Postscript 3: we've gone our separate ways.

In a sense, this is the end of the journey: my Hyosung Rally is gone. Hard as it was, I've sold him, as he's been sitting around since I got back, having only been ridden once.

I hope the new owner appreciates him as much as I did:

I have very mixed feelings. I'm sad to be parted, as we've been through a lot together, but on the other hand, he's only been ridden once since I returned and this was not likely to increase, so he's now going to be out doing what he does best - riding around.

Goodbye, Little One.

This, incidentally, is not the end of this blog - or the story. I've been busy...

Postscript 2: panoramas, part 2

As promised, here are a few more panoramas from the trip. This time, it's shots from days 6, 7, 8 and 9. As was the case with the first set of panorama shots, click on the image to view a larger version.

 Great Ocean Road, between Apollo Bay and Lorne

Great Ocean Road, north of Lorne

Near Flinders

Cape Schanck, standing at above Pebble Beach, looking back towards the lighthouse

 

South Gippsland 

Milking time, Gippsland. Just one of the reasons for my decision to become vegan

 Squeaky Beach, near Wilson's Promontory

The view from Mount Oberon, looking down towards Tidal River. Far too much for a person (me) to take in by himself

 

 The Giant Earthworm, Bass

There is a reason why I have been so quiet of late.

I still do plan on posting more about my trip, but I've been busy.

With this:

I've upgraded. First one sold in South Australia, apparently.

Postscript 1: panoramas - part 1

I've been back a few days now, catching up on things and keeping myself busy with something I'll be blogging about in the next few days that I think you shall like. This is the first of the posts that I promised to write after my return - about things that I didn't have time or opportunity to blog about whilst on the road.

Nice as it was to have a small netbook (an Asus eeePC 701SD, a 7" netbook) with which keep myself connected, it wasn't perfect for everything. Such as editing panorama photography. My camera, a $300 (two years ago) Kodak Z1015 IS - in other words, hardly a top end camera - has a nice feature that allows up to three photos to be stitched together to allow for some wide angle photography.

It's fiddly and the results aren't always perfect (and in my hands, are often abysmal), but occasionally it does come up with some nice imagery. Even when the stitching isn't perfect, the images do give a better impression of views that standards photos cannot.

Here are a few panorama shots from the first five days of my adventure (click on them for larger versions - just in case you didn't pick that up with every other photo I've uploaded until now):

Day 1: Lake Alexandrina, a few kilometres before the ferry crossing at Narrung

Day 2: Coorong National Park, near Meningie

Day 2: fields on the way to Kingston, S.E.

Day 2: fields on the southern outskirts of Robe

Day 3: looking westwards, down the hill on the way to Glencoe, having just turned off the main road between Beachport and Mount Gambier

Day 3: Mount Gambier

 Day 4: looking back towards Portland

Day 5: Great Ocean Road, on the way to Childer's Cove

Day 5: Great Ocean Road, Bay of Islands

 Day 5: Great Ocean Road, near the Grotto

Day 5: Great Ocean Road,  near Princetown

 Day 5: Great Ocean Road, Apollo Bay on the horizon

Day 17: homeward-bound.

Route taken: Bordertown-Keith-Tailem Bend-Wellington-Langhorne Creek-Strathalbyn-Kangarilla-Blackwood-Adelaide

Distance covered: TBC

So, that's it. I am back. The end of the scootering odyssey to Wilson's Promontory and back.

The day started on an interesting note, almost as soon as the previous day concluded. Just before 1:30 I was woken by a woman screaming abuse and banging on metal - a caravan or roller door. This carried on for some time, until the police arrived to settle things down.

In the morning I learnt that the poor woman had been beaten up by her husband, who then drove off in their campervan, leaving his wife and child standing in the caravan park. She ended up in hospital for the night, blood streaming, and in the morning her charming husband turned a couple of times at the campsite, circling around, and even being decent enough to pay the site fees (yeah, that's sarcasm).

Still undecided as to where to head for the day, this horrible event helped me decide. My life is generally pretty good, and spending another day riding around seemed like a futile attempt to avoid dealing with whatever was awaiting me upon my return home.

As I approached the turning for Pinaroo, I paused to take a photo but my resolve remained: homeward-bound.

