Last weekend was the Queens Birthday long weekend here in New South Wales which is good and bad. Good because we get the Monday off work and bad because the NSW Gestapo er Police roll out their double demerits to relieve you of even more points from your license. So the bike wasn't coming out this weekend.
So instead this weekend in Sydney we have the Vivid Festival which is on every year from 25th May to June 16th. Vivid is a festival of light, sound and ideas and is also free. We travelled into the city on Sunday night staying at the Marriott in Circular Quay. The weather was a little inclement with passing showers throughout the night. Unfortunately for me I forgot to take the tripod for my camera. Most of the photos I took didn't turn out too well so here are some of the best almost passable photos I took.
The photo above and below were both in fairly low light conditions, there was definitely less light to the naked eye than you can see in the actual photo so I was a little surprised at them to be honest.
At around 6pm when the darkness has fallen the light show got underway. It finishes at around 11pm so there's plenty of time to see all the displays. The Opera house is always the centerpiece of the display.
Circular Quay
Marriott Hotel - We were slumming it here tonight
Darling Harbour
We caught a Ferry around to Darling Harbour for Dinner and the girls were treated to fire works before returning to our hotel at Circular Quay.
The next morning the girls decided we would have breakfast in the Rocks area down near the southern pylons of the Harbour Bridge. It's a very historic area of Sydney that you can see on earlier posts on my blog. After this we visited Observatory Hill before making for home.
This post just happens to be Bob's 900th post and it also just happens to be my 200th post. That is some achievement, 900 is a huge number of posts and I'm happy to be here as a part of that. Enough on that for now and on with what we are here for.
Warning - This is going to be an extremely photo & video heavy post.
For Scooterbobs last trip out I decided that I would offset his first trip which saw him visit some of our natural wonders with a trip to see some of our man made wonders. What better place to visit than Sydney Harbour which holds two of our national icons in the one location. So today we ride around the harbour and there's something very special in here for you all, more on that later.
I know Bob liked Vancouver harbour and thought it was pretty special. So I thought a visit to Sydney harbour would be fitting, I know Bob would have liked it. I believe our harbour is pretty special too, whether by day or night the Sydney Harbour bridge and Opera House are spectacular to behold in person and millions of people from all around the world visit these icons every year. I live here and I'm still impressed every time I get a chance to see these things up close and personal. I hope everyone enjoys these photo's as much as I did taking them.
I got up early to ride into the city to avoid as much traffic as possible and so I could get in some good photo's without too many people blocking the shots. I succeeded on both counts. First stop was underneath the Harbour bridge on the northern side or Kirribilli as it's known as, looking back towards the city.
This is a very popular location for photo's as you can see the front of the opera house and the city in the back ground. When you are in front of the opera house, the thing is so big you can really get a good photo of it. Just nearby is Luna park which is a fun spot to take the kids to enjoy all sorts of rides.
Whilst I was here two lovely young ladies were jogging by and laughingly asked was SB one of those 'travelling gnomes or something'. When I told them the story they were captivated by it.
The security guard that was at his post under the bridge also was asking me a million questions about SB. I tell you he is pretty popular. So it was then off to McMahons Point for another lookout point over the harbour. Again spectacular even though the photo's this early were into the sun.
Scooterbob at McMahons Point
Soon I headed back around over the harbour bridge again and headed into the Rocks. The Rocks is one of the oldest parts of the city. It was established not long after the colony's formation in 1788. Most of the buildings were built out of sandstone rock, hence the name the rocks. Some of the streets still have cobblestone streets and you could be forgiven for thinking you have just walked into a time warp back to the early 1800's.
The park under the southern pylon of the bridge also contains the remnants of 2 guns battery's that were installed in 1819. There were 5 forty two pounds canons on the upper battery and 15 thirty two pound canons on the lower battery mounted on circular tracks so that they could be turned up to 180°.
32 pound canon
42 pound canon
Modern Art
The rocks is a popular tourist area with modern contemporary arts mixed in with historic buildings, the Sydney theatre is in the rocks also with famous restaurants, bars and pubs. The rocks is home to Sydney's oldest pub, the Lord Nelson Hotel. They even brew their own beer. I recommend the 3 sheets pale ale, it's a good drop.
Overlooking the harbour bridge to the north is Observatory hill. This is the home of Sydney Observatory, which is both now a museum and a working observatory. It holds a 40 cm modern schmidt-cassegrain telescope and a historic 29 cm refractor telescope built in 1874, the oldest telescope in Australia in regular use. The views from the rotunda are superb and scooterbob agreed.
SB checking out the view to North Sydney
We mosed on down into the rocks area where the streets become a little more cosy and you can see the old stone work and cobblestone streets. Some of the alley ways are very small and a tight squeeze when there's a crowd. The rocks attracts a weekend market with people selling all sorts of clothes, trinkets, art and food of all types. Try the gozleme here at Dans cafe they are the best I've had anywhere, he also does the best coffee. The outdoor area of the lowenbrau is also a favourite spot especially on a busy night.
