Motorbike Camper

The Bug - Kawasaki ZX9R Time in lieu and public holidays are great things, especially when a weekend falls in between them. The Australian Alps. I've not heard a bad word about the roads up into the Alps. Up until this point in time, the furthest I'd been is up to Omeo via Bairnsdale. I'd rate it as one of the best rides I've been on based on the road surface, grip, vision and corners. If the rest of the Alpine Road was of the same quality I knew I was going to be in for some fantastic riding. Good old google maps The Route. Starting from Melbourne I'd slab it to Ensay, then head up to Omeo, Mitta Mitta, Towong, through Mt Kosciusko, Jindabyne then to Cooma. From there I'd either go north to Canberra and go coastal to Wollongong or inland and head into Wollongong through Macquarie Pass. Road trip on the cheap. As I was planning on doing this trip on a budget I decided I'd camp along the way at free camp spots I found using the WikiCa...

Every three months I try to organise an overnighter with mates to a country pub where we can stay the night and put a few $$ into the bar and enjoys ourselves. The Triple 8 Ride was one of my favourites as it had everything a good ride should have Great Weather Twisty Roads Your best mates Cold beer A bed at the end of it The destination was Logan where there's a pub that sits in the middle of nowhere with little mobile reception and I was told a horse which frequents the bar. That was something I wanted to see for myself, so Logan it was, the  pub in the scrub . Logan isn't that far out of Melbourne if you take the freeway, given I was on my CBR954 at the time with a fresh set of rubbers that just wasn't going to happen. The road up through Diamond Creek, Kinglake and up Strathcreek onto Broadford was fantastic, with little traffic to hold us up we had a ball and stopped at the Moto Bean Cafe in Malmsbury with our licence's intact. After a decen...

Sixteen hours isn't a lot of time away from home, so there wasn't much of an excuse not to get out on the bike and pitch a tent somewhere. Especially since daylight savings will be over soon, I figured now's the time to make the most of it.  I didn't need to take a lot, in fact, if I wanted to keep things to a bare minimum all I'd need is a sleeping bag, tent or swag. Most of my camping gear packs down pretty small. I managed to fit a two-man tent, sleeping bag, pillow, air mat, torch, cooking gear and a tarp under the seat of the BV350. There was also my Kriega backpack which had the important stuff like whiskey, water and some other odds n ends. Food for thought Since I was only going overnight, and I'd already had a decent breakfast and lunch, the only meal I had to consider was dinner. There's the option of grabbing a bite along the way to the campsite, finding a pub nearby or taking my own grub. I opted for two-minute noodles s...