Newcastle & Hunter Valley

Date: 18/11/2010 to 19/11/2010

So after a big night out in Terrigal with the schoolies, I woke up at 7am (surprisingly without hangover) and packed my things.  I checked out of the hostel around 9am and hit the (albeit short) road to Newcastle.  I didn’t really need to plot out the drive for the day, since it was a pretty straightforward +/- 50mi drive up the coast.

The hostel in Newcastle was definitely more than a “roof over your head” type of place.  Probably an old mansion of some sort, it had big rooms, high ceilings, and a massive lounge with leather sofas everywhere.  I met a guy from Hartlepool named Nathan, and we ended up hanging out most of the time.  Played pool (I won), and ping pong (absolutely obliterated the guy, I felt bad) before heading out for a “free BBQ” organized by the hostel.  I put “free BBQ” in quotation marks since it was about the cheapest BBQ I’ve ever had.  Not that beggars can be choosers, but it consisted of two $0.10 sausages and a slop spoon’s worth of couscous and pasta salad, on top of a two-for-one drink voucher. 

After the dinner was pub quiz.  Nathan and I, and some German girls (Caroline and Christina from Heilbronn) were on a team named “Peter and four other brainless people”.  You can imagine who answered most of the questions.  And you probably won’t be surprised by the fact that we still lost.  I am amazing in trivia so long as as it has to do with geography.  The second you move away from the obscure map-related questions, I’m useless (for those interested, Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein are the world’s only doubly-landlocked nations, and the world’s greatest single adjacent time-zone difference is held by the Afghan-Chinese border – it’s 3.5hrs).  My experience, both from Sydney and now from Newcastle, is that pub quiz in Australia is about 70% “trivia” questions, and 30% Australian sports / celeb gossip inanity (“Who was the Australian bronze medalist in tiddlywinks in the 1928 Commonwealth Games?” or “Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe recently broke up with his fourteenth girlfriend.  Name the previous thirteen in order from shortest to tallest”).  For once, I’d like a pub quiz to be 100% geography related questions…that’ll be the day.

After the pub quiz, we had some live music (local singer-songwriter who had a pretty unique guitar style, sorta similar to Newton Faulkner…a lot of percussion while playing).  Newcastle, by the way, is as close to the Austin of Australia as you get.  It’s a huge university town, the live music capital of Australia, and is a pretty funky place.  It was recently listed as one of the top five most livable places in the world. 

Unfortunately, the weather while I was there was garbage.  The first day was just cloudy, which I could deal with.  But the next day was WINDY!  Constant wind >35kph destroyed my plans of lying on the beach all day.  Instead, I was dumb enough to walk around town and take pictures.  In wind you wouldn’t even want to sail in.  I took a few pictures, but the light was too flat to get anything good unfortunately.  The rest of the day was spent surfing the web, working on blog stuff, and dominating ping pong.  I wish I could get paid playing ping pong and answering obscure geography trivia questions…that’d be awesome.

On Saturday, I got up around 7am and packed my things once more, waking up every single person in my hostel room in the process.  At least I wasn’t the first person, since some poor sap left around 4am for work.  I drove towards Cessnock, the economic center of the Hunter Valley.  About a two hour drive from Sydney, it is the most visited wine region in Australia, but it churns out some exceptionally average wine compared to what else is available in the country (Barossa, McLaren Vale, Margaret River, and pretty much anywhere in Victoria are all far superior regions).  I ducked into the local McDonalds for free internet so I could check out my route and get attacked by flies again.  I swear I don’t smell that bad, but the local flies beg to differ.

