We're on our way!

28/7/16

Andrew and I hit the road at 7.30 am and left the gray, cloudy, Perth skies behind. Pretty soon the temperature had climbed to 22 degrees and we started to defrost. The warmth in our bones was a good feeling and we were on our 550 kilometre transport section to Northampton, where the real ride starts tomorrow.

The sun is shining. Yay!

I had to stop at Mingenew and partake of a pie for lunch. On our last ride through here I missed out because my greedy mates scoffed the lot before I had a chance to order. You know who your mates are...

It was delicious!

Our next stop was a social visit to Sun City Motorcycles in Geraldton, one of the best motorcycle shops in Australia. Unfortunately Brett (the owner) was away trying to get warm up north as well, but Andrew, Matt, and Fish looked after us, fed us coffee, and updated the gossip on the bike trade.

We rolled into Northampton around 4.00pm where we checked in to the Railway Tavern. The owner, Kelly, plied us with alcohol and provided a few laughs as well. As it was our first night on the road, we thought we;'d be sensible and do a pub crawl of town.

The unremarkable Railway Tavern.

Now while this might sound impressive, there are only three pubs in town. A quick walk around town covered all three pubs and gave us a chance to check out the old buildings as well.

Saint Mary's Church was a nice old building. 

This is the former Sacred Heart Convent.

It's now budget accommodation,

so it's still full of young girls.

Now for the pubs...

The Top Pub, at the top of the hill was the youngster / backpackers pub. It was lively and a bit of fun.

The Middle Pub, was the locals pub. This is where we met Jim, a local "character" who filled us in on all the local gossip, and offered his solutions to worlds problems. he also let us know that the owner of the Railway Tavern was know as Basil Fawlty. 

Then it was back to the Bottom Pub where we had a good feed. I must admit that Basil did spring to mind more than once.

With dinner out of the way our uneventful day was over by 7.00pm and we were stacking up Zs in no time.

Yes, bed by 7.00 pm! Rock and roll, and living the dream.

Tomorrow the fun stuff starts...