From one island to another.

Phillip Island to Tasmania.

20/10/14

Today was a pretty relaxing day. All we had to do was pack up and be in Melbourne by five o'clock to catch the ferry to Tasmania. After a lazy breakfast everyone started fighting to pack all their gear back into their luggage on the bikes. It seems that once you unpack everything expands and won’t fit back where it came from.

Once that was out of the way we gave our house a quick clean and vacuum and it was time to leave the Island.

Uncle G had some commitments back home so he was off to Melbourne to drop his bike at the freight depot, then on to the airport to fly home. Rex and I rode toward Melbourne together, Rex to go into Melbourne to buy some more suitable (read warmer) riding gear for Tasmania’s varying weather conditions, and me to drop in for a quick visit with my in-laws. The rest of the crew had nothing to do so they just headed in the general direction of Melbourne.

I’ve always said I’m so lucky as I have the best in-laws in the world. It was really good to see them, and we had a surprise visit from my brother-in-law John as well. Clive and Marie have just moved into a retirement community and this was my first visit to their new home.

Wow! What a great place. There is everything you could want there and it’s in a great location. I’d move there today if I had the chance. Marie whipped up some lunch and we enjoyed a coffee with some of her renowned shortbread. Before I knew it a couple of hours had flown by and as I had a date with a ferry to Tasmania it was time to leave. It was great to catch up, even if it was so briefly. See you when I get back to Melbourne guys.

A quick ride into Melbourne had me hooking up with the rest of our crew at a pub across the road from the ferry terminal. 

A quick beer was in order prior to boarding the ferry.

It was now hurry up and wait time for the couple of hundred motorcyclists waiting to board. Queue up at quarantine, then again to get a boarding pass, then to ride onto the ferry.

Waiting to ride up the on ramp...

...and here we are.

Once our wheels were on deck the crew did a great job of tying the bikes down. Three of the boys headed off to find their cabin while Mark and I took the cheaper option of recliner seats for the night. Then it was off to the bar, um, I mean dinner, and it wasn’t a bad feed. After a few quiet drinks and lots of talk about the weekend's racing we called it a night.

I grabbed my blanket and pillow and hit my recliner. The rolling of the ferry was very soothing and was asleep in no time... dreaming about Tasmania's winding roads. Zzzzz.

Phillip Island - Race day at last.

19/10/14

We kicked off the day with our lunch preparation forming a production line making wraps for lunch. For about the cost of one wrap at the track we managed to put together eighteen wraps at home, and they were delicious.

Uncle D, Rex, and Uncle G on lunch detail.

Out at the track I played catch up with some more old friends then set of for a walk around the track to pick my vantage points for today's races.

There are hundreds of places you can read full race reports so I'm not going to write one here. I'll just post a few photos that I took with my little travel camera.

The Moto 3 race was by far the closest and most exciting race of the day. Aussie Jack Miller was obviously a crowd favourite and didn't let us down taking a really close win, followed by Alex Marquez and Alex Rins. How close? Less than 3/10 ths of a second covered the top six riders. Fantastic! Remy Gardner was given a wild card ride but unfortunately he suffered bike problems on the warm up and started behind the field. He rode a great race and managed to catch and pass two riders, finishing 26 th. I'm sure he still impressed some team managers with his skill though. Well done Remy.

Jack on the celebration lap.

The Moto 2 race ended with Maverick Vinales winning from Thomas Luthi and Esteve Rabat.

Maverick Vinales leads Johann Zarco, Thomas Luthi,

and Nicolas Terol.

Esteve Rabat.

The boys giving the trophy girl a taste of champagne.

Then it was time for the main event. With Marc Marquez having already sewn up the championship it could have been a boring race...but it wasn't. 

This race was Rossi's 250th GP start, and he is a huge crowd favourite. Marquez bolted early and looked to have it in the bag, but then crashed, like many other riders had done during he race. Rossi and Lorenzo who were having a great race for second were now racing for first place, and the crowd were loving it. Rossi found his old mojo and took off winning he race easily in the end. The crowd went absolutely crazy, and Rossi looked pretty pleased as well.