After a coffee and sausage & egg muffin, I hopped on the bike and headed northwest towards Pokolbin and the rest of the Hunter Valley.  Along the way I came across some seriously beautiful vineyards and wineries.  I saw Wyndham Estate (apparently the home of Australian Shiraz), Tyrrell wineries (also a pretty big Australian name), and some other, smaller places.  Then there was Tempus Two.  Admittedly, it is advertised as the best cellar door in the Hunter Valley, but this place looks like a new shopping mall.  The parking lot alone is as big as a lot of the local vineyards in the valley.  The building itself has multiple restaurants, cheese tasting places, and multiple cellar door / wine tasting rooms.  I drive into the parking lot and turned right around.  There are plenty of food items I have no problem with being overly commercialized.  Beer, chips, etc are all fine with me.  I have a problem with wine though.  When I think of wine and cheese, I associate them with some sort of artisanal culture.  Something where the proprietor hand-crafts his products and tries each and every one.  The owner is as much an artist as a producer, and is proud (though humbly so) of the products of his hard work.  Tempus Two was as much a factory and marketing magnet than anything else.  Maybe the wine is nice, I don’t know, but the image that the cellar door portrays is one of a conveyer-belt kind of cold efficiency and marketing machine than one of humble craftsman proud of his locally-grown vintage.  If I’m ever lucky enough to own a vineyard, I might make tons of money doing the Tempus Two thing, but I’d go so against the entire romantic image associated with viticulture that I’d basically be selling my soul for an extra buck.

But that’s all really beside the point.  You go to wine country to drink the wine, and I couldn’t do that on my motorcycle.  I might as well have been visiting lettuce or cabbage country.  The landscape was nice, and the vines sure were green.  But I couldn’t really enjoy what everyone else was – and they seemed to be enjoying it come 3pm.  So I moved on and found the most amazing ride I’ve don’t anywhere, including Switzerland.  The Broke/Wollomombi Rd (for those in Australia or planning on going), which encircles Pokolbin State Park, was fast (100kph speed limit), winding, and hilly/mountainous.  No stop lights or signs.  No traffic to speak of.  And to either side of you, vineyards or horse farms with mountainous backgrounds.  I could have easily been in Tennessee, Kentucky, or Virginia, just with more vineyards.

The day was getting long, and I needed to find a campsite.  Long story short, I didn’t find one.  I found a subdivided property full of vacant (but “sold”) lots that could have easily been out of a Friday the 13^th movie, and two unfenced but obviously privately-owned, properties with vines growing on them.  None of the three felt right, so I made the LONG ride to a spot northeast of Newcastle along the coast called the “Great Lakes” region (also the Myall Lakes National Park).  I have a feeling that failed camping attempts will continue to be a topic of this blog…

And I'm off..

Date: 16/11/2010 to 17/11/2010

I left the apartment around 10am after saying goodbyes to Beau, Georgia, and Fiona.  Beau and Georgia were incredibly gracious hosts over the past two weeks – I had moved out of my apartment on November 1, then spent more time there than originally planned as I had interviews to schedule for INSEAD.  We had good times and drank most of the wine I brought to theirs (4-5 cases of French and Australian wine I couldn’t import back to the US).  It was a really relaxing time considering what was to come, and a nice break from the last few weeks at work, where they got every last drop out of me.

So I headed from Beau & Georgia’s apartment in Redfern / Surry Hills towards the Sydney Harbour Bridge.  One thing that can be said about Sydney is that it isn’t particularly well signed.  I guess coming from Switzerland, where everything is extremely precise, anything would be “poorly-signed”.  But this is a city without bus stop names (you just have to know where to get off), every other intersection is completely devoid of street signs (you just have to know where you’re already driving), and highway exit signs are about 50m before the actual exit.  As for the Harbour Bridge, I don’t think there’s a sign in downtown Sydney that says where it is.  I mean you can see it, but I had no idea where to turn to get on the damn thing.  I pulled about three u-turns trying to figure out where I was going and then decided to bag it.  Once I found myself on one highway or another I just decided to follow it west to find another bridge over to the north side of Sydney.

