Apologies? The lady at the Route 66 Motel suggested we stop at 1770. We thought we had misheard. This is the Australians being subtle for once. One would have expected it to be called Cooklandedhere or something like that. Just like CheapestSpares Auto as the name of a shop, or Shipmybike the guys that are helping get the bike to LA on the next leg. Everything is just as it says it is. It would not shock us to find a website called Wewaterdownyourboozeandripyouoff.com.
Anyway we arrived at Seventeenseventy late lunchtime and Paul pulled up in front of the first cafe he saw. In fact it was the only cafe. It had a stupendous view over the bay and lunch was excellent. So good that after we had found some accommodation for the evening we returned for a sunset drink at the bar, and then dinner. We even returned for breakfast in the morning. It was a pretty fabulous place. So apologies to all those not watching pelicans, looking over sandbanks in a turquoise blue sea with a warm sun and cloudless sky. Sorry.
We then went to see one of the chums we had ridden with through China, in Rainbow Beach. 1770 was brilliant; Rainbow Beach was even better. Such beaches, perfectly clean and hardly anybody in sight. And although one felt the chill from the wind when the sun went down, it was otherwise super.
In the morning we were treated to a ride through the Cooloola National Park, on an off-road track. It led to the beach that we sped up and down on. Over the legal speed limit too. And in a 1970's blingy gold beach buggy which had had the benefit of modern technology engine wise. Thank you Ron. Fabulous.
Brisbane next stop; it was also great fun. If only Bangkok could sort its waterfront out like they have here. After drinking looking over the river, we ate looking out over the river.
In the morning Mr Harley managed to fit a new horn on the bike which no longer sounds like a bumble bee in a jam jar - the result of the pressure wash in Singapore. The day before the body had fallen off the horn too. We needed to keep heading down South and the biker guys suggested we head for Byron Bay the most Easterly point of Australia. So we did and watched whales out at sea, whilst eating a light lunch at the Lighthouse Cafe. There they suggested we spent the evening in Nambucca Heads.
So we did; who were we to argue? The weather was still super and we found a brilliant bed and breakfast type motel with views over the coast where the river met the sea. For the first time in Australia, breakfast was also included in the room price.
And now the last leg to Sydney. We will be shortly be changing one Pacific Highway for another. On this one we have been heading South and on the next one we will be heading North. It has become very chilly now. We were wearing layers on the bike. It then started raining. The lady in our lunchtime cafe offered us some rubber gloves to put under our rather wet leather ones. The triumphal entry into Sydney wasn't what we planned. We were very cold with the last 300km ridden in the rain, which not only slows us down but makes us colder. So just like British summer-time really. The left lens also fell out of Paul's Aviators. His goggles had already fallen apart further up Australia, down to two pairs of eyewear now.
It's18.38 when we pull up outside Xavier's in Bondi Beach. It's nighttime and we are cold and wet. He doesn't recognise us on the street at first with us dressed in our bright yellow waterproof jackets, thinking us to be either road workers or dustbin men.
And according to Xavier we were also very smelly...
Paul & Francoise
We're still reading it. Nice to see you're enjoying Oz. bit expensive eh? But with the mix of beauty and first world living standards what would you expect... Day out to the royal national park and the coast road beyond on the cards?
ReplyDelete