Around Australia on a Yamaha Road Star

The stint from Scarborough to Margaret River was the shortest day of the Around Australia Ride at 290kms.  But despite leaving Scarborough at 9:00am I didn’t pull into Margaret River until 5:30pm that night.  So what did I get up to on this shortest of days?

Fremantle Gaol

My Road Star turns 100,000kms old

It was while I moving to the south of Perth that the mighty Yamaha Road Star, that I bought new in 1999, turned 100,000kms.  100k, it’s a bit of an achievement a lot of riders don’t see on a single bike.  And for me what better way to celebrate it during this, my 20th year of motorcycling and while riding around Australia.  Over the last two decades, and by the end of this trip, my Road Star and I will have seen every Australian state and with the exception of Darwin have been to every capital city.  It’s been a long road for us together and with a bit of luck there will be a goodly amount of kilometres to go.

Cape Bouvard Winery

Male Bag Riders

After the Thrombolites we went in search of lunch and on the way passed some Male Bag Riders.  You read that correctly, a bunch of guys riding postie bikes along the highway. The Male Bag Ride started today on the 23rd and they are going from Perth to Adelaide raising money for prostate cancer research.  You can read more about them at the Male Bag Ride website. Oh and if the three riders I took the photo of could forgive me for almost killing us all as the postie bikes could only do 80kmh and next thing I knew there was a huge truck in my mirrors.  Sorry about that, fellas.

Busselton Jetty

The day was getting a bit long in the tooth, but Wes and the boys were quite keen to get to Cape Naturaliste that was not too much further up the road.  After much consulting of maps and tapping at GPS screens we finally got underway and then technology promptly told Wes to turn in the wrong direction (yeah, technology’s fault…).  10kms down the road he realised the error of his (technology’s”) ways and started to turn around.  For me the sun was getting lower on the horizon and I was very much wanting to get on the Caves Road to Margaret River which is purported to be quite a decent bit of tarmac, so I waved the lads goodbye and went on my own way to Yalingup.

Come hither, yon twisted road,
for I would take measure of thee.

Toasty

A new kind of scenery