Gilgandra via the Back Road

I haven't ridden my baby for a couple of weeks, work and play have kept me off her tho I have been able to show her off to my oldest, bestest friend (who was suitably impressed even though she has no interest in bikes at all). The last time we went for a ride was on a work trip to Gilgandra, work for Terry not me. But I did help, I took a heap of photos for him!!

This is the trip to Gilgandra, we took a back road through Mogriguy at Terry's instigation, he was leading, I was following. I've been along this road before, it's a nice little road with a few trickier corners and some railway crossings and causeways. I was waiting the whole time to see how I would handle the 25km posted corner that I remembered taking at about 10km/hr last time and was pretty impressed with myself for taking it at 60km/hr ... wow that wasn't as bad as I remembered it. Then I came to the real 25km corner .. oh yeah it's a 25km corner, there's no way I'd even get up to 30 on that!! But I still thought I did better than that first trip. It was a nice trip, the weather was perfect and I got to see some of Gilgandra that I'd never seen before, we always just ride straight through it on the way somewhere else.

The Pub

I've been told the pub at Gil does a good  counter lunch ... but we were on a mission to find the best cafe in town.

The other end of the street.

While I was reading about the Cooee March, which is pretty interesting and you can find out more about it here if you're interested, a bloke with a couple of horses came clomping up the street. Was just unusual enough to make me snap a pic quick as I could.

We then wandered into the main street to find out which cafe had the best food. How did we work it out, ask a local of course.

Some of the art deco architecture has been lovingly restored.

And we spotted this baby from out of state packed to the roof with luggage in the back seat.

We found the cafe, called the Rockcake Bakery, with a 50's rock decor and lots of Elvis and Marilyn memorabilia.

We then headed out to the motel on the other side of town for Terry to do his work and after a couple of hours we headed back home along the same back road. Terry stopped for a couple of pics ...

Of me riding through my first causeway with water in it, OK it's not deep but it's a start for me and was interesting to see it's not as bad as I thought it would be ... yes I was going slow so my feet wouldn't get wet :)

Then I made him stop again to get some shots of the road we were travelling, had to find a straight bit that didn't have a corner that a car could come round and take me out ... I wanted to stand in the middle of the road for some shots ...

Some of the late blooming Wattle is still around and it is so pretty riding through them ....

This stretch of road didn't have a lot of trees or Wattle along it so I tried to get arty with the one bush I could see. Then just got on with the obligatory 'bikes on the road' shot while Terry was waiting patiently, as usual ...

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful. It has been nearly two weeks since that trip so I have fond memories ... I'm dying to get back on the bikes and just take off!!

Work In Progress

My riding is a work in progress, and I think it always will be. I start to feel comfortable with something then realise there's another thing I need to work on. Then just to make it all interesting I realise I've picked up a bad habit or reverted to an old one.

I went for a ride yesterday just for the hell of it. I got up pretty late, standard Saturday morning, and Terry asked what I was doing today. I wasn't sure, I didn't feel like spending all day doing housework so I decided to go for a ride. 'Where to ... ?' asked Terry. I wasn't sure, it was one of those days when you had nothing pressing you had to do and nothing you really wanted to do, so I said I thought I might check out the ride to Yeoval. I've been going to do that ride since I bought the bike 10 months ago and still haven't done it! The next response from Terry was one that I hadn't thought about ...'On your own ... ?' Hmm I haven't really done a ride on my own 'cept round town, it used to make me feel sick with nerves just thinking about those country highways and byways without Terry along for moral support. Today it didn't worry me, seems like now's the time to do it!! And one last comment to boost my budding confidence 'Just don't drop it ...' Ugh thanks for that ... 'I have my phone just in case .. you may have to pick up a pack of smokes for me if it gets that bad though'

Time for a side note here ... I don't smoke anymore. Well I'm trying to quit again anyways. I officially quit 41 days ago, though I cant honestly say I haven't had a smoke in 41 days cause there have been moments when I've cheated a little bit. But I can say it's been about 2 weeks since my last slip up and for the first time I really don't feel like a smoke. So I think I'm winning the battle here, we'll see eh.

So I went and unlocked the bike and Terry opened the gate and took her out the front for me while I went and geared up. All ready to go with nowhere to be ... I was dying to get out there and ride and for once the fact that I didn't really have a destination in mind didn't daunt me. I looked at a clock for the first time that day just as I was getting on the bike and realised that Yeoval wasn't such a great idea. It was getting late, oh well just get going and we'll see where I end up.

