When most people our age go on holiday or backpacking it is a fun pastime to hire a 50cc moped and ride around a city as fast as possible. I thought I would give this a try but on something a little more... Adult..
I had booked to hire a Suzuki Vstorm for a day however when I arrived they asked about my age and licence and said I couldn't have it (this was fair enough as it was double the power I am allowed on my licence.) so they gave me its little brother. Same size engine just less power. we left our couch surf promptly at 7:30 for a 38minute trip across Melbourne. Long story short we arrived at the hire shop at 9:20... We drove around madly to find somewhere to park the car and eventually did.
It was then a 5 minute walk back to the bike shop to collect our machine and helmets etc. After all the bits had been done to ensure that I not steal the bike I hopped on to acclimatise myself to the bike before a big load of Laura go on the back. First impressions were good it was new so very smooth and being a 650cc single cylinder it had bucket loads of torque. Anyway Laura jumped on the back and we headed out to this amazing road we have heard so much about.
After 40minutes we stopped at a servo which by complete chance had an information centre at it! We had a chat about where we were going and jumped back on the highway. Not having a GPS did make things difficult but once we got closer the ocean road was advertised. The road went from a 4 lane highway to 2 lanes then after a roundabout it was single lane. Not quite what I was expecting as I could see a straight strip of Tarmac to the horizon but I lived with it as I could see the sea in the distance. Eventually we rode under an arch that said ocean road,
rather quickly it started getting twisty and rather quickly I caught up on a car it was a Honda accord doing walking pace. A short straight bit of road and that was dealt with swiftly only for 3 corners later I would sit behind a minibus for 10 minutes. So far it had been a rather expensive morning for not much in return. Eventually the bus pulled over to let me and the que of traffic past. The road started to narrow and trees started to cast a tunnel over the road. After a couple of minutes the road opened up with a fantastic ocean view.
Cliffs on our right and blue ocean on our left. I rolled on the throttle to hear that glorious engine thundering off the cliffs and the occasional tunnel. There was then a caution sign saying hairpin corners for 43km. Perfect. The dreams of this road became a reality winding up the shoreline through mountains it was glorious! After 100km or so we stopped for lunch at an American V8 cafe. They had some lovely classic cars including an Aston Martin DB5 (I'm sure it was a replica). We had a lovely pork and gravy roll and jumped back on the bike. A little later on we stopped in a lovely town to pick up a couple of bits, postcards etc. I heard this incredible noise coming up the road I had no idea what it was. Anyway it rolled up and parked right in front of me. As it turned out it was a genuine 1927 Bugatti Type 35! He was out on a jolly roaring around the ocean road. It was stunning.
We watched him roar off up the road and we did likewise but the other way. Now heading back home as we had to get the bike back. The road back was just as good as the way down and soon we were blasting back on the boring highway. We arrived back in Melbourne in rush hour traffic but this didn't phase us as we were on the bike and being in Victoria it's not illegal to filter through traffic like it is in New South Wales! We got back to the bike shop I dropped Laura off and I went around the corner to fill up with fuel. A whole day cost $22 in fuel! I expressed to the manager that the bike wasn't suitable for touring as we both had rather numb backsides! But it was good anyway!
Now linking back to the beginning of the blog. Our car. Never before have I ever lost my car but Melbourne looks very different at night and we couldn't remember where on earth we left it!! A good hour later we stumbled across it! Success! We got in and left for home. Reminiscing about the amazing day we just had and thinking how amazingly comfortable our car is...
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