How should have been any different I was the first to drop my bike
As soon as we had finished the track the question popped up how to we go back to the campground? We could have done a big detour through Hobart or we could just go back. One more time in the other direction! This time I crashed while driving slow but luckily Nathan took photos























We tried to use a sidetrack but we had to go back and had some problems getting the heavy bikes of Hannes and me back up.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

But we did the track in the other direction as well. Thanks to Nathan and Hannes for the patience with me.























We spend the evening with a bunch of backpackers Hannes and Nathan knew from work.





The next day I went to Bruny Island. The ferry was only 5$ a fair price you can't complain about.





On Bruny Island drove past a bay with lots of withe things sticking out of the water at low tied.





I stopped, had a look, picked fresh oysters. Perfect a free ingredient for my dinner was save.









At the next morning I took the ferry back and my plan was to go straight to Cockle Creek to camp there.





But on the way I saw a sign next to the road "Thermal Spring" and I thought why not? They wanted 5$ entrance fee but I could not find a single picture showing the pool, but I thought I risk it. Biggest disappointment ever, just a normal swimming pool ...
But Cockle Creek was beautiful.





Here is where Australia's most southern road ends and so it is the most southern point I have ever been.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

I haven't had a campfire for a really long time because there were fire bans everywhere but not here, perfect chance to have one again.
The next two days I spend back at the campground in Huonville but I haven't done much in this days.











Saturday I went back to Hobart and stayed two more nights at Bob's place.
Sunday morning I went on a tour to Lake Pedder with Roland, a friend of Bob, and some other bikers. Awesome roads but for Tasmania it was unbelievable hot that day – up to 38°C.















Monday morning I left Hobart to go to the west coast. It was not real a long distance to Queenstown but it took its time because the road is really winding. Halfway through it started to rain and it got uncomfortable cold – down to 10°C. At that stage I thought I smell smoke, not a 100m further on I could see why, a fire on both sides of the road – at this kind of weather...







In one of the last bends going into Queenstown there was oil or something like that on the road and my back wheel slipped away. Luckily I was going really slow so nothing happened to me but I got a little bend into my rear sub frame and into the pillions foot peg. Should not be too bad.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

The next day I wanted to ride to tracks but the first one was closed because of the fire and I tried to do the second one but it was to muddy for me.



So I only did a short ride into Strahan and found a nice spot to camp.





I could even light a fire again









The next morning I used the beach close to my campground for another beach ride, was good fun again. But this time I found something that is really interesting on the beach: a whale's jawbone, 1 meter longer than my bike!







Back in Strahan I met a few other bikers and started to chat with them about riding around in Tassie. Turned out they tried to ride the closed Western Explorer, a road I still wanted to do, but they had to go all the way back because there was no way of getting a bike through. I decided to go to the direction of the Western Explorer anyway but then use an alternative road from Corinna.



To get into Corinna you have to cross a river with a barge, but I couldn't get a clue how much I had to pay out of the sign. So I asked the barge operator how the sign meant to be understood. He answer: "I am new at the job and I haven't understand it jet."





For the night I found a lovely rest area at the Hellyer Gorge right in the rainforest.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

From Hellyer Gorge I went to the not so far away Hall Point. My plan was to see penguins and this was one of the spots where they nest.



But first I tried myself as Andy Warhol - wasn't that successful



I put my tent up and started waiting for the penguins.*



But no penguins showed up. Even two hours after dawn no sign of them. That's when I lost interest in waiting any longer and went to bed.*



At 2 in the morning I was woken up by loud penguin chattering but it was cold and I was to lazy to stand up again
At the next morning when I was taking down my tent the local ranger came by an asked me if I had not seen the big sign behind my tent that camping was not permitted? – "No!" - "Ahh ... that's all right"



Because I had not seen the big lakes of Tassie yet I decided to go inland again. On my way I stoped at the Liffey Falls one of the World Heritage areas in Tassie – beautiful spot.









From there I went up into the highlands, around the biggest lake and back down into the lower eastern north.*



I had chosen a nice camping spot right next to the Liffey River in Brachnell.



I had just finished putting my tent up when I got a message from Chris like that: Mate we are having a birthday BBQ come around you are close! I had a look on the map – he was right. After 5 min of thinking I decided to take my tent back down and have a short ride
The morning after the party Chris asked me if I would be interested in serious trail bike riding – for sure I was. I got Chris's Yamaha WR450 and he went on his Husqvarna TE610.