So I rode, I went through town and traffic. I had a lot of stops and starts, and rode down along the river and thought about stopping and seeing if there was anything worth taking pics of. Meh I was just getting in the zone, I thought briefly then of going out of town a bit further and decided against it just because of the time (and I wonder if that jibe of Terry's bout not dropping the bike was playing a bit on my mind). It was going good, I was just riding and not thinking of anything but my riding, I don't think I've really done that in a while. It meant I was noticing the things I do. I thought I was doing really good with my stops but I did notice that I've reverted to putting both feet down when I stop again, I concentrated really hard on not doing that and managed it maybe twice. I had to stop suddenly at one set of lights when the car in front of me decided to hit the brakes at one stage, that went well and I feel pretty comfortable with my emergency stops. Round abouts are pretty much as good as they will ever get, I don't think I'll ever like turning right on them, but going straight through them I love. I actually thought I was going to scape a peg or something while going straight through one the other day, but damn it was fun and I've never felt so comfortable leaning that far before. And I really thought about counter steering yesterday, yes I think I do it and have since I was a wee tike learning to ride my pushbike. It's interesting to find that out but when I think about it I think that's when I start mucking up corners, I think I'll just let my reflexes take this one on and try to keep an eye on it every now and then to see that I haven't picked up bad habits.

I ended up on a road that would take me out to the local Bunnings store so decided to head out there and have a look at pots in their garden centre. I've never been in their garden centre cause I'm not really a garden person. I love plants and nature and stuff but I shouldn't be put in charge of looking after plants, I can kill them with a look (poor things). So I bought Terry a lemon tree the other day, I've wanted one for a while and I saw some on special so I bought it for Terry to grow for me. We have decided to grow it in a pot, so we are going to need a big one, found just the thing at Bunnings, unfortunately it wasn't going to fit in the saddlebags so I'll go back today and get it with the car. I also had a good look around at what plants they have. They have a great selection of native Australian plants with low water needs. That's just the stuff we want, Terry has been working on his native garden for a couple of years now, he's getting there, we just never mention the south African bushes in the front garden ....

Well I took off from there, and hey I did a U-Turn to get out of the parking space, and did it pretty well considering I was being watched by a Bunnings guy sitting in his car opposite me. I hate an audience when I'm doing tricky things. Terry has been making me do U-Turns though, even when I say to him 'you lead the way, just don't make me do a U-Turn', he finds one .. or two. I am getting the hang of them though, and I think the control of brake and clutch thingy while moving slowly has finally clicked, I feel much more in control at low speeds.

I didn't want to go home just yet so I headed out of town, I got on the highway and was doing 100km/h which felt pretty damn good. It was hot here yesterday and the new jacket really needs some speed to get the vents to feel like they are venting, while doing town speeds I was a little puddle in a black and white jacket, it wasn't until I hit 100km/h that I finally started to cool down. The boots however felt great. There are no vents in them, and while I was wandering around Bunnings my feet felt like they were about to explode but on the bike they feel fine ... I didn't leave any soggy footprints when I got home and wandered around in just my socks either.

I debated where to go, I could head up the road to Wongarbon, but I had a horrible feeling that when I got there U-Turns were going to be a necessity, while I feel comfortable doing them I'm not going to make myself do it. I figured it was just so nice to be out riding, doing what I want, that I wasn't going to do something I didn't want. So I headed down a road that I'd accidentally taken once before that has some nice little corners and an S as well. It's a suburban street with a 60km speed limit, so I dont feel any pressure to go around them too fast and it's great practise for me, and they are fun!! That street ends up on the road that takes me home so I just went that way. Terry told me last night that the bendy street does continue on across the other side of the major road and ends up on a highway, so I think I'll have to check that out next time.

I was a great ride. Even though I didn't head out of town as I was planning, I still got a good enough ride to feel satisfied. I haven't done that in a long time, I did it a few times when I was just learning but since Terry got his bike I've just felt better with him along. At first it was that I love riding with him, but I think it's turned into a kind of security blanket for me. I tend to take more notice of my riding when I'm alone I have discovered, I think I need to take more notice when I'm with Terry so I'll work on that. I'm glad I did this little ride out, and I'm planning to do more, when Terry tells me he's working all weekend instead of staying at home and doing housework I'm gonna just jump on the bike and take off!!

Oh yeah the other thing I do when I feel like I cant go for a ride. Look at stuff online, Blogs, forums, bike accessory shops .... I shopped last week as a reward for quitting smoking. I worked out how much money I have saved and spent a bit of it on myself. Well on Roxy really. New presents to be put on!! I got new mirrors to replace the one that got scratched when I dropped her and new grips that match the footpegs I put on. I also got a pretty number plate frame. That's a bit dodgey, it's hard to find one that's the right size to fit my number plate and bike, things don't line up properly there and the holes in the number plate had to be made just to fit it on the Shadow. There's going to be a bit of adjustment needed with it and I wouldn't be surprised if I have to get someone to do some welding and stuff. It's all very exciting, so watch this space for the upcoming adventure .....

Oh how things have changed since I started this blog, in a few short months I've become addicted to it and I have developed a habit. I cant put up a post without photos, I tried and I just couldn't hit the publish button. So I checked out my phone for some pics and came up with ...

7:30am outside my workplace in Dubbo this winter on one of the coldest days in history. The ice was thick on the ground but I didn't get a pic of that unfortunately.

At Dubbo Western Plains Zoo on the morning that we went on the fun run. Yes even though we were competing I still had time to snap pics. OK so we didn't win, we didn't come in the middle of the pack either, alright we were pretty well last .. I think there was one person walking behind us ... it was still a perfect place to do a 5km walk.

