Australia 2008 – Day 01

Melbourne to Apollo Bay

And we are off!

We packed up and left Melbourne just before 11am. Again, the day started a bit rough… Me missing a red light in downtown and skidding to a stop in the middle of a busy intersection. Brendon, running out of fuel two blocks from the gas station.

Even with the slow start, we managed to hop on he freeway and get out of Melbourne by noon. A couple hours into the ride we start to see rain clouds on the horizon and decide to pull into a Hungry Jack’s (Australian Burger King) to suit up with rain gear and grab some lunch.

The Great Ocean Road was a beautiful treat. Smooth bitumen, lots of curves, and incredible scenery. About 300km outside of Apollo Bay we finally hit the rain, wind , fog, and cold. The plan was to camp in Otway National Park for the night, but after arriving in Apollo Bay shivering and soaked to the core, we opted for a hotel instead.

Australia 2008 – Day 00

Castlemaine to Melbourne

The adventure begins today. Woke up, had breakfast, then grabbed all our riding gear and walked down to the Southern Cross train station. Rode the train for almost two hours to the small town of Castlemaine. One of the bike depot owners came buy to pick us up and drive us the short 5 minute drive to the depot. After some paperwork and a brief run through of the bikes, we were off.

Fifty feet out of the depot driveway, we have our first accident. Pulling up to a stop sign, not realizing our new little DR650’s are now almost a mitre wide, we clip panniers nearly sending me over. After getting untangled, we have a laugh and both agree that won’t happen again.

Stopped at Steffo’s in Casltemaine to have a great lunch, then took the windy back roads down to melbourne.