Day 0
Day 3
Day 6
Day 9
Day 12
It wouldn't be travelling if everything went to plan so Suzie (my bike) decided to play up! We were making the brief commute from Pemberton to Albany, happy as Larry with our packed lunch of marron sandwiches, when Suzie began having some fueling issues, similar to those experienced near Townsville. She began her gradual decline in speed until I was only able to reach 90 km/hr downhill with the wind behind me.
We still made our planned stops at the Valley of the Giants, near Walpole, and Dinosaur World, near Denmark, which were enjoyable intermissions from the slow dawdle of my bike.
Fiiiinally, we made it to Albany and Suzie to the dealership. Long story short, I have decided to get her fixed up this coming week, whilst Linc has hurtled back to Perth on his MV to exchange it for his X-trail, which we will be using in the interim.
In other news, the weather has remained average and I am now convinced that the grey clouds overhead are the same ones from Preston Beach and they have just been following us.
I have still managed to do some exploring, however, all on my lonesome. The ANZAC Peace Park was one of the nicest places, a great concept and well executed, in commemoration of the ANZACs. I have also checked out some of the beaches, the wind-farm and today I made a quick roadtrip back past Denmark to visit beautiful William Bay National Park.
All in all, it has been a great few days, despite the hiccups! I have attached some photos for your viewing pleasure.
Day 15
I spent the remainder of my time without Linc checking out the ANZAC side to Albany. I went to the museum, checked out the old forts and artillery before going to ANZAC centre, where you are given an individual soldier's story to follow as you walk. It was all magnificently done and a recommendable experience to anyone heading that way.
When Linc arrived back with the car we took of to Two People's Bay and went scrambling over the rocks between beaches. We both had fun exploring the rocks but Linc's pants did not.
The next morning we packed the car and I jumped on the bike, ready to take it Albany Motorcycles. A lone bee glimpsed the naked skin between my helmet and jumper and took the opportunity to dig its stinger into my Adam's apple. So I am 2/2 for bee stings on my motorbike per trip.
We spent most of the day driving with a couple of brief stop including a quick-ish climb up Castle Rock. Finally, late afternoon, we arrived in Esperance. We were both pretty knackered so we wandered through the town on foot before retiring.
Today has been another day for exploration and we think we have covered most of Esperance now. Cape Le Grand hosted a number of bays, beaches and walking trails, including a steep climb to the summit of Frenchmans Peak.
The remainder of the time in Esperance will probably be spent fishing (weather permitting) and chilling. Speaking of which, that is where we are heading now so I will leave the post here. Until next time!
Day 18
Home, sweet home! Lincoln and I have returned home safetly after another exciting adventure.
The last of our time at Esperance was spent fishing, to no avail. After getting some advice from the local fishing shop, we kitted up and wandered over to the main jetty, ready to reel in some dinner. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the main jetty was on fire (a bit). Soon after, the fire brigade arrived to extinguish the problem.
The next day we decided to give it another crack. We found some keen fishermen at Lake Woody, successfully reeling in bream. Once again, we kitted up and tried our luck. The only thing we managed to hook was a tiny flathead, which was thrown back.
There isn't too much else to report on! The last two days have been spent mostly driving in the car and on my 'repaired' bike. We did pop our heads in to wave rock and hippo's yawn, two impressive rock formations near Hyden. We also had a quick numbat hunt in Dryandra but alas, the search will have to continue another time.
I hope these updates haven't annoyed too many of you too much. Have a Merry Christmas and I will see you next time for volume 3.
Cheers!
Adventure 2.0: Suzie's Return
Mid-2014 I began toying with the idea of travel. I thought it would be a great way to extend and challenge myself, while enjoying the journey along the way. I didn't need to contemplate my travel options for very long. A lot people my age would travel the world and see Asia or Europe or America but, for me, I didn't see the value in exploring the world before I had truly experienced my own backyard - the country that I love, Australia! At the time I had been riding my small 250 cc motorbike for around six months and set myself the (retrospectively perilous) challenge of travel around this great continent on a 650 cc Suzuki V-Strom (Suzie). I worked two jobs (and a few unofficial jobs) to save the money I needed and six months later on the 5th of November, 2014, I found myself packed and ready to follow my dreams.
Along the way I wrote a small blog for friends and family to keep up. I have dug it from the archives for your reading pleasure (or perhaps not) and stuck it below!
(Click the circles to jump to a specific blog)
The bike is (kind of) ready to go and I am (kind of) all packed and ready for another adventure. Tomorrow I am jumping on my motorbike once again to explore the South-West with my brother, Lincoln (tag isn't working sorry!). I figure, I may as well post updates during the trip, similar to my last venture. If you are interested, they will be here on Travelling Straya.
Watch this space!