Food porn from my phone!!

Last weekend we went for a ride to one of the local pubs to try out their new bistro. It was great and we'll definitely return to the Westside Pub for lunch again.

Better Late Than Never

Well a couple of weeks ago Fuzzy of Fuzzy Galore fame posted a challenge that I really enjoyed. I've seen a few challenges thrown out there and I've either been too busy, lazy or shy to have a go myself but I have enjoyed reading other bloggers efforts. The challenge was to

Post a list of 5 Pretty Awesome Posts Your Readers Might’ve Missed

Today I was sitting round not wanting to do the housework and wash the bikes like I should and I found myself looking back through some of my older posts. My first thought was that I don't have enough posts to pick 5 favourites, there aren't that many I thought were interesting enough to point out to other people.

Well the dust has settled on that challenge and when I looked back through my posts today I found there were a few that I really liked re-reading, who knows other people might enjoy them too.

So here we go, my 5 favourite posts that I think are pretty awesome and you might have missed .....

1. Christmas and Getting Courage to Ride Part 1 and Part 2 Both parts are special to me just because of all the memories they bring back to me of the new and shiny experiences I had, not all of them great, actually a lot of them were awful but I had so much fun!!

2. The Ride To Gulgong Another one of those really early posts that reminds me so much of how I felt doing new things on the bike. The day was perfect this time though, and Gulgong is a pretty little village.

3. Lake Burrendong By this time I was feeling better on the bike, and the things I was doing were a bit more challenging. Again when I read this I remember how it all felt and how exciting it was, Lake Burrendong was such a surprise to me too, so pretty.

4. Riding With the Shadow Riders in Queensland The whole trip to Queensland is the biggest deal for me and the memories are still quite fresh in my mind but one of the posts from that trip just has to be in my top 5. This one is my favourite cause it has some awesome pics of some awesome bikes and it was just such a great day ... that ends on a relaxing note.

5. In the Hands of a Novice No great pics or story here, but it's one of my favourites, it was a frustrating day that ended with one of the biggest feelings of satisfaction I've had yet with the bike and when I read this post I get those feelings all over again .... then go bling shopping online cause I start feeling like I want to do something else to make Roxy pretty.

So there you go, 5 awesome posts you may have missed, well I think they are awesome :) It's late I know but I still enjoyed doing it and hope you enjoy reading them if you haven't already.

A Day In The Wine Country

Well I've been a bit slack in posting lately so I thought I'd better get cracking and record for posterity the day we spent in the wine country, and also the first test run for our new presents.

New presents first .. cause I just cant contain my excitement bout them! I got boots, Alpinestars Stella Torre, that fit and feel comfy!!! I know tis amazing isn't it, after all this time of buying boots and shoes galore I've finally found some I like. Sure I had to spend a bit more to get the fit, and I did have to travel a fair distance to find a shop .. bout 900km from home. But I did it and I love them so far.

Here they are, pretty aren't they!!

When I first got them I wore them around the house for a couple of nights, they felt tight across the top of the foot and I was a touch worried about that, but other than that they were the best fit I've had so far in a riding boot. They are supposed to be waterproof but I haven't had a chance to test that, and knowing how I hate being on a wet road that test wont happen unless it's by accident, but it's nice to think that if I do get caught in the rain I shouldn't have wet feet.

The boots on the bike ... great!! OK so far I've had cheap riding shoes and boots and so I really have nothing much to compare it too, but I am now wondering why I put off getting a good pair of boots for so long. They are so much more comfortable on the bike, the tightness across the top of the foot eases as soon as I put my foot on the peg. Just goes to show they are made for riding, not walking. They were warm enough for the first half of the ride, and even when we got caught after dark and the rest of me was in danger of falling apart from the shivering, my feet weren't too cold, not toasty but not cold. I am wondering how that will transfer for comfort in summer, there doesn't appear to be any kind of vents in them anywhere. I'll soon find out, spring is here and the days are getting warmer, even if the nights aren't.

The other present we bought while in Melbourne was a helmet for Terry, I have to tell about it here cause he's never gonna tell, I think I was more excited about it than him anyway.

It's not black, I think this is a first for Terry.

It's an Arai, don't ask me too much about it cause to tell the truth I was busy drooling over boots while Terry was choosing this. And I was surprised that he came back with a silver helmet, black or black tends to be his favoured colour with bike gear for some reason. This is the superseded model apparently, so it was on special. It's a much more comfy helmet for Terry, and weighs so much less than his old full face. The Sena fitted on it in seconds, (the old full face he had, we had to slice some of the lining to get the Sena on securely) The only difference we could see between this one and the new model is that the jaw bit seems to be roomier in the new one, this doesn't seem to bother Terry for comfort, but he is having trouble doing up the chin strap cause he cant get his big man fingers in there. Even with my little fingers I found it a bit of a fumble when I had a go. All and all I think he liked it on the trip last weekend, he doesn't have a tinted visor yet but it didn't bother him that trip as we didn't ride into the sun at any stage.

