Last Night

Well here we are, the last night of our trip. We left Hay yesterday morning feeling tired and woozy, although not as bad as some of our fellow race goers. The evening storm the night before had cleansed the air and although we were still covered in a thin layer of dust (we hadn't yet showered) we layered up our clothes, wrapped scarves round our necks and headed out of new south wales.

Our destination was Shepparton, where Jeremy's paternal grandparents live, 250km away. The road slowly changed from absolute flatness to mostly flat. Paddocks became smaller, no longer stretching out of view. Agriculture became more evident and the fruit orchards started again. All the way the roads were softened by what I think is called fly away grass. Detached tops of grass like plants about the size of an out spread hand floated in mass along the tarmac. The wind was quite strong and blew these yellow armies in formation along the highways. I liked them, Jeremy's sinuses did not. Poor Jeremy has suffered from hay fever throughout this trip but yesterday was the worst. He was constantly stopping to blow his nose or wipe the sniffles.

This is now our second night in the comfort of grandparent endulgence. Two big delicious dinners, a lovely big bed and a lake view, bliss. Yet I still look forward to arriving in daylesford tomorrow. Our new residence awaits. We've only spent about three nights in our new house so it'll be good to get settled in properly and feel grounded. Hopefully we'll be able to cope staying put after all of this.

We also need to find a new owner for good old Norman. It was always part of the deal, to sell the bike at the end. We can't afford not to. So, if you're in the daylesford/ Geelong/ Melbourne area and looking for an extremely reliable motorbike that can take you on a trip of a lifetime let us know. We can't recommend him enough!

Still At Home

Ah, yes, well. We're still in the comfort of warm central heating, home cooked meals and a proper bed to sleep in tonight. Set off has been postponed until tomorrow due to us being wimps and the weather being horrible. Last minute purchases of waterproof over trousers and good bike boots have been bought today. Tomorrow we leave, still with my mum and her partner and now with Jeremy's mum too! Bags are packed and Norman loaded up and waiting. Tomorrow our journey begins...............
.............as long as it's not pissing it down.

Australian Wedding

We had our Australian wedding yesterday at Jeremy's parents' place in Geelong. It was great fun and as you can see from the photo below Norman was a great success!

Today has been tidying up and trying to sort out packing. Jeremy and his dad have been discussing what should go where. I'm fairly confident in my packing abilities too, I feel I'm good at travelling light and good at figuring out where and how to carry everything. I used to transport furniture on the back of my vintage push bike when I lived in Edinburgh. My best effort was cycling two chairs into college, peddling past a removals lorry, the driver of which gave me a big thumbs up as I shot past!

Family friend Phil has been tuning up Norman, I think the pedal that changes the gears was too close to something thus making it difficult to change gears, I think Phil fixed it, not with the hammer though.

So, here's my luggage, I need to gather a couple of other things like a bigger sketchbook,  a pack of cards and a cover for my phone, but apart from that I think I'm done.

This photo shows 

2 scarves, 

a cardi.

In the blue flowery bag are my toiletries and underwear. It may not look a very campingy bag, but I find it very handy as it has 2 compartments, one for clean underwear, and at the back, one for dirty. Toiletries kept with the clean underwear obviously. As for sanitary products as we will be away for about a month so it is necessary to think of this, I use a Divacup. I've used one for years and I would never go back to using anything else. You can read about it here, I wont go into details, but they are the perfect thing for traveling as you only need to bring the one item.

In the black bag are my clothes - 3 singlets, 1 long sleeved loose shirt, 2 dresses, 1 skirt, 1 pair of trousers, 1 nightie, my blanky (yes I still have a blanky, but it's very useful to use as a pillow) 1 swimsuit, pair of sandals. I will be wearing my bike gear so it isn't in the black bag.

As we speak I'm downloading The Michael Morcombe eGuide to the Birds of Australia to my new phone. I decided my bird book was too bulky and this was a good alternative, it's quite expensive (about $35) but has a great star rating, good reviews and I'm intrigued by it. 

Although I've an alternative for my bird book I decided to bring along a big thick book as my holiday read. My best friend just gave it to me for my birthday and said it's one of her favourites. Has anyone else read The Far Pavilions by M.M.Kaye? I'm looking forward to it.

