Days 109 - 110 Island Bend

This Christmas was different compared to any other Christmas I've experienced during my life so far. Staying in a tent on a camping ground in a national park. No traditional Finnish Christmas meal, no presents, no Santa Claus (Heinrich has a beard of a Santa but wrong colour).

Christmas eve... I prepared pancakes for the breakfast. A lot of pancakes. It took quite a lot of time but it was worth it. I took a ride to the village to make our Christmas dinner shopping which ment mostly meat. At the parking lot I met other bikers. While chatting with a guy an Estonian guy appeared with his friend. He's been living in Australia for five years and according to his own words has seen "only a little part of the trails you can ride here". It seems Annie's type is quite rarely seen here because the people really ask a lot of questions about it and say: "oh, this is the old model of Africa Twin. I'd love to have one but they are so expensive."

After the shopping trip we took a Christmas bath/swim in the river. The water was so cold! But we had to get to the other side to collect firewood for making dinner. Getting the wood was the easier part compared to chopping it with Heinrich's saw. But eventually we had a pile of firewood and we started to prepare our dinner. And it was good! Potatoes, steaks, beans with bacon. The rest of the evening we sat next to the fire just chatting.






On Christmas day morning we packed everything. It was cold as hell, maybe around 7 degrees and it was raining. But we had decided to take a hike to the highest point of Australia. It was about 25 km ride to the car park and then 9 km walk to the peak. Walking at the service road was easy and the views on the way and on the top were amazing. We found snow on the way which felt a bit bizarre as I came all the way to Australia for warm weather and away from snow. It seems I didn't quite succeed. Luckily the weather had turned very nice during our walk.





We had light lunch on the top and decided to take a loop back to the car park. That was totally different compared to the way up! Narrow path went up and down the mountains. Crossing snow and rivers. Climbing up the hills and in the end a 100m rise in 700 meters. After that I literally thought I'd die. Heart rate was around 200 and every piece of my body was in pain. We were in an altitude of about 1800 meters so the air was really thin. Lack of oxygen caused a constant feeling of losing breath. But we made it!

After getting back to the camp ground we just made dinner and sat the evening next to the fire. It was just impossible to do anything bigger. I have to admit the hike was definitely worth the pain. The views were so beautiful. Too bad photos don't do justice for the sceneries. Enjoy the views!














Kommentit

Lähetä kommentti

Tämän blogin suosituimmat tekstit

Kouvola-Simo-Kautokeino-North Cape-Inari-Kuusamo-Joensuu-Kouvola

Kuva
I've been thinking about a trip to Lapland and Norway for a long time already. I've visited Lapland nearly every other year for years but haven't been to Norway for about 35 years. Naturally I cannot remember much of that trip. My original plan for this summer was to ride to Pamir highway but due lack of time and money I had to postpone the trip and stay a little closer to Finland. I knew I could use about a week for the trip so Nordkapp became the goal. As some of you might have seen in Instagram this time I'm not traveling alone. I'm accompanied by my good friend, my youngest son's godfather Riku with his KTM 950 adventure S. We share some of the equipment to save some weight. The trip began on Saturday morning. The first task was to ride through Finland. As we knew we cannot waste too much time on the way northbound we took the fastest (the most boring) route by highway 4 (E75) to Oulu. Damn it really is a boring route to ride. If you're riding thro
Lue lisää

Days 137 - 140 Toronto (- Guyra) - Toronto - Sydney - Los Angeles

Kuva
Sunday was unbelievably hard day. We started in the morning with Duncan to get the bike from Guyra. It was hit already then! And it got worse during the day. A lot worse! In that heat air conditioning would have been great. In addition to physical hardness the day was mentally hard as seeing the bike brought back the situation I fell. Let's see what it feels when I get on a bike again. John from Guyra Towing gave to give us the bike. Together we lifted it on the trailer and secured (yes, with ropes) it. We were extremely lucky that Annie was short enough to fit in without removing front wheel. And of we went to Toronto with no other trouble than the heat. Ivan from Bikes Abroad has a deal with a company called Pro Bike in Sydney. They pack customer's bikes in old BMW crates and deliver the bikes to the airport or harbour depending on the situation. At Pro Bike I faced bad customer service for the first time in Australia. Those guys really made it clear that
Lue lisää

New adventure awaits!

Kuva
New adventure awaits. I've done a huge job with Annie during the last summer and winter. All the covers got painted etc. The biggest problem after the crash was in the front. Both front tubes and triangles were bent. Luckily I found a second hand front end at eBay. Ordering stuff from Italy seemed like a bed idea but fortunately it worked fine. So after a very busy "last minute evening" I finally managed to get Annie on the road last September. I rode to meet a couple of other Finnish overlanders about a hundred kilometers from my home. After the test ride it was time to call it a winter and get back on working with the bike. She turned out to look great and the front suspension works better than before the crash. I suppose it was a little bent already when I got the bike. I also installed new tires. This time I'll test Mitas E-07 both front and rear. We'll see if they last as long as Heidenau k60
Lue lisää