OK so the ride .... We went to Mudgee. Click here for a map. Mudgee is a lovely little town with about a million wineries and vineyards that I've only really driven through in the past. It's on the way to Sydney if you want to take that route, and we have a couple of times just for a change, but the couple of times we've stopped for coffee breaks everything is closed or closing. I had decided that it was just a typical country town and not worth going to for a special trip. So the other week I used my usual method for working out where to go that weekend for a ride. I asked at work. It just so happened that one of the donors who was there at the time lives in Mudgee so I asked him if there was somewhere he'd recommend there for lunch, that stays open late enough for us to get there and have lunch on the weekend. He said yep and recommended the Blue Wren Winery.

Terry and I sat down to work out the route we would take after talking about it for a while and me not having any idea where he was talking about. I said I didn't want to take the highway between Dubbo and Wellington again, every ride we do seems to start out with that stretch of road and I was getting sick of it, so we decided to take the Golden highway instead and turn off onto the Gollen Rd then head to Mudgee that way. UGH that road is the pits!!! No really, I've travelled that road before, way back before Terry got his bike and he was trailing behind me in the car, we had been on a trip to Gulgong, and I didn't remember it being that bad. I think that all my concentration was being taken up on that ride with just staying upright as it was when I was really new to riding, now I can use a bit of that concentration on just enjoying the ride, it wasn't enjoyable on that road. Oh well at least we now know.

We made it to Mudgee in plenty of time even though we'd taken the Gollen/Goolma Rd more slowly, and that was lucky too cause we got lost in Mudgee. We ended up in some suburban street that was just one big curve and I reckon if I lived in Mudgee I'd use any excuse to go on that road, it was fun. I did have to do a U-Turn to get out of it and head in the right direction, but even that wasn't too bad, I really am starting to finally feel better about U-Turns, not confident as such, but better than the stomach churning dread I used to feel.

We eventually found the right road and soon found the driveway for the winery, I turned in with Terry behind me (really he should lead, it would solve all the getting lost and maybe the thing that happened next wouldn't have happened). The driveway was bitumen, yay I was expecting it to be dirt like most of them are round here. It would have been OK, I'm feeling more comfortable on dirt now too, but the car park was actually all these very pretty white stones. Like river stones, that just had to roll and move like crazy as soon as I got onto them! Argh ... I spotted a parking spot and headed straight for it, I was half way into it when I realised there was no way the stand was going to work on these things!! I stopped and asked Terry 'What the hell do I do now?' He had seen that over the other side of the car park there was a grassy verge that we could park on and headed over there while I sat on Roxy and waited. I tried to back her up but my feel just dug into the pebbles and kinda rolled away from me and Roxy sat where she was rocking slightly. I cant move!!! It's alright, I knew my knight in shining bike leathers would come to my rescue. I waited patiently then when he came back to me wondered how he was going to replace me on the bike. Very gingerly he held the bike while I got off then I held steady for him to get on, it actually worked quite well. His bigger man feet got a better purchase on that rolling white field of pebbles and he easily moved Roxy back out of the park and took her round to the nice comfy grass to finally rest. Well that was fun.

The car park I nearly spent the rest of the day sitting on Roxy in.

We headed into the big tin shed to look for food.

The view around us was pretty spectacular, lots of grape vines with a backdrop of the surrounding hills and mountains.

Terry found a pretty spot to park the bikes.

It was a fairly basic set up inside, a long bar and a big open space with a few scattered tables.

The decorating consisted of a general theme of tin shed and rotten big wine casks, it worked. It was cold by the time we got there and although Terry had ordered a table outside when he had called the earlier that day we ended up opting for the inside table next to the wood fire. I'm sorry no food photos, I always forget until the plate is clean. It was great food though, lots of homemade stuff and the desert were just delish!! We warmed up with soup to start with and by the time we'd had coffee we were feeling refreshed and ready to head out onto the road again well fortified.


Here's some of the things we could have been looking at while we ate if we hadn't been so cold by the time we got there.

I know it's a bare tree, but I just liked it.

Spring is here and everywhere you looked in Mudgee these trees were sporting these delicate little flowers. I've asked a lot of people what the trees are lining Mudgee's main street and the best response I've gotten is 'Cherry blossom's .. I think'. They are beautiful though and they line the entire main street, there is no way you would have gotten the full effect of it in a car, on the bike it was like riding down a kind of fairy world, surrounded on all sides by such delicacy was amazing and unfortunately the photos I tried to take didn't do it justice, I needed to be in the middle of the street and Terry kept telling me to get orf the damned road!!!

The main street of Mudgee.

 Anyway that came later and I'm jumping ahead in photos. Next somehow Terry got hold of the camera and payed me back for the many shots I managed to sneak of him.

And that's the only one I'm posting, it was an interesting place to stop and not something I've seen before, every other winery I've ever been to tends to be more architectural or else they go with the log cabin look. I loved the big tin shed theme here, it suits the surrounding area perfectly.

And this was the last view we had before we left the winery with the wind and clouds starting to build up, on a mission to find petrol in Mudgee.