Organising

I'm actually doing very little organizing at the moment, I think I should step up and do something. We've decided we're leaving next Monday. The plan is that we're having an Australian wedding party on Saturday, clean up Sunday, then leave Monday. We would have left it a bit longer but my mum is over for the Aussie wedding and she and her partner are coming along with us for our first night on the road (they'll be in a car though!) and their time schedule is quite tight as they fly out of Sydney on Friday.


It's a bit of a family joke that my mum is coming on our first night of honeymoon with us. Poor Jeremy, the day he decided to try and propose was Christmas Eve last year. Last winter in Northern Ireland was the coldest I can remember, it was about -5C outside and frozen snow on the ground. Jeremy kept trying to get me to go places with him, to try and get me on my own so he could ask the question, "Do you want to come for a drive with me to the wine shop Bridget?" he'd ask. "No,  not really, it's cold." I'd reply. My mum would then say "Oh I will!" So off Jeremy went for a drive with my mum to the wine shop.
Later, "Would you like to go for a walk with me Bridget?" "No, it's freezing and I've got the fire lit here." My mum - "Oh I will!" Jeremy despairing, left the house and rang my brother, who was in on the plan, for suggestions. He came back and asked, "William needs me to go and pick something up from The Bay Tree (my mum and brother's restaurant) do you want to come?" My mum jumps in and says, "Oh I need something from the Bay Tree, I'll come!" immediately with a look of frustration Jeremy phones William, William straight away phones my mum, "Look mum, this is something Jeremy and Bridget really need to do alone!" My mum suspiciously immediately retracts her desire to go to the Bay Tree and I realise, knowingly, I just have to go along with whatever Jeremy needs me to do. Sure enough he knelt in the snow and I got a ring.


I am pleased my mum and her partner are coming for the first day driving, it takes the pressure off the big scary start. We're going to stay the first night at Wye River, a gorgeous beach town where we've been many times with Jeremy's family and where a few years back I took my mum and she loves it. Then the next day we will say goodbye to my mum and Jeremy and I will head on to Warnambool and she will head back to Ireland.


I haven't really thought much about what I'm bringing with me. Jeremy has been researching motorbike tour sites. I'm going to have to put a bit more effort into this. I know I need a good sketchbook and some spare 2B pencil leads, I want to bring a skirt or two since my bum isn't used to being so confined in tight jeans, a spare pair of shoes/sandals to wear instead of bike boots. I'm thinking 5 pairs of undies which I can just wash as we go, about three singlet tops, a longer sleeved thing, a jumper, a jacket, a couple of light scarves (I think it'll get cold at night and in the mornings) 3 or 4 pairs of socks, I think I'll bring a nightie so I don't sleep in a singlet thus leaving the singlet not fit for day wear (although maybe it wouldn't bother me) oh I can't think about the rest now, my cousin has just sent me a brilliant video of our Irish wedding and I want to show Jeremy, so off I go....


if anyone has any hints and tips about what to bring I'd love to hear!

Big Grin

Yes we went for our first ride on Norman yesterday and then again today. Jeremy said we'd better get straight into it, not make a big deal, just drive round to Tim's (our best man at our wedding) for a cup of tea. So I sheepishly put on my outfit and came outside. I felt so embarrassed, motorbike gear is just not the style I normally wear (as I may have mentioned before) and I was aware eyes were on me for my reaction.


I slid onto the back of the bike, photographs were taken by Jeremy's parents, who we're staying with at the moment, and off we zoomed down the road. I felt the smile start immediately, I couldn't help it. I giddily grinned from ear to ear (a difficult thing to do when your face is all squished together in a bike helmet) the entire 20 mins journey!


I was surprised by how much I could see, I presumed wearing the helmet would blinker you to some extent, but I suppose really visibility is important when riding a motorbike so I now realise obviously helmets would be made with that in mind! I trusted Jeremy totally, thankfully forgetting that after 2 years not being on a bike he might feel a bit uneasy about it, also his first time with someone on the back. When we got home again he said that he thought we were getting the hang of it by the last wee bit, and after today's ride he was feeling a lot more confident. Apparently we only went 80kph, but it felt pretty fast to me, he said we can go 130 on the freeway up near Alice Springs. I told him no we can't.