Canberra to the coast and back
There was a three day gap in my schedule and I felt the need to get away for a while. It's been too long since my previous long riding journey (just over a month ago actually - from Canberra to Newcastle and Singleton, but it feels like forever) so I was itching to travel and I gravitated to the coast having the mental shelter I wanted.
So I headed out towards Bateman’s Bay on the coast, loving being finally out for a long ride and the crispness of a 2 degree morning, stopping every second town to lay my gloves on the cylinder-heads to warm them up while my fingers defrost.. sailing through 2 degree air at 100kph gets your finger-tips cold pretty quickly.
It's a ride I've done a few times now and even riding weekdays, I've had no luck getting a clear run through the terrific curves heading down to Bateman's Bay but it's a very tidy road, beautiful and fun to ride in any case.
Rode up the coast for the night, relaxing with a few drinks, music, laughs, chatting about music, travels and rounds of life. Time flies, a beautiful walk in the morning seeing surfers have a whale of a time followed by a ride up the coast turning left into the forest at Jerrawangala for some beautiful spirited roads reminiscent of the long fast curves of Putty Road which encourage you to lean into them without slowing and feel the exhilaration of you and the machine accommodating the undulations and characteristics of the corner at speed.
In the middle of it, I found a dirt road that promised a view after 4 kilometers.
The road got much worse than this but was just passable (I can see more and more why people buy a GS to explore this stuff) and I was rewarded with a breath-taking 180-degree view of Australian gum forest.
Stunning. I'd never seen gum trees as dense as this for as far as the eye can see.
Spent a good half-hour here just taking the view in. I’d have stayed longer but there were artificial bee hives nearby and a lot of curious bees. So I rode on through the fun roads eventually landing cold but happy at the town of Tatura where I checked into the old Loaded Dog Pub for the night and enjoyed a slow pint of Tooheys Old in front of a warming fire.
Bliss. Chatted with a few riders, one of which was riding the same bike as me and had the later model with a large single pipe but was looking to convert to the older-style double-pipe like mine.
Settled in for an early restful night before riding on the next morning to Canberra through heavy fog. With the temperature about 8 degrees – ideal for an air-cooled engine – the bike felt spirited and happy. I would have loved to keep on going but it was time to travel to Sydney for my next job.
Thanks for reading!