I started out leading with Terry giving me directions from behind, lucky he was cause we'd have got completely lost again if I was given my head. Funny that .. I used to hate getting lost on the bike, it was kinda scary for me for some reason .... that day we got kinda lost a couple of times and it was not an issue. It was actually kinda fun, like an adventure, I reckon it's cause I'm more at ease with riding and can take more time to enjoy my surrounds so I can appreciate stuff more. We found petrol and just after that I told Terry I had to try to get a shot of the street with it's confectionery trees lining it so we stopped just up the road. Then Terry was in the lead again and we were on our way home.

We both decided that there was no way we were retracing our steps home along the Gollen/Goolma Rd!! And decided on taking Castlereagh Hwy to Dunedoo then along the Golden Hwy. While it's called a highway there was no way I'd have believed it. It was a good country road even though it was just a single lane with lots of interesting corners and hills. There were meadows beside us and even a few cows watching us. It was relaxing and I was really enjoying the ride home when my day was made perfect by the view that was presented to me as I went over a rise and looked down onto one of the most spectacular views I've seen out here yet. You are looking down over a flat valley of pastureland, where you seem to be able to see for miles around you. This is all surrounded by a distant mountain range, and as you watch it's all painted in a kaleidoscope of the colours of the outback by the shifting light and dark created by the moving clouds above us. I was just thinking for the umpteenth time that I wish I had some kind of helmet cam to catch photos of this stuff while we are moving when I spotted a rest area coming up and demanded that we stop for pics!

The rest area was half way down the hill we had topped, so the view had flattened out, but it still stirred a sense of awe in me at how big this world is.

We didn't have to go much further before we reached Dunedoo, was about 3:30pm and I was starting to get frozen fingers so it didn't take much to convince me to stop at the only cafe in town for a quick warming coffee. The only cafe in town was closed down, but we found another one and gratefully settled down for a quick cuppa. Terry then ran into a friend (we cant go anywhere with running into someone he knows ... ) so we had a chat while he and his wife had a cuppa too, they were on their way home from Lithgow, which is past Mudgee, so they were taking the same route as us but his wife was amazed with the fact that we were both riding our own bikes. Actually it was a nice reaction, so far the reactions I've had from most women when I've been out riding have been either 'are you crazy?' or 'you're so brave', this time the reaction was more along the lines of 'I've been on the back of bikes but never had a go myself, don't know if I could.' My normal response of 'it's fantastic you should have a go' didn't get the usual 'oh no I couldn't!' either, just a smile and a nod, I think a seed may have been planted there :D

When I next looked at the clock it was 4:30pm and I quickly gave Terry a gentle hint ...'We've got to move, I've got the tinted visor on!!!' I don't think he got it until we'd been riding for only about 10km's (after finally leaving Dunedoo at about 5pm) and it started to get dark, I was leading again and he told me to keep an eye out for kangaroos on the side of the road as it was dusk and they get more active at dusk. I replied I'd love to if only I could see the side of the road .... up went the visor ... I swore after the last time I got caught at night with the tinted visor I would never get caught again. I got caught again. It was cold, but my eyes soon stopped watering when the tears just froze in my tear ducts. The bugs added a nice touch of protein to my diet, and the one on the front of my glasses was soon swiped away easily with a finger of my glove, it did leave a lovely reminder smeared across my field of vision as a memorial though. It was bad, just as bad as I remember it being the last time I got caught at night like this, and I was wondering how people actually enjoy riding with open face helmets all the time. Even though the sunset that we were riding into was absolutely spectacular, I wasn't stopping for pics, I just wanted to get home! It really didn't spoil the ride. Sure I was freezing by the time I got home and my face was stinging from the bugs but the day as a whole had too many good points for that one bad thing to spoil it.

It's really starting to get into spring now, we've even had a few days with temperatures above 25C, and Roxy had a service done today. I took her for a bit of a run round town after I picked her up today and she's running beautifully. I think some more rides are definitely on the agenda. I mentioned once before that I was hoping to try to organise a charity type ride for work sometime soon and that's coming to fruition. It's not a raising money type thing but a raising awareness ride. We want to remind people how important blood donations are and let them know the good things that they can do for no cost 'cept a pint of blood. So a ride seems like a fun way to do that and after talking a couple of our regular donors we found someone who is doing a charity run in October for a cancer help type thingy in one of the little townships close to Dubbo. We're going to combine the two things and see if we can make a great day out of it. Tis all going to end in a pub in a town called Tomingly, so I reckon a ride out there will have to be undertaken, to check out the ride and chat with the lady out there who is putting on a meal and fund raising event at the end of the ride. I can't wait to get out there and riding again in the perfect weather again.

What I've been Busy Not Doing

Well I've been pretty quiet lately. I haven't been riding to work and until last weekend I hadn't even got on the bike since the last post. Why? Tis cold!! But it is warming up and a visit to Melbourne a couple of weekends ago proved to me that Dubbo isn't really as cold as I thought ... ugh Melbourne is cold!!!

So why did we go to Melbourne. Well first let me fill you in on the adventure. First there was a gruelling 6 hour drive to Sydney from Dubbo.

