North to Hawk's Nest

 

Perhaps the sweetest thing that traveling by motorcycle has shown me is how how much my wife trusts my abilities. Perhaps to a fault. We have been in a couple of situations that were legitimately frightening and although there have been a few tears, Kristen believes in me. I was reminded of this as we pulled into Sydney traffic a second time. 

There aren't any pictures from our weaving through traffic as Kris was tending to her navigational duties, but we hit a Zen moment as a driving team while downtown. Our first day of riding was a testament to our over-confidence. I couldn't believe how differently the rig handled with the sidecar on the left side. But as we headed north on day 2, the 3 of us were a finely tuned, four-headed, three-wheeled machine.

Kristen's new helmet presents a new challenge as I can't see her face, but she was quickly using scuba diving signals crossed with sign language crossed with charades. It's a good system plus her Biltwell helmet is boss.

After a few tunnels and tight squeezes we were out into the open. 2 initial thoughts: this 2015 Ural is wicked and it is flipping cold. We knew it was winter here but it was in the low 40s F when we left Sydney. 

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After a late lunch, we pulled off of the A1, the main artery that runs the East coast and headed to a small town called Hawk's Nest. The light was too good to not take some glamour shots.

After finding a nice little motel that seemed close to the ocean we headed to an empty Bennett Beach that was loving dusk.

After some tapas, which including some fairly epic oysters, we considered the day a complete victory.

Sydney

After escaping the dangers of riding a backwards sidecar through the backwards, and surprisingly narrow, streets of Sydney (I'm only sort of kidding - sorry MOM!), Kristen and I decided to defy our jetlag and explore. Turns out Sydney is pretty wonderful.

Like any self-respecting tourist, we had to hit up Sydney Harbour. 

Convinced by the numerous endorsements of nearby shop-owners, we further defied our sleep deprivation (we were completely out of our minds at this point) and stayed downtown for a light show called "Vivid". One shop owner trying to sell us a possum-fur, Russian-styled Ushanka for $600 USD told us, "Vivid has changed my life." How could we say no?

The light didn't speak to us as promised, but it was lovely to be down at the harbor at night. By the time we stumbled off the bus and fell into bed, we were both already asleep.

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A full night of sleeping like the dead left us reinvigorated. We headed down to brekky (yeah, that's right - we're Aussies now so we say "brekky") and ran into several players from the Bulls, a South African Super Rugby team. I am not a small man. I'm 6'5" and 210 lbs. I'm used to to being bigger than most people I meet but these guys... these guys are monsters.

The blonde dude in the picture was eating what looked like 2 dozen eggs, a rack of lamb, an entire pineapple and a gallon of Guinness for breakfast. He winked at me when I walked by with a piece of toast and coffee...

Side note: we're hooked on rugby now because it's on every channel down here. 

Anyway, after being emasculated by the giants of South Africa, we took the ocean walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. 

We are major fans of the swimming clubs with their own natural swimming pools.

The world famous Bondi Beach. During the summer months there are apparently upwards of 35,000 people a day covering the sand. Whatsup?

Not a bad place for some fish and chips:

We grabbed a cab and were reminded that taxi drivers are a great source of information about driving in a foreign place. We asked a ton of questions, most notably about the numerous roundabouts that are scattered all through Oz. Rule: no matter where you approach always yield to the vehicle to your right. Genius.

Australia by Ural

 

Much has happened in the two years since Kristen and I came home from riding our BMW motorbike for almost 30,000 miles through North and South America. We have attended weddings and funerals and baby showers for some of the most important people in our lives. We moved from my birth town to a new city across the state. I've played loads of music with my best friends and Kristen has grown tremendously as a metalsmith and jeweler. We've also done our best to cram in as much travel as possible; Costa Rica to Tonga to Hawaii to Israel. 

But through all that time, the same question has hung heavily in the air between us:

"When are we going to get back on the bike?"

As of June 3, 2015, Kristen and I will have been married for 10 years. 10 years! As that realization was coming to its weighty fruition several months ago, we knew we needed to do something meaningful in celebration. Nothin could be more honoring of our marriage that to continue our trek across the globe via sidecar. 

On June 1st, after Kristen broke in her new Biltwell helmet in the airport lounge, we boarded the longest direct flight in the world. It takes between 16 and 17 hours to fly from Dallas, TX to Sydney, Australia. In a very manipulative move, the in-flight computer immediately lied to us about the duration. I'm on to you, Skynet...

After apparently traveling to the future, we arrived in Sydney on the morning of June 3rd. There is no amount of science or math or voodoo that can explain to me why or how we lost a day. I’m nearly 33 now and at this point, I think all I can do is accept it. 

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After grabbing a cab to a hotel at Coogee Beach to drop off our stuff, we couldn’t help but immediately head over to meet Roland and our new bike:

Bit of a plug here: Roland and the guys at Better Bikes were complete champs. There is a reason why he is running the oldest Ural dealership in Australia. All my questions and the entire purchase of the bike was done completely through email, which is both amazing and terrifying. Either way, they really stepped up and made the whole thing easy for us. Roland even put the initial miles on the bike so that it could be put through the first service before we arrived. Cheers, fellas. 

There will be plenty of time to talk all about the new bike and the significant changes that Ural has made since 2007, but first we should discuss physics. Every rig I have ridden has had the sidecar mounted on the right side. This results in the bike pulling to the left when braking and pushing to the right when accelerating. As you may have noticed, our new bike has the sidecar mounted on the left, therefore the physics that I have come to know and respect are backwards. (!)

This revelation was compounded by jet lag, Sydney traffic and the mind-bending reality of riding on the opposite side of the road. As much preparation as I had done to ready myself for the changes, our first ride was a bit harrowing. And by harrowing, I mean terrifying. And by terrifying, I mean Kristen compared it to riding on the tiny mountain roads of Peru. 

Adventure!