After another half hour of driving through Sydney suburbs, I made it to the Hawkesbury River, where the first day’s ride would really begin.  I had poured through maps to pick what I thought would be a good country drive: mostly back roads along the Hawkesbury and through national parks, all with views.  What I didn’t catch was that the bulk of the roads were loose dirt/gravel.  Not a problem, I thought.  Until I came to the first uphill switchback.  Not even a day in to my adventure, and I drop the bike.  There really isn’t much to say about it: I was riding uphill in loose gravel (I had never done gravel or off-road riding before I left, so it is fully my fault) and tried to take the switchback like any other, staying in my lane – in this case in the left on an uphill left-turning switchback, so imagine the steepest part of the switchback.  I lost traction and speed, halfway up the switchback and dropped the bike.  I fell off and rolled back a few times, and thought to myself, “$#%@*, what have I gotten myself into?”  The adrenaline was really pumping now as I tried to figure out how I’d pick up my bike and get it back downhill so I could get back on it.  Luckily, I had checked out a bunch of videos online on how to pick up a motorcycle without killing your back, and it worked.  Backed up to the bike, got into a squat position, got a good handle on the frame of the bike, and just walked backwards.  After 5-10 minutes of slowly working the bike back downhill with the clutch and brake, I took a look at the damage: none.  Well ok, the panniers and handguards had some scratches, but there was nothing on the bike.  I’m happy I didn’t waste $250 on engine bars now knowing the panniers will end up taking most of the brunt of any fall.

Fast forward a few hours, more gravel road, some great riding, and beautiful views of the Hawkesbury and the Central Coast, and I made it to my campsite.  Without the Spot GPS I had left with.  Somewhere along the way, it must have flown off my backpack and I wasn’t going to backtrack 2 hours to pick it up.  Oh well, first casualty of my trip I guess.

The campsite, it must be said, was in a beautiful location.  Behind me were sheer cliffs about 100m up with mansions perched on top.  In front, secluded beachfront looking to the south.  It took me about 30mins to set up the tent (I hadn’t bothered trying to set it up before I left, at least it wasn’t raining).  In stuffing everything important into the tent, I managed to submerge my iPod in water, and it’s shot…second casualty in one day.

I got no sleep at all.  Between the off-and-on rain showers and a totally empty campground which gave me a creepy feeling, I was kept up pretty much all night.  That keeps the streak of zero hours slept while camping intact…I honestly don’t know why I thought it would work this time (last time I went camping was like 10 years ago).  I’ll eventually figure it out, but I imagine it will take quite a few more sleepless nights to get into a routine.  I packed up the tent, and made my way to the nearest McDonalds (free internet) to find a proper bed.

I found a hostel in Terrigal (about 10min drive from the campsite) and checked in.  The people there were interesting, between the older couple returning to Canberra from visiting their daughter, and the drunk 19-year old schoolies on break.  It was a very welcome change from the eerily quiet campsite from the day before.  At least I got a good night’s sleep for once in two days.  I figure for the next couple of nights I'll stick to hostels until I get my footing and then will give the camping thing a try again...

My First Post / Intro

In short: I will be riding my motorcycle solo around Australia for six months. Then I will ship the bike and myself to South Korea, catch a ferry to Russia, and ride again solo from Vladivostok, through Mongolia and Kazakhstan to Europe (destination TBD) for three months.

For much of the trip I will be camping in the wilderness, with DSLR camera, HD camcorder, and HD helmet cam in tow. There will be many pictures and lots of videos of good and bad times alike. I will also have a SPOT GPS to track my progress and let others know where I am. I hope you all enjoy following my adventure over the next nine months. The planning thus far has been a great work in progress, and while the end is quite a ways away (+/-22,000mi without detours), the mere act of setting off in the coming weeks will be an amazing achievement.


I've had some trouble thinking of what I wanted to write as a first post on this blog. Perhaps I've given too much thought into authoring the ideal post -- something that captured my thoughts (of which there are too many at the moment) and set the tone for the nine months to come. Several intense weeks of business school essay writing has taught me that short, concise essays are the hardest to write. This has never been more true than for this first post.

