!!
A quick phone call to the NRMA and help is on the way, Andrew the towie rings ahead to Bathurst to the Triumph shop (amazing they have a Triumph shop!!) and asks them to stay late so we can put the bike in the shop overnight.  The guy at the shop Barry is a lovely fellow and even though he has a workshop full of bikes to fix he will fix mine first!!

So we check into the hotel and then walk down the street and buy kebabs for dinner.  mmmmm yum!

Morning tea stop in Denman

all the bikes

Dave and I at lunch

me lunch

Leigh and I :)

my poor bike

Andrew and Dave secure my bike

on the way to Bathurst on Dave's bike :)

plus side is I can take photos while riding :)

2 sleeps and my brain has left me

Today I had coffee with the lovely Ashleigh and her gorgeous boys Joey and Ben and then went to buy some bits and pieces for our trip and left $50 at the self serve counter at Woolies doh!!

Dave says I better find my brain or I'm in big trouble on the bike!!  On that note so lovely to have my own motorbike mechanic right this minute he's doing an oil change, new filter and back brake pads.

So tomorrow will be packing and taking my car to be fixed.

Almost time to leave

It is 3 sleeps till we leave on our next big adventure we have had a few hiccups with our new helmet communicators but the guys at J C Motors in California have been crazy good to us.  Did you know that a parcel can take as few as 5 days to arrive from the USA??

We tested them out this morning and I was having difficulty hearing David at high speed, when we got home he discovered my earpieces were in wrong duh!!!!  I did that! so they are all fixed and we will try them out again tomorrow and then Wednesday morning it's launch time!!!

We also need to organise a few last minute bits and pieces for the ride, important things like nut bars for morning tea ha ha nut bars for nuts woohoo

and an alternate route for Day 2 has had to be organised as The Alpine way is closed between Harrietville and Omeo due to bushfires :(

Getting very excited as I have been on daytrips riding my own bike but this will be my first big adventure sooo watch out world here I come!!!!

Another adventure only this time we will be three!!

On the 27th of February we will be heading off to Adelaide via Melbourne, Mt Gambier and then home via Broken Hill.  We will be away for 17 days all up and my good friend Leigh is coming with us so three mad bikers riding across the countryside.

I will keep another blog each day and might even let Leigh have a say ha ha

We are going to follow the Murray river and use 12 car ferries zig zagging our way up the river.
Some highlights I am looking forward to are the ferry across Port Philip Bay To Geelong, The Great Ocean Road (again as we drove this on our honeymoon), Mt Gambier (staying for 2 nights as we skipped through here on our honeymoon), Adelaide Zoo and Broken Hill.

If anyone knows of some good stuff to do in Broken Hill let me know know so we can take a squizz.  We have purchased great new communicators and will be able to talk to each other the whole way.  I am very excited to share our holiday with Leigh.