I managed to get the Thursday off so we could drive down in daylight hours instead of driving down after work. That never works because after I get home from work the plan is always to just chuck luggage in the car and take off straight away. What normally happens is that 3 hours after I get home we are finally ready to leave, and we were to get on a plane for Melbourne on Friday morning at 7:45am. So we were both very happy to get to Sydney at 6pm instead of what would have ended up being at least midnight if we'd tried the after work trick. We got to Melbourne at just after 10am on Friday morning and we had a full day of shopping ahead of us ... yay !!!

So we found somewhere for dinner, and sorry I didn't get any photos of the shopping frenzy that followed. We had decided to just shop for normal stuff instead of checking out Elizabeth Street and the bike shops cause it was not as far to walk. Imagine our surprise when we thought we had had enough and decided to head back to the hotel only to find ourselves in Elizabeth Street. One thing I love about Melbourne is that it's nearly impossible to get lost in this city, you always end up somewhere you know when you are wandering around it's streets and alleys.

As we wandered round we also had plenty of opportunity to check out bikes and scooters of all shapes and sizes.

The cutest little bike I've seen yet. I saw this little baby being ridden down the footpath later that night .. not sure I think that's such a great idea.

We found a bike shop called Peter Stevens Motorcycles not far along the road and we went in to check out bikes (Brenda) and look for some new gear (Terry). Upstairs, we went ,after I pointed out a couple of bikes I liked and Terry wasn't the least bit impressed with (they weren't Shadows) and Terry found walls and walls of helmets. You have to understand .... in Dubbo the biggest bike accessory shop has maybe half a wall of helmets ... hmmm maybe 3/8th's of a wall, and the rest of the wall is taken up with motocross stuff. So this was like motorcycling utopia for us. I think I may have even let out a little squeal of delight but I'll never admit it, it was my shoes squeaking on the tile floor I told Terry.

We looked at helmets, then we went to another wall and looked at more helmets, then went into the back corner and looked at helmets. It was all getting a bit overwhelming so I checked out the neck and face warmer things I'd spotted and Terry soon followed. I was starting to think it was going to be like all the small bike shops I'd been in, the service seemed to be a non event so far. Then a nice man came up and talked to Terry, he took him off to look at helmets so I went to check out the boots, I've been dying to try on some decent boots and see if they will fit me.

In smaller shops you ask for women's riding boots and they look at you like you just started growing a new head. So I headed off towards the wall with boots on it and found about 6 different boots labelled women. Oh I was really starting to love this place, the first pair of boots I spotted was pair of Alpinestars that I'd seen online a few times and liked the look of, now to see if they fit and then buy them online. That was the plan, I headed over to the counter where Terry was looking pretty chuffed with a Arai helmet that was on sale and the man was just saying that he would send it Dubbo for us so we didn't have to try to take it on the plane as carry on. I asked to try on the boots and he was just so nice that when I found the size that fit me perfectly I bought them. They were also mailed home to us. What a great shop, I'll certainly go back!

So we then headed back to out motel room for rest before we had to get a bite to eat for dinner then head out for the night of adventure that was the real reason for our visit south. Normally when we hit Melbourne there's a stage show involved somewhere, this time it was all for Terry (although I have to admit that I did kinda start enjoying myself towards the end). This time we were in Melbourne to see Terry's football team play. Terry lived in Victoria for a while a few years before he met me and he became inevitably addicted to the game they play down that way, Aussie Rules. I grew up with Rugby league and really wasn't that keen on football because of it, it's a silly game to me with a bunch of big blokes pushing each other around to try and get a little ball. But I have to admit I kinda like Aussie Rules after watching a few games on telly. I don't watch much anymore cause when ever I watch Terry's team, it normally loses, I'm sure I'm a jinx. I was hoping they wouldn't lose if I was at the game, but was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice and go and wait outside the stadium if it started going pear shaped.

So we bought some Geelong scarves and headed with the crowd towards the stadium in the cold drizzling rain, at least it wasn't windy too.

Going across the train line towards the stadium, Melbourne is always well lit up.

I got a few pics of the crowd but none of them really turned out because I couldn't stop to take a picture with the crowd pushing past me in all directions.

Terry and I looking like proper Cat's fans.

The ground was so much bigger than it looks on the TV. And the stadium was huge and it filled up pretty good for a cold miserable Friday night.

Some football shots .. not real good with my little point and shoot camera, I saw a guy there with a lens that had to have been at least 3 feet long .... wow I want one!! Well to make a long story short the Cats eventually won. It's fun watching them in real life and you get to see stuff you would normally miss on telly, like the fans around you yelling abuse at the ref and the half time entertainment of the little tikes under five playing their own little games. And the guy sitting next to me who started out with a chant of ' GO Saints, GO Saints' .. which was the other team of course, then cheering louder than anyone round us when the Cats scored the first goal .. everyone looked at him and he just laughed .. oh such fun :)

So I reckon Aussie Rules is heaps better than Rugby League, it seems to be so much more fun and yeah the fans get a bit wild but I didn't see any of the violence I've witnessed at other football games so it was a blast. And yes I'm now saying I'm a Cat's supporter which gets me weird looks when I say it at home.