Instead of cramming every last thought that has come to mind over the past days, months, and indeed years and sound like a rambling idiot, I'll let someone else describe what this trip is all about:

As for Peter's trip, my thoughts are as follows.

Peter has dreamed of an adventure trip since he was about 8. Originally, he wanted to the the "Peking to Paris" route, but due to Chinese restrictions, that was not possible (for China, he would have had to have a "minder" with him at all times, and would have had to pay him along the way, as well as return him to the place of origin) India was also a thought, but that also had unrealistic restrictions (he would have had to leave an insurance deposit of 4 times the cost of his motorcycle with the government).

Remember, this is the 16 year old boy who went to Switzerland for a year, he has moved across the world (twice!), he loves to ski (alone and listening to classical music), he loved to ride his motorcycle through mountain passes, he adores photography, he loves geography, he is very adept with technology and gadgets, he is independent and very methodical.

Peter, as you know, does research better than just about anyone I have ever known. He has been in contact with several people who have done the trip (and actually with several who are doing it right now, there will be other people doing it while he is), he has been very responsible in his "purchases" to make the trip as safe as possible. He has researched his bike, and has chosen one that he feels best suits his trip. He has gone to his motorcycle safety classes (both in Switzerland and here) and did very well. I am not sure how much you know about some of accessories. He has very good motorcycle clothes, from the boots, to pants, a leather jacket, a very substantial helmet (a spare visor, because he said that the one he has may well be broken at some point, and a replacement will be necessary), he has 2 pair of gloves with reinforced knuckles as well as hand guards (there again, he said that things might fly off the road, and he needs the protection), he also has bought a vest to wear under his jacket ("body armour," as he explained it, he could get hurt if he falls off his bike, and this should go a long way to protect his vital organs, the thing really is pretty amazing, it is a rather flimsy vest with very heavy plastic breast plates, chest plates, shoulder plates and an articulated spine protector), he has several sets of inner tubes for his tires, and quite an extensive supply of tools and spare parts.

He has two GPS systems: one for him, and one for the rest of us... his, obviously will help keep him on the right routes, "ours" is actually a SPOT GPS system. (you should be able to find it if you google it) It will connect to either google earth, or a similar system so we may see where he is in real time. It also has 3 buttons; the first one will send an "i am fine" message, the second will say that he needs help, non-life threatening, but still in need of help. The third button will dial the 911 equivilant in the area where he is. Russia is a bit difficult with this, in that they will not allow it to be too precise, but it is a pretty amazing system. He has travel insurance which will cover any medical expenses he may encounter, and, in the event of a serious problem, it will repatriate him, he is also in the process of getting a Blue Cross/Blue Shield catastrophic policy that will kick in in the worst case scenario. He will have a cell phone for whichever country he is in, as well as his laptop which he will use to communicate whenever he can duck into an internet cafe or something similar.

I was out to dinner with friends a few weeks ago, and told a few men about his trip. One man looked as me, and as he looked at all the other men in the restaurant said; "Every man in this room has the dream of going on that trip or something similar, very few of us have had, or ever will have the opportunity to do it. And, any one of them who tells you he hasn't dreamed of it, is lying!" That is pretty much the sentiment across the board. At this stage, I have scores of people who are looking forward to his blog. It is going to be amazing. From time to time, things will go wrong. From my vantage point, that is part of life; what counts is how you deal with it.

Peter has never chosen the "normal" path, and I would not expect him to begin that now. He loves his life and is going to experience everything he can. This may be a bit more outside the box than some are comfortable with, but what is the difference between this and his being an exchange student at 16, moving to Zurich, and the Sydney? In each instance, he has examined the opportunity to see if it works for him. Think about the kids who went on Outward Bound when they were teenagers, there isn't a great deal of difference between the two, other than age, and different languages. The same skill sets will be necessary.

For Peter, this trip will be the adventure of a lifetime. I strongly doubt that the stars will ever align for it to happen again.