I had never been on such a bike before but Chris did a good job on showing me how to use it.*







It was great fun and I was amazed of what these bikes are capable but it was also absolutely exhausting.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Sunday we went Festivale in Launceston, a mixture of street art und gourmet food – I left it full and entertained.*







On the way back Chris showed me how offroad capable his car is by using some of the tracks we had done to the trail bikes the day before.*



http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MricMv9tRB...220_092318.mp4

Monday I went into Launceston to get a new front tyre for my bike. Wasn't as easy as I expected it to be because neither a motorcycle dealer nor the wholesaler had the Conti TKC80 I wanted in stock or could order it in time. So went back without a new tyre and only bought breaking fluid. In the evening Chris showed me how easy it is to change the break fluid.*







When we were done with the breaks Chris mentioned he had a used Metzler tyre he would not need anymore. We put it on, front tyre problem solved - thanks Chris!!!



On Tuesday I went on short test ride. The new front tyre work perfectly, way better than the old K60 Front. And because I was already on the road I decided to visit the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania.*















On Wednesday it was time for a final goodbye to the Pedersen family because I was going back to the mainland. This time the ferry trip was at night and I had company by Nathan.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Thursday we went off the ferry, still slightly hangover, and went straight up to Bright to the Adventure Travel Film Festival. We used a route I got from David, lots of small winding roads and remote gravel tracks.*















Short before we reached Bright we had to turn around because the road was completely blocked by a tree and there was no way to get around or above it.
Our alternative road was a longer detour and so it got late until we arrived in Bright and Naz was already waiting for us. I shared a nice campsite right at the river with both of them to save some money.





Friday morning was the official start of the festival. Nathan and Naz both signed up as volunteers to get a free ticket. I had already bought a ticket but I decided to volunteer as well just to get not bored. But I was mainly fooling around.















Great weekend, I have seen lots of inspiring movies and spoken to so many interesting people.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Monday we went further on into the high country.*



Nathan and I used good and bad gravel roads to get into New South Wales.*













In the evening just before dusk we arrived at the concerted campgroung Tom Groggins to meet Naz and Alaine(from the festival as well).

















The next morning we all rode together until Jindabyne where we had a lunch break at the lake.*





Nathan and I went down the Barry Way to get back to the coast.*



On this road there are some "places" with real strange names like Suggan Buggan or Seldom Seen.*



We went to a camp at McKillops Bridge for a overnight stay. The place was a little bit scary because it was completely covered in smoke from a fire close by.*







As soon as it started getting dark possums surrounded us. We had some drinks siting at a bench when one of the possums got really close to us without us noticing. It squeaked loud right next to us and we were both so frightened that we screamed like little girls
Wednesday morning we went back the way we came in and followed from Buchan more and more boring roads to Lakes Entrance for a lunch brake.*

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Nathans Plan was to stay in a hostel in Maffra to find work. Because the weather forecast was showing a thunderstorm for the evening I decided to stay at the hostel for one night as well.
The next day I went down to Phillips Island to watch the Superbikes. Matt had offered me a free ticked on ADV (great isn't it?) and I had never been to a motorcycle race before - perfect chance.



















On Friday I met Billy again a bloke I had met in Bright the weekend before. He is travelling with a surfboard attached to his bike so he is attracting attention pretty quick
The weekend was awesome! It started a little bit chilly at first but the weather improved massively on Sunday for the final race day.

















Monday morning I left the race track an first went to the Nobbies on Phillips Island and then from there back to Melbourne.*



Paul from ADV had offered me accommodation in Elsternwick a Suburb of Melbourne

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

After I got all parts for a bike service on Monday I started working on it on Tuesday. I had to do an oil change and I got a new air filter as well.







Paul got me a new bolt for the shock, because this is a known weak point of the F 800 GS. My bolt wasn't bend yet but replaced it anyway with the stronger one.





In the afternoon I went into the CBD of Melbourne. This time I did not use my bike to get there I used the public transport instead – easy and fast
Arriving at Flinders Station I used some small alleys parallel and next to Elizabeth St. After I bought some gear I needed I continued walking around looking at buildings and stuff.













