It’s hard to believe I left Australia over a month ago, and have been travelling around the UK and Ireland.
I’m back in London staying with my sister, so it’s time to get my blog up to date.
Mmm, I think I may be becoming a lazy social media content creator (is that the right term) since creating an Instagram account. (@piecemealadventurer)
London does have its own beauty, as the view from the balcony at the Tate Modern shows
Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate what a great art city London is. Melbourne, my hometown is no slouch, but the breadth of art in London makes one feel spoilt.
There is the public art around the streets:
In London, suburbs like Ealing there are wonderful galleries doing exhibitions such as Grayson Perry’s tapestries.
Or The Expressionists at Tate Modern:
And the work of the Barbadian, Taveres Strachan at the Heyward Gallery;
Above the arts precinct, there was the sign
You belong here
And on a hot day every young person was at home with art.
It’s a calm crossing from Portsmouth around Brittany and across the Bay of Biscay to Santander in Spain.
Phase 2 of the long haul of flying from Melbourne to London (phase 1) to collect my Moto Guzzi Breva 1100 and ride to Morocco.
Stopped for a pint at the Ship and Castle next to the ferry terminal before joining the queue to board. There were plenty of bikes doing the crossing but only one Moto Guzzi.
My sister lives in London and it was wonderful to spend some time with her before embarking on this adventure.
Visiting the lovely little Lyric Theatre in Hanger Lane to see a play.
And heading to the south of England to go walking along the Avon River
It’s my last day in Melbourne before I fly out to the Northern Hemisphere
First time in a couple of years, 2020 when I was locked down in Spain and the UK
I took the mighty Breva for a little ride to warm up the oil before it went into hibernation.
I have to admit late April and almost summer weather in Melbourne
Almost made my question my decision to leave ALMOST
But I did get a last swim in for the season
There is an method to storing motorbikes
Both bikes got a good wash, petrol stabiliser in the tanks to ensure the fuel doesn’t go off and over inflating the tyres to ensure no flat spots. Then there is hooking the batteries up to chargers so they are not dead when I return in 6 months or so.
My dear biker friends if you haven’t got a lift table to work on your bike do!!!
No more laying on the concrete to get to the sump plug or trying to get the oild tray around the centre stand. Agh Bliss.
So my Melbourne bike fleet is all packed away and my Northern Hemisphere Breva is serviced and ready for its next adventure.
There is always something quirky in a blokes garage.
Mine is a clinker rowing boat I built back in my sailing days.
The bow seat makes a great hanging space for my riding gear.
It’s a long haul flight from Melbourne to London.
And by the time I got to London the full planes on the flight left me in no doubt that long distance air travel was back following the pandemic.
It is two years to the day that I left London at the first of the covid 19 onslaught on a repatriation flight back to Australia.
It’s time to recommence the journey I was on then when I was locked down in Spain on my way to Morocco.
It’s spring here and the flowers in the local park add colour to the day.
And the familiar sites of London, the old Red telephone boxes and the red double decker buses are there.
In a couple of days I pick up the mighty Breva ii and make make final preparations to catch the ferry to Spain late next week.
So yes cautiously international adventures are back.
So let’s raise our glasses and have a drink to that.
