Fourth Report

Some Personal Achievements

Marcelo
Longest showers, most wee stops, and never to be allowed to lead again. He shot up to well above the speed limit and could not be caught. Good luck on your long solo ride home mate. We will miss you and our muttimeter (read on!)

Fish
Fish is our shield against all that goes wrrong, because it all happpens to him.. Dropped his bike in a car park on the way to Omeo, had his CB fall onn the road at 110 km/h, broke his tent pole, n got chased by the cops at Woolongong.. He has spilled a glass of red on Marcelo, and today set fire to his bike.. While he is around, we are safe. Fish has excelled himself even further. while sitting around having breakfast at Rockhampton, a Noisy Miner (bird) flew out of a tree, circled over Fish, crapped on his head, and flew back into the tree. We tried to explain that it means good luck, but he's not convinced!

Steve
Our own "Captain Slow". Dropped his bike in a car park at Keith, and has had two goes at gettingit to run well. All is OK now. Steve also got attacked by a Kookaburra near Sale. It came out of a tree when were doing 100km/h, hit his helmet, and went back to his tree. Who knows what it would have done to him it it had got him into the tree!!

Pete
Snores like you would not believe, and keeps forgetting to lock his top box, threatening to spread his most valuables all along the highway. I needed to stop to change a battery in my com-set and having unloaded every piece of luggage on teh side of the road, couldn't find one. I knew I had them. After 10 frustrating minutes, I gave up, and Fish found the spare in my first bag that he looked in. (He insisted that I inlcude that piece of trivia)

Tuesday 24th March - Singleton to Armidale (Mild Disaster Day)
After a early night and an early morning we headed off. As we were stopping for breakfast, Fish got a bit excited as smoke poured from his left side switch block, as the headlight circut burned out. Steve got him going again and we decided to head for Armidale, the biggest town likely to have the necessary parts to make permenant repairs.. A good look during a long lunch sttoop failed tto find the problem. We have arrived at Armiidale at about 6.00 after a most beautiful ride for 180 km along a vallley stretching from Maitland to Armidale and known at Buckets Way and Thunderbolts Way. Steve and Fish are trying to fix the bike as I update the blogg, do the shopping and get tea going. Despite the problems, its been a fantastiic day and we remain in high spirits.. Fish's bike is mobile, but the headlight doesn'tt work, and there is a deep and well concealed electriical problem.

Monday 23rd March - Woolongong to Singleton
All we wanted to do was bypass Sydney, but the road around was utterly stunnng. Found a beautiful lookout in the Blue Mounttains National Park overlooking the Nepan River, and then set off on the Putty Road, one of the best M/Cycle roads in NSW. It lived up to its reputation and was a great 180 km ride. Half way we stopped at a beaut little Tea Room where we had carrot cake and tea.. Very civilliize. Pizza for tea at Singleton, an the weather continues to be good to us,, with clear skies and 30 degrees.