Into Tuscany

Mid September 2024, Storm Boris was brewing on the Adriatic Sea, making the best path south to Civitavechia and the ferry to Tunisia over the mountains via Bologna into Tuscany.

And it’s beautiful hilltop towns and cities.

One of the most spectacular of the hill top cities is San Gimignano

It’s popular to visit but not as busy as nearby Florence that I visited back in 2022.

In the city, it’s all walking and full of activity.

Across a little valley from San Gimignano there’s a campground in the little village of Santa Lucia

With a terrace where you can watch a balloon rise over San Gimignano.

As it was coming to the end of the season, so finding a place to camp at Principina a Mare right near the beach.

The beach at Principina has amazing beach shelters made from driftwood.

Out of Tuscany and into Lazio, there was time for a lunchtime time stop in Tarquinia.

That night it was the ferry to Tunisia.

But before then a stop in the Australian summer.

London’s Cathedral of Motorbikes

The Ace Cafe is the true Cathederal of Motorcycles. Founded in 1938 its been the go to place for motorbikes through many iterations of the art of motorcycling.

On a fine Sunday, all those iterations can be seen in Ace’s car park. Custom bikes, lovingly restored classics, and the latest models are all there.

It’s a place where you can get a good feed, a pint, or a cup of tea and wander around the bikes and chat with other bikers.

And modern bikes, maybe even a bargain.

For a biker visiting London the Ace Cafe is a Pilgrimage

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.

A visit to Gariwerd ( The Grampians)

Gariwerd, in Victoria, is the southwestern tip of the Great Dividing Range that runs 3,500 km up the east coast of Australia.

Its a beautiful place for riding the back roads, walking in beautiful bushland, and taking in the views from mountain top lookouts.

Geriward is also a place of significance for Australian Aboriginals. There are over 200 sites of Aboriginal Rock art in Gariwerd. It has the largest number of rock art sites in southern Australia.

Gariwerd can be translated as meaning Mountains created by Bunjil. Bunjil is part of the Aboriginal creation story.

I visited a couple of sites on this trip.

‘Bunjil shelter’ is the only known representation of Bunjil with two dingo helpers.

Ngamadjidj is another site that is accessible.

The art is generally found in rocky outcops in Gariwerd.

There are beautiful walks through the forests…

To waterfalls…

And mountain top views…

For the motorcyclist, the riding both on and off road is excillerating.

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.