Carrying on, I carried on towards Keith, passing the Andy Cauldecott Park. Andy Caldecott was a Keith resident, who was killed in an accident during the 2006 Paris-Dakar Rally, having won his first stage a few days beforehand.

I stopped in Keith for breakfast, where what I presume to be a mother and son from Tasmania, who were touring on a large motorcycle, had chosen to do likewise. The teenage son shot me a few dirty glances and looked generally surly, as any decent teenager ought to.

Keith - home of the jeep-on-a-stick memorial

The traffic wasn't as heavy as it had been the previous day, but there were still numerous road trains passing me in both directions. When I stopped to refuel in Coonalpyn, I learnt from a truck driver that I had been the morning's topic of conversation on the CB radio.

Pushing onwards towards Tailem Bend, six cyclists riding in the opposite direction from me went by. And people think that I've been crazy by riding a 50cc scooter...

On the outskirts I came across an unexpected surprise - the Big Olive, the fourth 'big' object of the trip:

The Big Olive left me with a dilemma - should I abandon my plan to return through Wellington and Langhorne Creek, stopping off for wine, and head northwards towards the Giant Rocking Horse in Gumeracha, thereby adding a fifth such sight to my trip? I quickly saw sense - wine it was to be.

The Murray, just outside Tailem Bend

Waiting for the ferry at Wellington

Squeezing onto the ferry: there is always space for a scooter

Crossing across the same ferry that I took only a couple of hours into my adventure some 2 1/2 weeks ago, I headed towards Langhorne Creek. Stopping at a couple of wineries provided for a relaxing break. With space for three bottles (one of which somehow fitted under the seat), I was armed for the final stint home.

Bremerton Winery - well worth the visit

After stopping in Strathalbyn for a quick bite, I was suddenly confronted with another weather condition that I had not expected: fog!

As I carried on northwards through Paris Creek, visibility continued to decrease, with the headlights of passing cars and trucks suddenly appearing out of the gloom.

 

I've heard rumours that it is currently the middle of an Australian summer

I personally do not believe those rumours

As I entered Meadows, the fog dissipated. Quickly knocking off the last stretch of the ride through Kangarilla, Clarendon and Blackwood, I descended onto the Adelaide plain, heading home.

I'd done it. I'd completed my 2 1/2-week scootering odyssey.

Just because this is the end of the daily reports, don't think that this is the end of the blog posts. I shall continue to post in the coming days and weeks. There's a lot that I haven't had the time or opportunity to share so far.

I hope that you've enjoyed the journey.

Day 16: Nach uns die Sintflut (after us comes the Flood)

Route taken: Daylesford-Ballarat-Ararat-Horsham-Nhill-Bordertown
Distance covered: 410km (approx.)

It was a nice surprise to sleep through the noise of the cockatoos. It wasn't such a nice surprise to discover that I'd also slept through a lot of rain. Whilst I was dry inside my tent, it was a sign of things to come...

Packing away a sodden tent and ground sheet into my scooter, everything getting wetter as I prepared to depart, I obtained a large bin liner from the campsite so that I could cover my backpack. Before getting on to ride away my jacket was already sodden. It would be a good test of the waterproofing qualities of it...

Last night I had decided to set course for Swan Hill and along the Murray River back to Adelaide. However, the weather and forecast made me change my mind. If I'm going to get saturated, I'd prefer to do that for as few days as possible. Especially when the start of the day was so abysmal - and the forecast suggested heavier rain over the coming days.

Setting off for Ballarat for the direct way back to Adelaide through Horsham, the weather confirmed the sense behind my decision. I don't think I've ever driven, let alone ridden, in such abysmal weather before (other than on one occasion in Germany when it was so bad that the car's GPS failed and doing 50km/h on the autobahn was fraught with danger).

Think this is bad? At times I could see far less than this recreation (taken from inside my helmet) shows

I could barely see where I was going at times - between the fogged up visor and sunglasses (necessary for the glare and to keep the visor ajar), plus the teeming rain and spray from passing trucks, it was a nightmare. I considered pulling over on a few occasions, but there was nowhere to safely stop at those times. So I carried on.

