I am retrospectively writing about the beginning of the trip.  I have made it to Darwin and sent the bike off to Timor-Leste and now I have a few down days to catch up on life and try to work out the next step. The chaos of the preparations, the build-up, and the anticipation left me utterly drained by the time I left and I didn’t start writing for a while along my trip. In my mind though, the trip northward up the east coast of Australia is divided into two distinctive parts, Melbourne to Queensland and Queensland to the Cape.

The first half of the trip is dominated by one overwhelming sensation, cold. Writing this in 33°C heat in Darwin, my brain can barely conceive that I was absolutely freezing only a couple of months ago, but it was intensely cold! Getting into my sleeping bag each evening was all I could look forward to each day and even sitting up in an attempt to write send tendrils of icy cold air into my sleeping bag. I ended up reading my Kindle most nights, with a single finger poked outside the sleeping bag to tap to the next page.

The trip started with Ben and Liam accompanying me in a guard of honour out of Melbourne for the first week. In true style, I just had to do a final pack on the last day, which should have only taken a couple of hours by my reckoning….. so of course, we left after dark. We got out of Melbourne and put a couple of hours of riding in to get up into the mountains, then stopped for a generous pub meal to warm up and steel our spirits. Heading back out away from the fire was challenging and by the time we were setting up camp a couple of hours later, it was -2°C!

We explored the low country of Victoria for a week, trying to find the balance the mountains for the curves and dirt trails against trying to stay at low enough altitude that we didn’t freeze. We’ve been exploring this area for years, doing a summer trip every year, with an eye to shaking down the bike for this trip, as well as for our own pure enjoyment. We found some more amazing lookouts and revisited some of our favourite places. It was really nice to start the trip so comfortably, with good mates and plenty of joking around and bike testing.

This ended at the top of Mount Buffalo for a suitably dramatic final farewell as a huge storm swept in. Liam headed home, with the storm chasing him down, while Ben and I sheltered in a B’n’B nearby, waiting out the storm and watching it break spectacularly over the valley.

The next day we headed up in to Falls Creek, wanting to ride the highest road in Victoria together! A couple of hours later we were deeply regretting this decision. Freezing cold, riding through snow and sleet, huddled into the seat, losing feeling in our fingers and listening to Ben complain through the intercom as his heated grips slowly failed and battery died. We made it to Falls Creek town and ran into the café to get hot drinks and food, slowly warming up just before the café closed and kicked us out half an hour later. At least we got to frolic in the snow though.

Once Ben headed back to Melbourne, I struck north with pace, trying to outrun the cold. My memories really are a blur of freezing nights, rainy days and huddled coffees. The blue mountains really stand out though, for good and bad reasons. I waited and explored the fog and frost for three days while I waited for a break in the weather. But when it finally came, it was absolutely worth it. Then I forged north once again.

I have a distinct memory of the last day in NSW. I woke up early near Casino so that I could make it to the Gold Coast to meet a mate. It was freezing cold, frosty, overcast and I was wearing every item of clothing I had as I loaded up the bike and headed off. By the time I got to the Gold Coast at 11, it was 25°C and sunny and as soon as I stopped, I stripped down to a T-shirt. I am ashamed to say that in a moment of weakness, I can totally understand why people move to Queensland!