In and around Padova

The blog above and this are an attempt to catch up on telling tales of 2024’s adventure in Italy and Tunisia.

Padova is a beautiful university city. Not far from Venice, the city captures Venician elegance without the crowds.

The central plaza contains statues of thee great philosophers and is flanked by magnificent Cathedrals. The second oldest University in Europe and sumptuous Italian food.

Chioggia, is at the southern end of the Venice Lagoon. A commercial fishing port with canals and historic building and beautiful seafood.

D’Ababo is a Terme Centre to the west of Padova. People come from all over Italy to soaking the therapeutic waters and hot mud baths.

The town in named after Pietro D’Abano who commenced the medicinal use of the water and mud back in the 1200s.

The town is modern and lively especially in the Terme apart of town and a good market in the residential area.

From D’Adano it was across the mountains of Emilia-Romagna into Tuscany.

Mountains

It’s been a while since I last wrote, and much has happened. The most momentus was the coming of a grand daughter. Quite a little distraction!!

Back to the last European Summer and some of its great ranges.

Rioja is one of Spain’s great wine regions and Horrow. The wines and food make it a beautiful gastronomic stop.

The Pyrenees.

It’s a short hop into the Pyrenees and the beautiful city of Torla.

This little village sits just below the Spanish/France Frontier and is an the border of the Ordesay-Monte Perdido NP

Montserrat

The mountain trip across Spain ended at the amazing Montserrat.

Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso

Gran Paradiso rates amongst my favourite national parks in Europe. Once the King’s hunting ground, it was then gifted to the people after the unification of Italy. From a breeding program at Gran Paradiso, the Europen Ibix has been re established in the European Alps.

There are some beautiful views on the walks.

There is often a beautiful mountain and mountainous road in Europe, but these were lovely mountains indeed

The Winter Solstice, Celebrations by Port Phillip, and on bikes in the Yarra Ranges.

The Strawberry Full Moon hung high in the sky, overlooking the Solstice Celebrations.

The sky sure had a wintery feel, looking across Port Phillip to the City of Melbourne.

But in the old ship building shed us locals celebrated the coming of winter.

On the Sunday, my motorbike club, the Moto Guzzi Club of Victoria, conducted its winter breakfast in the Yarra Ranges.

I rolled the mighty Breva out of the shed in the morning twighlight on a cold, clear winter morning.

I was riding through the city as the sun rose and three hot air balloons drifted overhead.

The BBQ was already under way as I arrived at the Badgers Creek Weir picnic ground.

A small group of local residents are waiting for to share.

While the BBQ was attractive with the temperature of 2c, the pot of soup was where I headed.

The best thing was that for the motorbikes built on the shores of Lake Como in the Italian Alps, the temperature was perfect, and all the bikes ran perfectly.

After a huge breakfast of minestrone soup and eggs and bacon, I needed a bit of a walk in the bush up to Badger Wier.

As winter settles in, it’s only two weeks till I head to the Northern Hemisphere for my next European Adventure.

Back on the edge of the Outback -3

The beautiful dawn view from the balcony of the Brewarrina Hotel disguised the storms that were brewing.

With rising morning sun shining over my shoulder, conditions were right for an early start on the 1200km ride home.

The rest area by the Bogan River in Nyngan is the perfect stop for a roadside breakfast. The decorative post showing the height of major floods that have hit Nyngan.

Painted grain silos are a well-known feature of the North Western Victoria, in the big river country, there is a water tower art trail.

It was a nice dry 700km ride to Nerrandera and a comfy room at the Historic Star Lodge. It is a beautiful historic building with many of the original features.

And a view over the township from the balcony.

The last stop on the central plains of NSW was the small Riverena town of Urana.

The diarama of sheep, shepherd, and horse at the southern end of town is a unique piece of street art.

The picnic area on the lake is the perfect place for barrista made coffee for morning tea.

Across the Murray River, I was soon in North East Victoria, on the edge of the Australian Alps, in the cool autumn air of the King and Goulburn River Valleys.

It was an easy run home through the hills to end a little 11 day tour out to the edge of the outback.

Back on the edge of the Outback -1

You really know you are back in the outback when you find emus running down the main street of the town.

I’d spent the night at the pub in Nymagee on my way to the Macquarie Marshes, a 198sqkm oasis in the dry plains of North West NSW.

The fact that you are in the Outback is reinforced when you confront a road train at a water crossing!

I set up camp in Coolabah Gum woodland opposite the woolshed at Willie Retreat about 5km from the southern end of the Macquarie Marshes.

The woodland was home to a beautiful selection of small woodland birds.

The oldest known Coolabah gum is 300+ years old. The Coolabahs in this woodland were old and gnarled with plenty of hollows to form homes for the little birds.

The next day, I woke to a beautiful outback dawn…

And headed down to marshes.

In the light of the day, the small birds were flittering around, catfish were jumping, waders were hunting, and the pelicans rode high on the thermal updrafts.

As the sun went down, the mood and colours changed.

Across the water, a crafty fox was keeping an eye on me.

The Birruma Boardwalk is 25km north od Willie Retreat and provides a way of walking through the, otherwise, impenetrable reeds and across the top of the boggy marshes.

A further 50km up.the road, at the northern end of the Marshes, is the town of Carinda famous for cotton growing and for having tge pub where David Bowie’s Lets Dance film clip was recorded.

Follow the link to see inside the pub.

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VbD_kBJc_gI&si=kveFHCryACAg-peb

Above is the outside! So lets dance!!!!!