The Rocks Markets
Lowenbrau at the rocks
I was getting a little peckish and was in desperate need for a coffee as I had left before even the roosters were up, so we stopped and sat outside to take in the views. I'd ordered a strawberry danish and cappuccino, which came with a complimentary Belgian chocolate. Beautiful.
With my coffee hit out of the way it was time to head around through the city and show scooterbob the main attraction of the harbour, you guessed it the Opera House. One of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century. Passing by circular quay there was a large cruise ship docked in the harbour. These ships come and go just about every second day here.
One of the good things about the city is that they have free parking for motorcycles which made it easy for me to get around and find a parking spot, that combined with the now legal lane filtering made for a good day out in the city.
Here is the video of my tour of the city and harbour where scooterbob makes a surprising appearance. I tell you he has a devilish streak in him. Scooterbob even gets into the action, with him tearing up the streets of Sydney and showing us what he's made of, keep your eye open for that one.
Scooterbob, meet the Sydney Opera House. Yep this building is absolutely amazing. It was designed by danish architect Jorn Utzon. Construction started in 1959 and it was finally finished in 1973(the same year I was born) at a staggering cost back then of $103 million. If that was built today it would probably cost 10 times that amount. It's even more impressive when you are up close to it. The tiles on the sails are very smooth to the touch, like glass.
Looking back at the city
Scooterbob taking in the views.
In June Sydney has the vivid festival which is basically a festival of music and light. They put on a brilliant light show that lasts for nearly an hour by projecting images onto the sails of the opera house. If your ever in Sydney in June you need to get down there at night and check it out. Magic stuff. Here's a picture I took at last years Vivid festival.
I must thank Sonja, David for the chance to host scooterbob. It has been an honour and a pleasure to show him around my neck of the woods and I can't wait to see what adventures that the other bloggers have in store for him. I'd also like to hope that Yvonne and the kids will have some comfort in seeing what scooterbob has been up to on his adventures. This post is dedicated to the memory of Bob Leong.
It's time now that scooterbob moved on to his next stop on his world tour - the land of the long white cloud, New Zealand. I'm sure he's going to have a great time over there. He was packed away in his little black travel case with some extra bubble wrap and is now winging his way to NZ.
It's that time of year again to see what the hell happened during the last 12 months. Each year seems to be flying by now, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and is gearing up for a bumper new year. It feels like it wasn't that long ago I penned my 2012 year in review.
Well what happened this year? That's a great question lets take a quick look.
The year started out very slow, January was so hot we hit 46.5°C(117°F) days and Feb I was working and didn't get a chance for a ride. I didn't get out for a ride until mid way through march where we hit up the Taralga Hotel for a great pub lunch with Geoff.
R1 off road action with a Wee friend
The next ride in April I managed to get out on was inspired by Gary over at Flies in your Teeth for his blog challenge of cool places to take a photo of your bike. I managed to get 3 great places. I also got down to the Royal National Park for a ride with lunch at the Scarborough Hotel with the family.
2 icons in the one pic
We got in an overnight ride in May to a little place in the lower snowy mountains called Wee Jasper. It was great riding with some beautiful country side but the female publican was eccentric as.
The weather was pretty crap in winter and didn't get a chance to ride plus my mum was sick in hospital and I missed a few weekends chances to get in some rides so the next major ride out was in August and Geoffrey had just got himself a new Triumph Tiger 1050 Sport. I didn't know he was going to do that. Of course it then duly got a right thrashing up the putty road and back just to see how it went.
I got out for a quick ride in September just before we headed to Fiji for our family holiday. It was just a quick half day ride up through Wisemans Ferryand back down the Old Pacific Hwy. I'd managed to beat most of the traffic by heading out early.
In late November I was busting to get out, as the annual snow ride trip had to be missed as I couldn't get time off work. This pissed me off no end and had to do some serious touring on my own as everyone else was busy or had already been out riding, that didn't worry me as I had a blast out on the Crookwell Road.
I managed to get myself a new lid for Christmas as the old shoei had just about worn out. I then got out for one last ride before Christmas with Geoff up the Putty and back.
That was pretty much it for the year, I didn't really get much riding in at all really especially seeing I had to cancel the annual snowies trip. Its 3 months later and I'm still shitted about that.
I've been trying to skrimp and save for a newer bike all this time but still nothing yet. The snot nosed, sandwich grabbing, curtain climbers have been eating me out of house and home, stealing from my new motorcycle fund, costing me a small fortune in diapers, clothes and shoes and they haven't even reached school yet. You did warn me Troubadour........
