abridged

Keeping a journal like this serves two purposes. It means I'm not travelling completely solo, because the people most important to me are sharing the ride... at least in spirit. And hopefully when I look back and re-read my ramblings in the future, it'll remind me of some of the things I'd forgotten. Every day, and every place I've visited, has been interesting and rewarding, but of course I can't write it ALL down. Some just wouldn't translate, and it'd take too long for me to type on my phone, one fingered.. and may be a bit dull for my nearest and dearest to read, which I wouldn't want.

But there have been so many, many moments which I've tried to commit to memory. Little nuggets of pure joy that make me smile in delight. Usually simple, tiny things, like an Aussie lady shouting at her dog, Eddie, to ' bloody well shut up, you mongrel' this morning. Maybe you had to be there....?

I stopped and had breakfast at a small town called Towong. A pot of loose leaf tea and a toasted egg roll. In the sunshine outside. Simple pleasures.

Riding along, I was back in the hilly country when the noise of my approaching engine must have startled a flock of at least sixty cockatoos. They took flight, sqwawking into the air as I reached them, their feathers brilliant white in the morning sun as they flashed across my field of vision.

Further into the hills, and I rounded a tight bend to see a huge stag in my path not forty metres from me. I was going quite slowly, and as I got closer, he leapt up the bank and into the woods. He was massive... moose size. Must find out what sort of deer they have here. Huge antlers.

I was meant to be following one of my 'top 200 biker roads' and I'd passed several signs warning that the twisty, cunning road I was riding was an accident blackspot for bikes. Could understand why. High in the mountains, there were sheer drops and narrow bends... recommended speed signs suggested 15 kmph on some hairpin bends... that's barely above walking pace. Then I came to a junction and realised I'd gone 15 kilometres the wrong way! So, I turned round and re-traced my path through the hazardous section all over again. What a lark! I may not be as fast as some of my biker mates (you know who you are!) but nobody could have been enjoying this more than me right then !

In my biking atlas I'd seen a photo of a bridge which I wanted to cross. It was at the far end of Lake Hume, a massive body of water created when they'd built a dam across the Murray River. They drowned a forest and shifted a town to do it. But the skeletons of thousands of dead trees stick up out of the water still. It's a surreal sight. I skirted the lake for mile after mile and finally found my bridge, bigger and more photogenic than I'd hoped for. Camera out, I was poised as four bikers came roaring across. Short of getting a shot of ME on it, this was next best thing. So little traffic I could have been waiting an age to get even one motorbike.

I crossed over, then went for a swim in the lake... up to and around one of the drowned trees.

Pit stop in the most picturesque of country towns, called Beechworth. Just how you've always imagined an Australian town to be, with verandahs and covered walkways to escape the beating heat. Then back on the road and headed towards Melbourne, journey's end almost in sight.

It had been a brilliant day .... right up to the point where Blue starting feeling a bit odd... I was riding a gravelly road and put it down to that, but the shaking got worse, so I pulled over. Buried in my rear type was a metal screw. Fortunately it hadn't burst outright, but it was clearly going down. So, I very carefully limped back a few kilometres to the nearest town, Mansfield, found a camping ground, and called the out-of-hours breakdown number - again! Trevor, who'd been so helpful over Russell's demise, laughed! At least I was in the right State this time. He reckons he can get a tyre repair crew to me in the morning. So, there was nothing more to be done than to find a pub. All's fine... another minor blip in the big scheme of things, and certainly not enough to spoil a really special day - one of the best.