Some nights I just pinch myself – a photo montage

It was just six months ago that I placed an advertisement on the Moto Guzzi Club of Great Britain asking if people would help me buy a Moto Guzzi in the UK to tour the UK and Europe.

Six months later I’m sitting at my campsite at Kunzelsau in southern Germany half way through my tour to Europe.

I pinch myself again.

My last post summarised the tour of the northern mainland of Great Britain.

The European part of the journey started with catching the ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam.

Then to the new TLM premises in Nijmegen, the Netherlands to get a couple of issues I had with the bike sorted out

A quick dash across the German border heading north

To Hirtshals, at the top of the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark a ferry and fishing village and a crossroads for bike travellers

A ferry port for those going to northern Scandinavia

For me I was seeking a taste of Norway

I say a taste because Norway may be revisited. I think Scotland and Norway in one trip was too much high northern latitudes weather for a fellow from the driest of continents.

A dash to Rodby, Denmark thought torrential rain to catch the ferry to Germany

Where it’s warmer and drier.

Yes sometimes I pinch myself to check it’s not a dream.

I’m halfway through this tour and the Alps only 300km south.

Pinch pinch

Tassie (Tasmania)

Looking past Wineglass Bay to Schouten Passage in the Freycinet Peninsula

I’ve looked at Tassie from both sides now

from in and out

and still somehow

Its Tassie’s illusion I recall

I really don’t know Tassie at all

(will apologies to Joni Mitchell)

I’m going to Tassie again

I place I can always go back to

find something new and beautiful

In Australian smallest State

An island State, part of an island nation.

Looking out to sea over the remains of the old jetty in Bridport NE Tasmania

Looking out across the blue clear waters that surround Tassie.

Looking in from coastal anchorages at

Storm over Maria Island from Chinamans Bay,

At storms rolling past

At the play of the light on the rocky shoreline

Looking in to tight harbour entrances

Hells Gates the entrance to Macquarie Harbour in perfect conditions

Sitting safe in historic ports

Looking down on the Stanley Fishing Harbour from the Nut

Travelling through beautiful wilderness

Looking towards Frenchmans Cap in the South West Wilderness

And a quirkiness that is only Tassie

Next month I’m going back to Tassie again

Taking the mighty Breva down for her second trip

I hope the sun never sets on my Tasmania adventures.

Sunset over Coles Bay TasmaniaSouth East Tasmania

A place of special serenity for me

Apollo Bay

On the south west coast of Victoria is the little place of serenity

Nestled between the Otway mountains and the sea

A quiet fishing village in the cold of winter

I have ridden or sailed there innumerable times

Down the Great Ocean Road or over the Otway Mountains

In the safe harbour amongst the working boats

In a tent or a cabin

I listen to the roar of the surf, the winds at the edge of the roaring 40’s

or the silence of a fishing village in winter

Apollo Bay is quiet hamlet where I can take to the surf or walk through the giant forests.

Its a place that has offered me serenity and peace since I was just a boy, travelling here and camping in the dunes under a tarpaulin strung from my uncles car.

A place of peace and regeneration.

Coal Mine or Food bowl

Bylong Way south of the Hunter Valley

Rolling green pasture

Snaking River

Looking over the Goulburn River at the start of the Bylong Way

The road snaking and curving under the tyres of my bike

Along the northern edge of the Blue Mountains

Looking to the Blue Mountains over the Bylong Valley

Will this be lost

Will it be dug up

For a coal mine

Such a waste of land

And of history

Towns sitting in the pasture land

Nestled under the Blue Mountains

Impressions of South Australia – Fleurieu Peninsula

It was getting hot in the Flinders Ranges and the prediction was that it was going to hit 40 celsius.

Bike loaded and ready to roll at the back of the Blinman Hotel

I couldn’t wait to get on my way south through the Clare Vand the Adelaide Hills and down to the Fleurieu Peninsula (http://fleurieupeninsula.com.au/) where the cool breezes off the southern ocean keeps the temperatures down.

There was an overnight stop at the Barbed Wire Pub at Spalding just north of Clare then through to Port Elliot where the over 100 year old Port Elliot Beach House is totally friendly and cheap.

The night at the beach was good to do some shopping. The Fleurieu Peninsula is so fertile and with 100 ks there are all types of foods. Yoghurts from the local dairy farms, dried grapes and wines from McLaren Vale and Langhorn Creek, fresh fish from the sea and lakes and tomatoes and over vegetables from Murray Bridge. All local and fresh.

The aim was to stock up them camp in one of the beautiful coastal parks that are just of the road to Cape Jervis.

Looking out to Kangaroo Island on the road to Cape Jervis

The road from Victor Harbour to Cape Jervis is listed in the top 100 rides in Australia and is a pearler, with optional detours down gravel (oh no not again) roads to beaches at the number of conservation parks along the coast.

As a 40 degree day (in October!) approached I slipped down one of those gravel roads to find a camp spot just over the dunes from the beach.