That was day one of our whirlwind visit south, day two dawned still wet, but now it was a drizzle interspersed with the occasional downpour, cold and windy. Ahh that's the Melbourne I've come to love :) We grabbed breaky then headed to South Melbourne markets to meet with a local who is also a member of the Shadow Riders Australia and his family. We had a lovely morning sitting and chatting with them, and their kids were just gorgeous even if one of them was getting cranky cause he wasn't allowed out of his stroller to go be with Dad while he was getting coffee. We didn't get to see much of the markets, which wasn't really that bad cause I'd have had to try to work out how I could carry on everything if I was allowed to shop. To tell the truth I had such a nice time chatting I didn't mind not shopping, but next time we are in Melbourne had better be with the car so we can come back and do some serious shopping.

That was pretty well it, we wandered back to the airport after lunch and got a plane back to Sydney arriving at about 5pm. Jumped in the car and drove straight back home. We made it by about 11pm and even though we were tired I was glad to be home and to have another day of weekend left to relax and do housework with.

One other thing I haven't done lately, I promised to get a photo of a galah to show you all what they look like, there are normally at least 100 or so of them hanging out on the street power lines or rummaging in the grass in the empty lot beside us. But of course since I said I'd get a pic of them they haven't been there. Must be a winter thing I'm sure they'll show up pretty soon, but because I promised blogger Bob over at Riding The Wet Coast that I'd show him a pic of the pinkest bird we have .. here's one from Wikipedia Wikipedia Galah Facts

Two Eight Two Eight

I've been a bit slack the last couple of weeks, both with blogging and biking (not to mention any other online stuff as well). So Friday I decided to do something about that this weekend. I asked at work, where's a good place to go for a goodly sort of ride and end up somewhere to get a decent lunch and coffee? 2828 was the first answer I got. It's the postcode of a small town about 112 km from Dubbo called Gulargambone here's the map . The next answer was the little cafe in the nursery in Gilgandra, about 60km from Dubbo. Both kinda interested me so I mentioned them both to Terry on Friday night to see what kind of reaction I would get. Ahh he said 'if we go to Gilgandra we can do that measuring that I've needed to do for the last two weeks', well that put me straight off the Gilgandra trip, I don't mind helping him with measuring or going for work related trips with him, but he's been working so hard lately and we haven't really had much time together, I just wanted this trip to be about us. I decided to be totally selfish and told Terry I'd rather a longer ride and I wanted to see what this 2828 thing was about.

As I always do when I'm after an answer to a question, I googled Gulagambone. This is what I found 2828 Gulargambone website . What an interesting little outback town, going the way a lot of those small communities seem to be when the big companies decide they aren't making enough money out of them. First they lost their banks then the post office declared they were pulling out when the community stood up and said nope we wont be beaten. They took over the post office and made a little tourism mecca in the middle of nowhere. I loved the story on the website and became interested in having a look at this place for myself. Before we make any trip to somewhere I haven't been before I like to have a look at Google maps and also check out the street view to get my bearings. When I checked out Gulargambone in street view though, one of the views went from highway to this ....

I'm pretty sure most National Highways don't duck down the back alley behind the houses like this, I reckon the man in the Google truck musta ducked down there to have a quick smoko and forgot to turn the camera off.

So Terry watched my little sub-adventure on Google maps with amusement then told me I'd been through Gular before. Well it was years ago sheesh, how was I gonna remember that, I do remember the Galahs though. I imagine someone thought of making these icons for the town as a play on the fact that Gulargambone is usually shortened to Gular by the locals, and it sounds awfully similar to Galah eh. Plus there's heaps of Galahs round this part of the country, just like anywhere else in Australia. So they have these huge Galahs made out of old bits of corrugated tin as you come into town, and now they have popped up everywhere round the town as well. I loved them because they just look so natural, how do you get a depth of field out of something made out of an old she roof?

It was all planned then, as long as it wasn't blowing a gale we were off to Gular on Saturday. We woke up early on Saturday, as we often do, and stayed in bed for a couple of hours waking up properly. This isn't normal, usually I stay in bed and Terry gets up and potters around while he has some peace without me bugging him to get ready to go somewhere. Today was different, we were both lazy. So at about 9:30 we decided to get up, if we were going to get to this cafe in time to get something to eat we'd have to move. Small country towns aren't renowned for staying open late, specially on weekends. We finally left Dubbo after getting petrol at about 11am, maybe 10 past but once we got onto the highway it was awesome!!

I couldn't actually believe how good it felt to be on the bike again! After two weeks off her I really thought I would be rusty, and I was ready to feel like a noob again, you know ... feeling every little bump, and the wind at 80km/h feeling like it was going to blow you off the bike. None of that, it felt wonderful, the bike between my legs felt wonderful, the wind in my face felt wonderful (until the whistling of the visor up made me think I would go crazy and I put it down), the long sweeping bends were just giving me a buzz that I haven't felt before. That was one thing I really noticed, I have heard a few people talk about those long sweeping bends and how much they enjoy them, and I've kind of agreed with them inside, but I've also been a bit scared of them. I always used to slow down a lot before taking on any bend and the long sweeping ones were a bit awkward to me, I would often lose my line on them and either go really wide or almost cut them. Saturday ... those bends were perfect, and for the first time I really enjoyed them ... wheeeeeeeeee!!!!