On Wednesday I went one more time into the city this time by bike. First I drove to Williamstown from where you have a perfect view to the CBD – if the weather would have been good
Then I went to a bike store to get a new spar front tube because I pinched the old one replacing the front tire ...
While driving through the city I saw a Döner Kebab store – I had to stop and test Germanys most favoured fast food in Australia. Result: not bad, but way too much and because of that too expensive.
I went on to the Yarra Bend Park a green oasis right in the middle of town, although you cannot say the rest of Melbourne is not green. The Yarra Bend is full of flying foxes, thousands of them a hanging in the trees and they make a hell of a row.













Thursday was an office day and I did not do anything else.
Paul took a day off on Friday to go on a ride with me. It is always great for me to have a local "tour guide" who shows me places I would have never found by my own.
From Melbourne we went on paved roads to Marysville where we stoped for lunch.



From there on we had dirt roads for the rest of the day. First we rode to Woods Point and stoped for a .

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Then we went on to Walhalla a historical mining town where we camped for the night.







Because we camped right next to the historical cemetery we had to have a look at the next morning.









Before we left I pumped up my front tier a little bit but I did not actually check the pressure. When we went on it felt really strange so I stopped to check the pressure but Paul mentioned it wasn't the front it was the back wheel – completely flat. I went on the flat tire for a few hundred metres to get to a clearance, what work surprisingly good
The cause of the flat was quickly found – a nail. Now I knew why I was carrying those bulky spar tubes in my luggage all the time. And luckily I had an experienced tier changer by my side. So Paul and I had changed the tube quickly and the bike was on the road again.







We went on to Dargo and from there to Talbotville campsite where we stayed for the night.







The next morning started with a little bit of sweat. Paul F 800 GS had a flat battery so we had to push it up a hill to try a roll start – worked first time. Good to know!
Together we went on until we reached the Great Alpine Road. That's when I said goodbye to Paul. He had to go back to Melbourne and I went on the little town Orbost at the Snowy River.







For Monday my destination was to be at Steves house in Numeralla a little bit after lunchtime.
My plan was to use a back road to get to there but the road was closed because of a bushfire. So I had to use the main highway but it was still a nice scenic ride.



When I arrived at Steves I told him about some strange behaviour from one of my forks. The last time I took the wheel out one of the forks went down a little bit. We disassembled the fork to have a look what's wrong.
The inner part of the cap unscrewed from the rest so the spring wasn't attached to the cap anymore. It seems I did not tighten the locking nut enough when I changed the springs ...
We checked the other fork as well, tightened up the nut a little bit and filled some more oil in it.





At fixing my forks we went trail bike riding on Steve's property to mark an enduro track.







On Tuesday Steve showed another visitor and me the surrounding area with his 4WD. We went to some summits and used rough forestry tracks to get there.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Wednesday Steve guided me around on his bike.



First we went from Numeralla to an abandoned gold mining village and from there to Braidwood for lunch using forest tracks.
Short before we arrived in Braidwood Steve had a flat back tire on his DR650.











Because the tire started to disintegrate on the inside we had to stop two more times to the end of the trip to fix it.





Thursday I went to the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) to visit the capital Canberra.
I spend most of the time at the War Memorial because I used the offer of a guided tour and it was really interesting.









I drove around Parliament House, through the embassies district and up to a lookout on one of the mountains.







On Friday a motorcycle suspension workshop started at Steve's.



The suspension specialist Frank and the first customer Rowan already arrived the evening before so I spend some time watching Franks work until the weather improved.





I wanted to reach the Wombeyan Caves for that day on a track a got from Steve the day before.



When I arrived I saw the highest number of roos I had seen so far.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

Saturday I drove into Sydney.



My host Matt wasn't in town for the weekend but his other guest Carlo and Matts dogs were there to let me in.
On Sunday morning I used my bike to get into the CBD and parked it in the Botanic Garden / The Domain to have a walk around.















On Monday I went into the city again but this time by train.











First I just walked around but then I discovered a free-guided city walking tour.



I saw places and head stories I wound never seen or heard of on my own. I can highly recommend those tours and make sure to give the guide a tip.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012

uesday I made use of the warm weather and took the ferry boat to get to Manly Beach (by the way best low budget harbour cruse you can get).



















The beach a Manly isn't that popular as the famous Bondi Beach but there are less people.











On Wednesday it was time for some equipment maintenance. Who gets the link between those two?



Thursday morning I went into the city again to spend some more time wandering around in the botanic garden.

















From there I went on to Chinatown and had a real delicious Japanese lunch.





In the afternoon it was bike service time again. The F 800 GS needed new rear brake pads and the chain kit needed a change as well.

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Nordkapp 2011
The Alps 2012