Sydney to Bateman's Bay via Canberra
Today is one of those days that I miss my car. I'm holed up in Bateman's Bay in the cheapest cabin wotif could find me. It's been cold, windy, and very wet, and I had no desire to try to make camp in a downpour.
I left Tim and Lauren's place at around 9:30, and was immediately faced with the challenge of navigating out of Sydney at a horrible speed. Any motorcyclist who has ridden in rain knows the speed - it's too slow to have enough airflow to demist your visor, but too fast to leave the visor all the way open without getting rain all over your face (and in my case my glasses). Ironically this was only the second-worst visibility I experienced today, but more on that later.
The first stop was a lookout over Lake George on the Federal Highway.
If you look closely at the horizon, and the blog photo is in a good enough resolution, you'll notice many wind turbines. Surprise surprise then that the lookout was cold and windy. I was still recovering from wind chill at around 110km/h for 2+ hours on wet bike gear in single digit temperatures. As such, the following selfie was the best I could manage.
Trying to look at the screen directly in front of the sun and with lots of wind around isn't easy. And the balaclava was staying on too - it at least provided a bit of protection.
I arrived in Canberra after 1 and decided to at least have a quick look at something vaguely touristy before leaving. The first thing I saw was Parliament House.
Done. Have seen it. Looks like all the photos except with many tourists milling about :p
I will have to come back again to see more, but probably not this trip. One place I would like to see is the mint.
I figured that the coast ought to be warmer than Canberra so I headed easy. I was right, it is warmer. Also wetter. It was getting dark as I arrived into Batemans Bay and it was very wet so I decided that a cabin was the way to go. I booked one on wotif and set about finding it.
Note to self: a fogged visor with rain on both sides and rain and foggy glasses are a nightmare in the dark in traffic with lights everywhere. The experience pretty horrible - second only to the moments where the bike got twitchy on wet corners, or where a deeper-than-usual puddle on the freeway got my attention very quickly through subtle yet frightening handlebar movement. I can think of many ways to describe this feeling - Ricky has a pretty good one that I won't repeat here.
The cabin is a most appreciated luxury tonight given the weather. For a bonus, ABC2 aired Spicks and Specks, shortly followed by Scrapheap Challenge and then the Warehouse Comedy Festival. Certainly a very good way to finish off an otherwise below par day.
You look COLD! I can empathise :-(
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