We made it to Gilgandra, and stopped for a bite at the side of the road, that is where I forgot to do up the lock on my saddlebag and lost it somewhere between there and Gular (the lock, not the saddlebag). After Gilgandra the road got worse, it looked fine but it was one of those deceptive roads that dips and bumps like a country track when you are on the bike, in a car I'm you wouldn't have even felt them but I was leaving my seat more than I have on any trip and I hit one invisible hole that thumped my front down so hard that I checked my front tire when we stopped. Not a great road and not one I want to do again in a hurry. Thing is, that's the way to get to Lightening Ridge, which is a place I want to visit before the weather gets hot this year, so I'll have to travel it again soon.

The National Highway to Gular

Some of the Galahs that you pass as you make your way into to Gular.

Wish I had a picture of some real Galahs but I guess they're so common that they aren't something I've thought to photograph, I'll rectify that next time I see them. Probably later today when I go out the front yard. One thing bout being on this straight stretch of mainly unused bit of road on the bike that I hadn't thought of, was the Galahs. I've thought of hitting a kangaroo and reckon that would be nasty on a bike, but I hadn't thought of hitting a Galah, and I think that's more likely than a kangaroo. The Galahs were flying round the roads like they owned them and they are so unpredictable, they just swoop and loop round like mad things, I'm sure even they don't know where they're going to end up. I had a couple come close but didn't hit any of them, that was pure luck I'm sure.

Our destination for the day, 2828 Cafe, Gallery and Tourist Information Centre.

Roxy looking sexy in front of 2828.

Roxy with a Galah.

We walked into this old building that has been restored by the locals, it appears to have once been the community hall. It wasn't huge and there really wasn't much to their gallery but the first thing I noticed was the Piliga Pottery near the front of the shop. Something I've been dying to see out here since I moved here is the Piliga Pottery and it's something we passed but didn't visit when we did our trip to Queensland, I've been raving to Terry bout it since then and when he finally saw some he agreed that it's awesome stuff. I may be a step closer to getting to the Pottery. We talked to a lovely country lady who was running the Cafe and Info Centre that day and it was revealed to me that Terry had rang her earlier to be sure they were open. She went on to tell us that this is a favourite stopping spot for bikers from the surrounding areas like Gilgandra and Coonabarrabran. Cool, if bikers like it cant be that bad. She then went on to tell us what food they had run out of ... sheesh I wasn't interested in that, I wanted to know what we could have. So when she took a breath and said there were cheese, ham and tomato toasted sandwiches we stopped her and said that will do, we'll have three!! And coffee!!

Well we went to their little outdoor sitting area, which was nice but obviously already packed up for the day so we sat on a park bench and soaked up the sun out of the breeze that had started up. Oh yeah the breeze, all the way to Gular I could see my P Plate flapping against the back of my backrest and was amazed when I got to the Cafe to see it was still attached. I proudly pointed it out to Terry just as it flapped in a little gust of wind and fluttered to the ground. Awwwww.

They had mentioned on the web site about a landscaped garden area, well it wasn't that obvious, but I think I kinda found something.

More Galahs, yep these ones are fake too, kinda cute tho.

Through a little arbour you find an old tin shed.

Little outback tin shed ... restored.

I went and explored that shed and it's definitely been restored to all it's former glory, including the hand planed bare timber window frames, incredible really that someone cared enough to do it and it's actually very interesting to look at a bygone era like this. The other thing with this shed is ... I think it's haunted, I took a bunch of close up photos of it, they all turned out with a huge sun glare over them bleaching half the color and detail out of them, then when I tried to upload them to Photobucket to see if I could edit out some of the problems they wouldn't upload. I reckon there's someone who doesn't want something to be seen in those pics, I might have to have another go when I get round to buying Paintshop.

The little garden we ate lunch in.

We hung around a bit and found the most awesome roosters in the shop, made out of tin again, but the colors in these roosters were amazing and I'm sure if I could have fitted one in my saddlebags we'd own one now, unfortunately they wouldn't have fitted so they stayed. They were also selling the corrugated tin Galahs in large and small, again they wouldn't fit :( We'll have to come back with the car one day.

The trip home was the same as the trip there except for the wind that had started to pick up. I got some pics of the Canola fields which is in bloom at the moment with the most amazing yellow fields.

Canola fields.

I really wanted to get at least one shot of some canola but it was hard to find a safe place to stop at the side of the road that also didn't have weeds so high that you couldn't even see the fields. We found a spot but I wasn't terribly happy about where Roxy was perched, neither was Terry so they were rushed pics.

We stopped for the worst coffee in the world at Gilgandra then just went home. My back and my left shoulder are sore this morning, I'm sure it's from the trip home battling the wind as well as the poor condition of the road between Gil and Gular, but it was worth it, I had the best ride I've had in a long time and it's just reminded me why I want to ride.