Obligatory trophy girl photo.

Mr Rossi pre race psyche up.

Ready to go.

Vale on the way to his win.

Who's a happy chappy then?

OK, it's a very ordinary video, but it'll give you and idea of the crowd support for Vale.

Wow, what a weekend. That's another Moto GP under my belt, and it was a good one. It had a lot of great components, including an Aussie win, tyre issues, great racing, a fantastic atmosphere, and meeting lots of old friends.

I'll sleep well tonight.

We miss you Marco.

Phillip Island, Day 2. Practice and qualifying for the riders, meeting up with old friends for me.

18/10/14

A good friend responded to my plea for a free ticket to get into the track and snuck me in using his pass. It's a bit naughty, but I'm on a tight budget, so it had to be done. For obvious reasons I can't name him, but thanks Mate. You know who you are.

First stop was the Moto GP Expo where I caught up with a whole bunch of people from my previous life in the motorcycle industry. It was really good to see so many familiar faces.

Suzuki had next season's Moto GP bike on display.

Then it was on to the Moto Guzzi stand where Nathan had my gaskets waiting to fix my ailing, noisey bike. Thanks Nathan, you're a life saver.I will pay you back with a beer or two next time you're in Perth.

Practice got under way and the bikes were in and out of the pits trying different setups to chase that elusive 100 th of a second advantage. There are a million images on the net that you can see, so I'll only post a few here. I still haven't had my camera repaired from our last trip so these blurry photos are from my pocket camera.

Mr Rossi was a huge crowd favourite.

Ninteen year old Jack Miller. Australia's hope in Moto 3.

Has he got the goods?

Sometimes it got a bit crowded.

My arty shot for the day.

On my way out of the track I stopped in for a quick look at the Phillip Island Visitor's Centre. It's only small but interesting and worth a visit if you're on the Island.

Aron Slight's WSB Honda.

Wayne Garder poster, "What a day" alright.

Gardner beat Wayne Rainey by half a second in 

Phillip Island's inaugural Grand Prix.

It was time for me play mechanic. Back at home I spent about half an hour spinning spanners and then the Guzzi was wearing some nice, new, air tight gaskets in the exhaust. It was a pleasure to fire it up and hear that nice quiet burble again. The boys from Moto Guzzi had offered to do it for me, but they had done more than enough already. Thanks again guys.

We rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous at Pinos for dinner.

Well, we had some pizza. then after dinner I did meet a couple of real celebrities...

Tex & Bundy.

Tex and Bundy (the world's fastest moto dog) are famous in Australia. They spend their days fundraising and guess what they ride...a Moto Guzzi Stelvio. You can read more about this wonderful duo on Facebook, just search Tex and Bundy charity fundraisers. You can also read more about their history at:

http://www.motoguzzi.com.au/20130701.html.

Bundy is one of the nicest ladies I've met, and she even gave me a kiss.

Phillip Island, Day 1. Practice for the riders, and a first taste for the boys.

17/10/14

The boys headed off to the track this morning as it was the first Moto GP for most of them. I've been to quite a few GPs, and as it's only practice today so I decided to stay home and do some domestic duties like washing. It also gave me an opportunity to catch up on this blog.

I wandered into town in the very pleasant afternoon sun and poked around in a couple of second hand shops. It's one of my favourites pass times, you never know what you might find. There was quite a bit of Moto GP stuff that I would have liked, but carrying it on the bike just wasn't feasible. Then I saw this...

It's the bear from the big blue house, one of my daughter Paige's favourite TV shows when she was a kid. When I found out he sings, and he dances, I had to have him. He will now be travelling to Tasmania and back across the Nullabour with me before he goes to live at Paige's house.

The boys came back in the afternoon with eyes wide open and talking about how fast the bikes were. Watching the bikes on TV just doesn't give you any perception of how fast they really are. You hear 340 kilometres per hour, but until you're standing by the side of the track, and you see the bikes go past, you just can't comprehend how fast they are. It's mind boggling.

