Day 1

So we left Sydney just after 10:00am – to be precise, which Della is, 10 minutes late at ten past ten! Filled with excitement and anticipation of what was ahead, we headed for the open road and wide open spaces ….. only to get stuck in a Sydney traffic jam just 5 minutes down the road. Seemed every parent seeking relief from their bored kids on school holidays chose to go the Easter Show at the same time as we left. We finally shrugged off Sydney after an hour and a half of busy roads and slow freeways.

Once we hit the M5 things improved. We rode straight to Goulburn which took 3 hours. Traffic was light once out of Sydney and we stuck at about 110kpm all the way to Goulburn. A little cool as we gained altitude by Bowral but not cold enough to rug up.

We stopped in Goulburn for lunch at The Roses Cafe – very good frittata and chicken and mushroom pie – then filled up with petrol and got back on the highway to Gundagai.

We were supposed to turn off at Gundagai on to the A20 to Wagga Wagga which neither of us spotted as it was about 25km further on! So much for my map reading. Arrived in Wagga Wagga just before 5:00pm and decided we’d start a routine we’d continue with for the rest of the trip – filling the bike with petrol and checking the tyres in the evening to make for an easy get away in the morning.

Having got the bike ready we found our hotel, The Quest, checked in, had a shower to wash off the road. We then met Della’s cousin who she doesn’t know that well but who lives in Wagga. Being terrible with names I kept saying ‘Greg’ in my head so as to not forget him only to introduce myself to ‘Gary’ and wife Sue. As I said, Della doesn’t know them well! We had an entertaining dinner with them and that was day 1. Not much of interest given freeway riding but we covered just over 500kms and now we are ‘off freeway’ things will get more interesting.

Arriving in Wagga Wagga