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...