A quick tour of Adelaide, and dinner with another moto traveler.
31/10/14
Luke was kind enough to lend us a car today so we saw the sights of Adelaide in luxury, air conditioning and all.
We parked and did a walk around the city centre. but to me all cities are all pretty much the same. Just full of shops trying to sell you stuff. We sat and had a coffee and indulged in a little people watching. That's always fun, and we were happy to provide our expertise on what people were wearing, or how they had their hair. It's so lucky we are all fashion and style gurus, just take a look at us and you'll see that.
Adelaide has a lot of military history and we took a stroll down the Pathway of Honour which featured memorials to a lot of Australian units.
We'd planned a BBQ dinner tonight, and I had a special guest coming. Sherri Jo Wilkins, another moto traveler. I've been a big fan of Sherri Jo's for years, ever since I started reading her blog "Because I Can World Tour".
You can find it here:
http://sherrijosbecauseicanworldtour.blogspot.com.au/
Sherri Jo is a switched on and determined lady. She spent three and a half years riding her KTM motorcycle around the world...by herself...covering around 130,000 kilometers along the way. That in itself was enough to gain my admiration, then in 2012 during the trip she rode a bike up a Chilean volcano to 5,903 meters. That's higher that any other woman has ever ridden a motorcycle. I've been at 4,500 meters and struggled to suck in breath while walking, so it was a huge effort to wrestle a bike up a rocky volcano at that altitude.
Go Sherri Jo.
While we were chatting Sherri Jo dropped a bombshell that made me even more of a fan. She had ridden bikes before the trip, but obviously she hadn't had a lot of off road experience because she told me she was so scared riding across the Nullabor that she wouldn't go faster than 70 kph! She was scared she'd run onto the dirt on the edge of the road. A few weeks later she was riding hundreds of kilometers of dirt in Siberia. Obviously you learned quickly Sherri Jo.
If today's girls need a role model, I've got one right here.
Luke provided comedy entertainment for the evening, ably assisted by his wife Heather, who apparently snored a lot during pregnancy. The line of the night came from Uncle D though. None of the boys knew anything about Sherri Jo so Uncle D politely asked Sheri Jo if she rides. To with Sherri Jo understatedly replied "Yes, I've got a KTM690". I explained what Sherri Jo had done to the team and they were suitably impressed. I did have to give them a little bit of grief about chickening out on the gravel road in Tasmania though.
Something I found interesting is that Sherri Jo is quite contented being back in Adelaide and enjoying her work. This is the polar opposite to me, as I'm struggling and just want to load up my bike and get out on the road again. When I asked Sherri Jo if that was it and she was all done, her instant reply was "Oh no, I'm saving for the next trip. I've only been to about half the countries in the world." Fantastic!
All to soon the evening came to an end. It was a real pleasure to meet you Sheri Jo. I'm sorry if I talked your ear of, but I reckon I could ask you questions for a week non stop if I had the opportunity. Hopefully we'll catch up again one day soon.
Now, who can arrange a lunch with Malcolm Smith for me? That would really be one to tick off the bucket list.
31/10/14
Luke was kind enough to lend us a car today so we saw the sights of Adelaide in luxury, air conditioning and all.
We parked and did a walk around the city centre. but to me all cities are all pretty much the same. Just full of shops trying to sell you stuff. We sat and had a coffee and indulged in a little people watching. That's always fun, and we were happy to provide our expertise on what people were wearing, or how they had their hair. It's so lucky we are all fashion and style gurus, just take a look at us and you'll see that.
Adelaide Mall street art.
I like this one.
Why does he remind me of a politician?
Why does he remind me of a politician?
Adelaide has a lot of military history and we took a stroll down the Pathway of Honour which featured memorials to a lot of Australian units.
The Pathway of Honour.
The SASR memorial.
Every time I see memorials like this, and the hundreds of war memorials in little towns across Australia, I wonder what our lost diggers could have achieved if this nonsense didn't go on. Could one of them have found a cure for cancer? Could one have prevented climate change? Could one have solved the world food shortage? How big would the population of Australia be today if these men hadn't died?
Yet we keep on doing it.
In the afternoon we did a quick run around Glenelg. It's a nice little place and reminded me a little bit of Fremantle back in WA.
You can find it here:
http://sherrijosbecauseicanworldtour.blogspot.com.au/
Sherri Jo.
I was in awe of Sherri Jo and once again forgot to take any photos, so I stole this one from her Facebook page. I hope you don't mind Sherri Jo.
Sherri Jo is a switched on and determined lady. She spent three and a half years riding her KTM motorcycle around the world...by herself...covering around 130,000 kilometers along the way. That in itself was enough to gain my admiration, then in 2012 during the trip she rode a bike up a Chilean volcano to 5,903 meters. That's higher that any other woman has ever ridden a motorcycle. I've been at 4,500 meters and struggled to suck in breath while walking, so it was a huge effort to wrestle a bike up a rocky volcano at that altitude.
Go Sherri Jo.
While we were chatting Sherri Jo dropped a bombshell that made me even more of a fan. She had ridden bikes before the trip, but obviously she hadn't had a lot of off road experience because she told me she was so scared riding across the Nullabor that she wouldn't go faster than 70 kph! She was scared she'd run onto the dirt on the edge of the road. A few weeks later she was riding hundreds of kilometers of dirt in Siberia. Obviously you learned quickly Sherri Jo.
If today's girls need a role model, I've got one right here.
Luke provided comedy entertainment for the evening, ably assisted by his wife Heather, who apparently snored a lot during pregnancy. The line of the night came from Uncle D though. None of the boys knew anything about Sherri Jo so Uncle D politely asked Sheri Jo if she rides. To with Sherri Jo understatedly replied "Yes, I've got a KTM690". I explained what Sherri Jo had done to the team and they were suitably impressed. I did have to give them a little bit of grief about chickening out on the gravel road in Tasmania though.
Something I found interesting is that Sherri Jo is quite contented being back in Adelaide and enjoying her work. This is the polar opposite to me, as I'm struggling and just want to load up my bike and get out on the road again. When I asked Sherri Jo if that was it and she was all done, her instant reply was "Oh no, I'm saving for the next trip. I've only been to about half the countries in the world." Fantastic!
All to soon the evening came to an end. It was a real pleasure to meet you Sheri Jo. I'm sorry if I talked your ear of, but I reckon I could ask you questions for a week non stop if I had the opportunity. Hopefully we'll catch up again one day soon.
Now, who can arrange a lunch with Malcolm Smith for me? That would really be one to tick off the bucket list.
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