Welcome to Travelling Straya vol. 2 feat. Lincoln Jackson: a journey through the South-West.
It was Tuesday morning and I was doing my last minute packing for another motorbike adventure, which was basically all of my packing. I met up with my brother, Lincoln, and we gathered all of our luggage and pondered the most appopriate method of packing it on to the two bikes. We decided the best option was to pack it all on to my bike! (Please refer to pictures).
Packed and ready, we set off, southbound. We rode away into perfect riding conditions and beautiful weather. The weather seemed too good to be true ...and it was. Rapidly the weather declined and by the time we hit Preson Beach for lunch, grey storm clouds crept over as we were buffeted by the wind. Linc learned quickly not to leave his helmet upside down in the rain. This weather foreshadowed the conditions we came to expect for the next few days.
We arrived in Myalup, a keen fishing town, that afternoon to the gracious hospitality of Jody Harrison. A welcome change from the rough nights of my last trip. Unfortunately the weather got in the way of any hopes of fishing and we shifted our focus to exploring the town on foot. Day 2 saw Linc crack 30 000 steps on his Fitbit, a new PB.
Today, we thanked Jody and moved towns to Margaret River. Another chilly day on the bikes and my heated hand grips came in 'handy'. We made various stops - the Chocolate Factory, the Berry Farm and of course, the Visitors' Centre. Another night of luxury to look forward to in the home of Wendy, whom we are, again, endlessly grateful towards.
More updates to come but, for now, I have precooked noodles mixed with tinned tuna to look forward to!
Today is our last day in the Margaret River region. It has been a fun area to explore, particularly for me, having not been to these parts since I was just a kid.
On Friday we set of to explore Augusta. This was our first time weaving up Caves Road, a beautiful, winding road which we have now traversed approximately 372 times. It is named Caves Road as it is built over the top of a number of the caves in the Margaret River region. But I digress... our first stop was the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, the 3rd tallest in Australia that marks the division between the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean.
Next, we decided to check out one of these caves that give the road its namesake. We chose Lake Cave, the deepest of the caves in the region at 82 m (this update is full of fun facts!). This cave was probably my personal highlight of the trip so far and hopefully the pictures do it some justice.
Later that afternoon we rode down to the Bush Shack Brewery, where Linc was able to test out the MV on some unsealed roads! Fortunately, the Brutale didn't seem to mind too much. We grabbed ourselves some ginger beer and a picket of six assorted beverages, which I arranged from "best" to "medicine-like".
Saturday was another exploration and riding day. North. We rode up to Dunsborough to check out the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse, successfully completing the cape-to-cape in less than one day!
Canal Rocks to Simmos to a cheese place went by relatively uneventfully before we pulled in Injidup, in a quest for a small rock pool, known only by the locals. When we found the rock pool, we were met by a mysterious woman who taught meditation, who explained that we were in the most magical place in the universe! I don't think we were quite as impressed by it as she was but it was still a pretty cool formation, albeit quite busy.
We arrived home, pretty exhausted from our two days of exploration and riding and chilled out before heading back into town to check out the night life. After a couple of beers and about four compliments on my pants we rounded up the night and wandered back home to get some rest.
Tomorrow, we are moving on the Pemberton and I will keep you all updated with future movements. Until next time!
On Monday we departed Margs and found our way down to Pemby. We were met by Mick and Anne, who own the old 43 acre Pemberton trout farm where we could look forward to spending the next few days.
We settled in to the luxury shed and decided to head off for a walk. We acquainted ourselves with the property before heading a few kilometres down the road to the Bicentential Tree, a 65 m tree with spiralled iron prongs that spanned the vertical climb. It was an interesting climb and a cool lookout - I believe it is the tallest climable tree in the South West but don't quote me!
Yesterday, inspired by Monday's climb, we walked to the Gloucester Tree. A similar climb to the Bicentential but just a little more busy and a little less good.
On our way to the tree we past the set for a new Toni Collette movie, which had erected a couple of new buildings in the town as props.
To bide the time we jumped on the tram to Northcliffe with Adam, our tour guide/tram driver, who told us some interesting facts about the area... some of which he made up.
We arrived back to base camp to catch our dinner. We set up some marron traps and grabbed a couple of fishing rods. We went fishing out in the back lake. Linc caught a fish on his second cast but I wasn't able to get a thing! I am pretty sure it was because I was using a left handed rod. We were luckier with the marron pulling in four of them, in our three traps. (As I am writing this we have actually caught around 14 of the tasty guys). Dinner was a feast of trout and marron!
Today we have been rode down past Northcliffe to check out Windy Harbour and D'entrecasteaux National Park (don't ask me to say it out loud). We wandered along a couple of walking paths and checked out a couple of look outs (pics attached).
Anyway, I am heading back into the middle ages where I will lose reception once again so I will leave it here. Until next time!