Once again it was time to eat so we had a brisk walk into Cowes. It's amazing who you bump into and we caught up with mates we haven't seen for ages.

The main drag. No cars, just bikes.

One of Cowes top spots, Pinos.

Rex chatting with a couple of old friends we caught up with,

Jay and Mal.

After taking in the sights, and devouring a burger, we were off home for an early night.

Tomorrow is a full day at the track, the it will be into Cowes for a huge Saturday night. The place goes off on Saturday night with a huge crowd and all sorts of fun and frivolity. It's a highlight of the weekend.

Portland to Phillip Island, or,

The Winding Way Round.

16/10/14

It was bloody good day today. We got to ride The Great Ocean Road and it was a first for many of us, me included.

The Great Ocean Road runs along the coast of Victoria and has some wonderful winding sections that are motorcycle Nirvana. As luck would have it, this road also features some iconic tourist destinations as well. This can lead to some heavy traffic sometimes and it "could" be frustrating for motorcyclists. It's not though, and do you know why not? Because the majority of drivers pull over and let motorcyclists past so we can enjoy the road. Two huge thumbs up to those who let us through today. Thank you.

Everyone rugged up and donned their wet weather gear this morning because it looked like it was going to be pretty miserable, weather wise. Luckily we only got a smattering of rain in the early part of the day, and sun shine for the rest of the time.

Our first tourist stop was The Bay of Martyrs.

Do those of us that you can see look like

we're having fun yet?

Next stop was The twelve Apostles. Well, there used to be twelve, but they keep falling over. Now there are actually only eight left.

I tried to push over another one.

Back on the road we continued our run down the Great ocean Road.

Uncle G and Mark enjoying the ride.

   Uncle R did a good job wrestling the Harley,

and keeping up.

Next stop was Apollo Bay for a quick lunch and more fuel.

Apollo Bay Bakery makes great pies.

Then I stopped at Wye River and had a happy snap taken outside the hotel. Suzanne's parents used to have a holiday house in Wye River so it's a very sentimental place. And so is the hotel...

The Wye River Hotel.

Then it was a quick ride to the end of The Great Ocean Road. It was a fun day.

We had decided earlier to take the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento. It doesn't save much time, but it will give our backsides and brains a forty minute rest.

A ferry like ours making a return trip.

A coffee was now the order of the day, but Sorrento wasn't playing the game. Most of the shops there close at 4 pm. Damn! Oh well, we'll just have to wait until get to Phillip Island for a coffee. It won't take long.

It shouldn't have taken long, but we had a few dramas with a bloody road works detour. Having a detour sign at the start of the detour is fine, but you need to follow it up with a few more signs so people can find their way back to their original route. After a bit of stuffing around, and some Google mapping, we were back on course.

We finally pulled into the driveway at our awesome house on Phillip Island at about 7 pm. We'd covered just over 4,000 kilometers in the last six days, and our backsides knew it.

Now it's Moto GP time.

Port Pirie to Portland.

15/10/14

It was 6:30 am. Rex, Uncle G, and I were all fuelled up and ready to go. Where were the others? Not here that's for sure. After waiting another fifteen minutes we decided to start the day without them. We'll catch up somewhere later in the day.

It was bloody cold, in fact it was three degrees when we left Port Pirie, and dropped to one degree when we were on the open road. Throw in a bit of wind chill and it's freezing. Literally. Luckily after an hour or so, and a sun rise over the hills, the temperature climbed to around a bearable five degrees.

A couple of hours later we were battling Adelaide's peak hour, and admiring the beautiful, old, stone buildings they have there. The traffic and going nowhere fast. That was until I rationalised that If I'm on a motor "cycle" I should be able to use the cycle lane. That worked a treat and the three of us were soon filling our bikes and bellies just the other side of town.

