Made it to Sydney!

I arrived triumphantly into Sydney after 1,300km on some beautiful coastal roads.  Victoria may be better than NSW for most things, but have to say that the road from the state border up to Sydney is absolutely fantastic - great scenery, good surface, lots of ups and downs and corners.  And with the Transalp having the aerodynamics of a housebrick, I'm unlikely to be getting any more points on my battered Aussie licence (famous last words...).

Unfortunately all the roads around the opera house were closed for the New Years Eve festivities, so I may have to sneak back tomorrow for the 'iconic' photo.  And since the harbour bridge is effectively a 6-lane highway, I didn't fancy stopping there either.

So far, everything is going remarkably smoothly.  The faulty GPS cable was fixed with a bit of insulating tape.  I've kept it on all the time so that it logs the route, and as you can see I've found a neat application online that allows my to plot the route on a map and put it on the blog.

The bike felt a little heavy on the back end when I set off, so I have developed an innovative new approach to motorcycle luggage - the reverse topbox, which shifts the weight forward about 6 inches to improve the bike balance (and means you can access the contents on the move if you're brave enough).  Revolutionary!

As you'd expect, lots of firsts have been achieved over the past few days.  First rain - next time I'll stop to put the waterproofs on before my arse gets soggy.  First near miss with fuel - aforementioned aerodynamics aren't helping petrol consumption.  First flat battery - who'd have thought that charging a mobile phone from the bike battery would use up all the juice - followed by first bump-start from a stranger.  First dropped bike - fortunately not with me on it - trying to get it off the centre stand in a campsite (don't worry Pete - I didn't scratch the crash bars).

I've spent the last couple of days in Manly - first day to recover from a vicious hangover (thanks to Bando and Gazza for a large New Year's Eve in Sydney), and a second day taking care of admin (mum - I've finally sorted the medical insurance, courtesy of the very helpful folks at navigatortravel.co.uk).  Tomorrow I'll be setting off again, this time solo - it was great having Bando driving the support vehicle from Melbourne to Sydney and showing me the best campsites, but unlike Ewan and Charley, there's no entourage from now on.  

Next stop will be Port Stephens where I'm hoping to catch up with Calvin and Liz, and then on into Northern NSW and Queensland...  Finally a massive thanks to Bando for being a fantastic traveling companion, and for being extremely patient as I get to grips with all the new gear (not to mention hosting me at his apartment in Sydney) - it's made for a great start to the trip.