I started 2013 with 57,053 km's on the clock and finished with only 60,551 km's. Yep that's pretty lame even by my standards. Only 3500 km's. Still I enjoyed every minute of it and can't wait for the next ride. Bring on 2014 and the South Island of New Zealand, I have a feeling 2014 will be a good year........
Last Sunday I managed to get out and have a bit of fun on the bike and you couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. Saturday was bucketing down with rain, with showers predicted along the coast Sunday morning which didn't eventuate and it was a sunny warm 20°C day. First stop was into the city to take some photos for Gary France's blog challenge, then on down south to the Royal National Park which I haven't been to in a few years. Warning this post is pretty heavy on photos and videos.
I pulled over just before the Anzac bridge and put the Gopro on. Anzac bridge was named to honour the Anzac's(Australian and New Zealand army corps) and has a bronze statue of an Aussie soldier facing west and on the opposite side is a New Zealand soldier facing East.
Anzac Bridge and Aussie Digger
New Zealand Soldier
Here's a video of me riding from Anzac bridge through the city and across Sydney Harbour Bridge. If you've never been on the Harbour bridge then this may be of interest er..... or not. The harbour bridge starts at about 3:30.
Under the Bridge
I then turned off at Milsons Point and went down under the bridge and took in some of the sights. I think the picture below is my new favourite picture of my bike.
After this I decided I'd cross back over the bridge again and get some close up pics of my bike in front of the Opera House. I'd put the gopro in 5 sec photo mode for the short trip across the bridge. I finally go a chance to do some legal lane splitting in the city. At the moment our elected officials have allowed legal lane splitting in the north part of the city as a trial. On approaching the Opera house entrance a security guard popped out in front of me. The conversation with this nice kiwi went something like this.
Security Guard:Hey Bro where you going...hey you got one of those gopros, you filming? ME:Yeah kinda, I'm taking photos.
Security Guard: Bro those things are cool.
ME:Mate I want to go over there and take some photos' of my bike in front of the Opera House
Security Guard:No Bro I can't let you in, you'll have to park over there and take them ay, Sorry Bro.
The location the nice kiwi guard had told me was shite, you couldn't take a photo from behind the guardhouse. So after a bit of thinking of what to do, I noticed there was a van parked on the footpath with lots of space around it and no one around. So I approached the security guard again and asked very nicely if I could push my bike in front of the van and take some pictures. He looked at it and said 'No problem bro'. So that's how I got my bike in there to take the photos.
Next stop on the way south was just near Sydney Airport. I turned off at Cooks River entrance near the Airport Radar tower. From here I watched the jets landing and taking off for the next 15 minutes.
Once getting down through the suburbs to Sutherland on the Princes Hwy I finally come to the turn off point for the Royal National park(Nasho to Sydney-siders). I noticed that there was a 50/50 mix of bikes going into the park as well as going past. Maybe they are going down to the waterfall turn off to get into the park. It makes sense as the top part near here is a bit on the rough side and a bit straight and boring to be honest. Its not until you get down to near the waterfall intersection that it get real twisty and fun.
Nasho Entrance
Warm up twisties
After a while you notice that the tree's start to change and get closer to the road. It looks a lot like a rain forest and the trees hang right across the road, blocking out most of the sun. The road looks very narrow and dark, hard to spot hazards especially with a dark visor. A bit dangerous in winter as the road doesn't get much sun and gets moss on it. The road was quite wet today as it was raining all Saturday and its still early when I came through.
I finally come out near Stanwell Tops to the lookout at Bald Hill. This is a place where bikers always meet. There are spectacular views all the way down the coast to Woolongong. This section of road through the national park and down to Woolongong is Sydney's version of the Great Ocean road on a much smaller and seemingly busier scale. Its also a place where you can hang/para glide from the cliff faces.
Seacliffe Bridge from Bald Hill Look out
It was pretty hard just to find a parking spot today. There were many bikes out today.
I think that AC/DC's biggest fan must have been out for a ride today. That paint job on this Spyder was just fantastic. So much attention to detail. I'd be scared to death of getting it stone chipped if I owned it.
I sat here in the sun warming myself just watching all the para gliders and bikes coming and going. It was just so relaxing I think I spent about an hour just watching.
It was now time for some lunch and I knew there were a few places south of the bridge to stop for lunch. One guy on a Blackbird I was talking to recommended the Scarborough Hotel. I thought that this sounded good, so thats where I headed for.
After riding over the bridge I stopped at the Scarborough Hotel for lunch. To say they were busy would be an understatement. The place was packed to the proverbial. I ordered a steak with chips and salad and it was a fantastic meal.
All in all a great day out for a ride. The royal national park is a bit like the Old Road in Sydney. Most likely a a good ride on a weekday but a cop magnet on weekends for bike riders.
