Weekend Getaway

Right in the middle of the winter (August 1-3), we decided it would be a fantastic idea to take ourselves up north for a little motorcycle tour. We booked two nights in two different places, took a Friday off of work, and headed out on the open road for a few days! It's definitely a blessing to be able to ride in Australia all year round (at least in New South Wales), and Friday was gloriously warm! We started out by leaving Sydney around 8:00am with plans to take the Pacific Highway up to Port Macquarie, stay there the night, take the long way round to Hunter Valley, and then head back to Sydney Sunday morning.

The first leg of the journey was fantastic. We took periodic stops along the way, including breakfast at a dive trucker stop (and the best coffee I've had since we got to Australia!) and a stop at the National Motorcycle Museum. We wanted to get to this place called the Koala and Kangaroo Park, a small-ish zoo that, I think, is pretty popular because it's one of the few parks you can actually touch (but not hold) a koala, and feed wallabies and kangaroos. Might I mention that, up till this point (and despite having visited a place called 'Kangaroo Valley') we had not seen any kangaroos at all in Australia yet! We were under the impression that we'd be spotting them all the time, but alas, the marsupial population has proven to be ever-elusive. Until now! I'm proud to say that we have finally seen, touched and fed Kangaroos in Australia. I'm sad to say, however, that the first number of kangaroos we saw in Australia came in the less-than-living form of roadkill. But let's not dwell on mortality -- on to the pictures!

Rob checking our route on Google Maps at breakfast at around 9:00am Friday. I'm about to drink my fantasy coffee

Rob stopping for a photo op before we head back on the open road

We saw signs for this place on the highway, and obviously we had to stop

It's a lot more inspirational when you know what you're looking at, I guess...

...but I was just blown away by the shear number of bikes and accessories that were crammed in here

This was insanely cool, though.

A kind of blurry photo of me scratching a koala's back at the Koala and Kangaroo Park.

 

The only koala we saw that was actually moving around. (I want one!)

These wallabies were so cute... (I want one of these, too!)

Rob attracted some kangaroos who actually managed to share.

Usually, the kangargoos were the bullies and pushed the other animals away while you tried to feed them

This little girl had all kinds of extra baggage in her pouch. I was cool to see them hop around even with a joey in their pouch

The park had other animals, too, like this pair of female Red Pandas that we saw at feeding time (I also want one!)

A giant Gator ... look at those teeth! I think there's a relation...

Penguins

Turtles, including the really weird looking Snake Necked Turtle

And an over-sized guinea pig (wombat)

We booked one night's stay in the small town of Port Macquarie at a B&B called Anchors. This is literally the first time in my life I have stayed in a B&B, and if this place was any measure of what to expect from B&B's, I'm hooked! It was lovely with a great location about a 4 minutes walk from the beach - and not just any beach, oh no, this was probably the most beautiful beach I've ever seen... and I've been to a handful of beautiful tropical beaches! It just went on forever and the beach had such a gradual slope into the water that you could easily go for a walk in the water with no worries about it getting too deep too fast. And the sand! It was so white it squeaked!  No, honestly, the sand ligitimately squeezed every time you took a step. Weird.

We bought a couple of beers from the local bottle shop and headed down to sit by the ocean and watch the world go by before heading back to our place to change for dinner. Dinner was utterly disappointing, so we won't talk about that...

A panorama of Lighthouse Beach as the sun set behind the trees. This one deserve a 'click to enlarge'

Rob enjoying some lovely local "Australian Ale"

The lighthouse for which the beach is named is just visible on the distant rock outcropping

Just chilling in the Pacific Ocean.

While the day had been a balmy 25 degress, it got to the low single digits over night and one thing you quickly realize about Australian construction is that it's meant to be drafty, so the air flows through when it's hot, and not to keep cold air out. So, when it gets cold, the house gets cold, too. We had to huddle under the blankets to stay warm, but couldn't complain about anything else. We were awoken by the unmistakeable call of Kookaburras and after a great little complimentary breakfast and conversation with our fellow B&B companions, Diane and Chris, we bundled up and headed out on the next leg of our journey.

Apparently we didn't bundle up enough, though....

The morning's ride was absolutely breath-taking and saw us through national park land, winding mountainous roads, rolling pasture, and picturesque valleys. However, the cold was the kind that seeped into our bones and by lunch time, we were huddled in a town shop in Walcha next to a wood stove amending our route to get to our destination as fast as possible. The locals were very friendly and handy with a few words of advice on routes. So, we headed south to try to get to Hunter Valley as soon as possible.

On the way, we spotted a sign reading something like "goat cheese tasting here" and thought we couldn't pass that up! I'm so glad we made the stop at the New England Cheese place. Not only was it gloriously warm inside this quaint little dairy farm perched on top of a dusty hill, but the cheese was delicious, the people were super friendly, and we had amazing, hot peppered goat pies for lunch. Also, we got to meet their cute puppy dogs and I even got to hold a little premature baby goat that was only 2 days old!

Just one example of the awesome roads and views we had the whole day. If anyone wants to donate a helmet-mounted GoPro, we could be filming all the time and you wouldn't miss anything! But as is, it's hard to photograph while on a bike.

2-day-old Kid and it's very protective mother

I got to hold the Kid while Mama was all like "hey, where'd my baby go?!"

Right before it peed on me...

The view out the door of the Cheesery

We say goodbye to John, the bloke who's been an investment banker his whole life, but making goat cheese with his wife for 20 years. What a nice guy he was! And before anyone asks, no, that's not Rila on the porch, but he definitely reminded me of her (we definitely spent some time petting the puppies)!

Before saying our goodbyes and heading out, we slapped on another layer of clothes, hoping to keep a little warmth in our bodies... but that was not to be. By the time we reached Hunter Valley and Potters Brewery and Hotel (the place we were staying), we were verging on hypothermia. I know what you're thinking: "And these people call themselves Canadian *scoff scoff*" but I don't think I've ever been that cold riding through the cold air at 125...*ehem*...100km/h for hours on end. I wish we could've taken the time to enjoy the area a bit more, since it's one of NSW's premiere wine regions, and the place we stayed at is a working brewery, but instead we spent an hour in the hot shower trying to get warm.

Once we finally braved the outside world again, we enjoyed an extremely tasty dinner and micro-brew beer at the Potters Bar, and the world was once more a happy place! I wanted to try their Ginger beer, but sadly they were all out.

Another early morning, and Rob and I had a competition to see who could put on the most layers of clothing and still be able to a) get our bike jackets on and b) actually be able to swing our legs over the motorcycle and two side cases to get on the thing.... I think I managed 2 tank tops, 2 sweaters, the armored jacket with liner, a scarf, 3 pairs of pants, leg warmers, two pairs of socks, shoes, thinsulate leather gloves and my helmet. I was not going to freeze twice! We headed back to Sydney after a quick breakfast and got home in the early afternoon.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend full of perfect winding roads and gasp-worthy scenery. Next time, though, we will make very sure we dress for the weather.

Oh, and here're some videos, too, just for fun!