Reaching Ballarat, I stopped for breakfast and to refuel to allow the rain to ease. Sated, I headed off, riding the five kilometres of the freeway from Melbourne. With little traffic on it, it was fine, but I would not want to try doing so on a 50cc scooter on a busy day. Freeway by, the interstate highway commenced, but it was still bucketing. My jacket was saturated, my gloves weighed at least triple their normal weight and my kevlar jeans were very damp, despite the waterproof pants over the top. The inside of my helmet was wet from my packing up to leave (wet hair). My shoes were full of water. But the scooter hadn't been as clean as it was for some time.

At Ararat it seemed appropriate that the rain eased, and by the time I made the climb to the lookout above the town, had stopped. No doves in sight though:

It was at this point I dared to wear my camera across my back again. The bag was wet and the camera damp inside it, so it did need a decent airing.

Under 500km from Adelaide...

Setting off for Horsham, the rain returned, albeit more lightly than had been the case earlier in the morning, but still heavy enough to need waterproofs. The camera went into the backpack again. Only on the outskirts of Horsham did I dare remove the waterproof pants and fluoro yellow vest.

On the third day I passed through Mount Gambier and saw the Blue Lake. Today I stopped at the Pink Lake:

As the weather improved, I did wonder whether I shouldn't have driven towards Swan Hill, but quickly cleared that thought from my mind. No regrets - I cannot change my decision, so there was no point in dwelling on it.

Scooter versus road train... Hopefully not

I motored on through Dimboola, Nhill and Kaniva. I stopped to refuel again. A truck driver who had passed me earlier asked me how I coped with the road trains overtaking me. I'm guessing that well over one hundred passed me, with maybe even more travelling in the opposite direction. On the whole, they have all been fine. The truck driver shook his head in disbelief when I told him where I'd been in the last fortnight or so.

Pushing on, I reached my destination for the evening: Bordertown, just inside South Australia. A different timezone, a different state. Given the differences between Melbourne and Bordertown, it may as well be a different planet.

Having dried the ground sheet, I erected the tent. Now that it is dry, it is as if nothing happened at the start of the day. That's the way I like it.

Covering maybe 410km, today is the longest single scooter ride I have ever done. And certainly for the longest period in such abysmal weather. It was all rather satisfying, all in all.

Question is now: carry on to Adelaide tomorrow, or take a more leisurely route home? As was the case today, it may well all depend on what the weather looks like when I wake up.

Day 15: we're coming back

Route taken: Melbourne-Sunbury-Gisborne-Woodend-Daylesford
Distance covered: TBC

I am not ready to return home. There, I've said it. I don't want to return home. I have unfinished business in - and with - Melbourne, and I want to stay. But I cannot change the fact that I do have to go home, so I am not going to get upset about it. But I am nonetheless still not ready to go back to Adelaide.

Waking up around 11:30 and feeling decidedly worse for wear, a fantastic falafel roll from a shop in Coburg helped to get me moving, if not motivated to depart Melbourne. Saying our farewells at 13:30, I departed my friend's house and headed towards Sunbury, following the same path that I had taken a few days previously.

Rather than heading north from Sunbury as I had a few days ago, I continued westwards, crossing over the freeway and then turning north towards Gisborne.

Conveniently placed sign to point out Mount Macedon, which is obscured by cloud

I then travelled towards Woodend along the same road that I had ridden in the opposite direction. The thought of stopping for a beer was not on my list of things to do for the day, so I motored onwards.

With a complete lack of blue sky, I continued along the road towards Daylesford, scene of the 2010 Classic Scooter Rally. What little traffic I saw was mostly travelling in the opposite direction.

For much of the ride, I had a strong tailwind, so I made good progress along the winding roads.

Daylesford

Shortly after finding something to eat for dinner, the first proper rain that I have seen on my trip arrived. Whilst not strong, it is nonetheless a sign of what the forecast promises for the remainder of my travels: rain, showers and maybe even storms. It makes no difference which way I return to Adelaide - rain is forecast in all districts through which I may ride.

I have yet to decide in which direction I shall head tomorrow morning. Due to the large number of cockatoos at the campsite I am staying at, I shall inevitably be awake early. I'm likely to be reaching Adelaide on Thursday, regardless of the direction I take - unless I were to push hard to get home quickly. After such a meandering, relaxing series of rides so far, I have no intention of changing the manner in which I have been travelling.