Before we knew it we were enjoying the winding road through the Adelaide Hills and on our way again. Uncle G was keen to travel via Robe as he had heard it was a nice ride. There were no arguments from us so Robe it was. A right turn just after Tailem Bend had us riding south past some huge lakes and into Meningie.

Rex, me, and Uncle G outside an old church in Meningie that had been converted into a house, and it's for sale.

The lakes were truly enormous. Blurry photo courtesy of

on the move photography.

We followed the road into Kingston where we came upon this...

Yup! It's a giant lobster, but not just any giant lobster, this is "The Big Lobster"

Unfortunately the restaurant that Lenny, yes, that's his name, represents is now closed, so we had to settle for a pie from the bakery across the road. It was a very nice pie though.

Just as we finished lunch the rest of the crew rode into town. We were once again the six amigos.

We were now only a few hundred kilometres from the South Australian Victorian border, and hopefully some winding roads.

We're on Victorian soil, and guess what...

...it's raining!

I can hear all the Victorians now, "Oh you should have been here yesterday. It was a glorious day".

We found our way to Portland and rode straight to our stopover. Uncle D had once again done a great job with the accommodation and we had two very nice cabins between us. The boys decided that a BBQ was in order so copious amounts of  meat and delicious salad were devoured along with another carton of Coronas.

We're all pretty keen to see the road tomorrow as we'll hit The Great Ocean Road, and finish the day on Phillip Island.

Let the fun begin. 

Streaky Bay to Port Pirie.

We're nearly there.

14/10/14

The exhaust leak on my bike is getting worse. It's at the point now that I'm calling it a Moto Davidson. It sounds like a Harley, and is as noisey as one too. Now I'm not the sort of person who likes to ask favours, but something had to be done. I sent off a text message to Nathan from Moto Guzzi Australia to see if he could arrange for some gaskets to be posted to Phillip Island, or if he had another suggestion. A few minutes later it was sorted. Nathan will  be at the Island, and he'll bring the gaskets with him. Brilliant! Problem solved. Thanks mate.

We have an easy 500 kilometre ride to Port Pirie ahead of us today so we took advantage of a bit of extra time to have a wander around. Streaky Bay is a really nice little seaside town and I reckon if you wanted a very relaxing holiday Streaky would fill the bill nicely.

Rex and I wandered down to the town jetty and saw a couple of dolphins effortlessly gliding through the water. I think I want a pet dolphin. Am I allowed to do that?

 Uncle G practising his male model pose on the

Streaky Bay jetty.

The Streaky Bay Hotel (I wonder how they came up with that name?) home of great, cheap steaks.

In the service station they had a 5 meter, 1,500 kilo white pointer that was caught in the area in 1990.

Big isn't it? How big...

This big.

We decided against going for a swim and thought it was probably better to make our way toward Port Pirie.

Just a few more ks in a straight line.

This should change when we get into Victoria.

We had a quick lunch and refuel break in Kimba, and while we were there someone took advantage of my mate Rex's poor seating choice.

500 ks later we were looking for the caravan park in Port Pirie. We found it after a bit of running around, and with directions from a helpful police officer.

Our on site cabin was a little on the small side, and only had a double bed and four bunks. That's no big deal, I'll throw my sleeping mat on the floor and sleep there. Unfortunately Rex and Uncle G couldn't fit in the bunks, so Rexy made a few quick calls and organised a cottage for us just down the road.

Great little stone cottage.

This three bedroom cottage was fantastic, and reminded me of the house I grew up in as a kid. Not very big, but with incredibly high ceilings. I felt right at home. Some of the boys stayed at the park, while Uncle G, Rex, and I bunked down in the cottage, and enjoyed the best shower of the trip so far.

We enjoyed a few laughs over dinner with the new owners of the Family Hotel which was just around the corner. After a lot of talk about duck, racks of lamb, racks in general, and all sorts of other nonsense it was decided we should call it a night.

Tomorrow is another big day with around 900 ks to be covered. It was decided, after much discussion, that we would be "fuelled up and on the road" at 6:30 am.

I have a feeling it's going to be cold.