1 – 13 February 2024
I arrived at Wagga Wagga on the afternoon of 1 February to be met at the airport by Kate and grandsons Jack and Euan. It had been a long journey (I left home at 1130 on 30 January) but well worth it for the wonderful greeting and a temperature of 35C.
On Saturday 3 February we all boarded an early flight to Melbourne where Kate had booked a tour of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) followed by entry to the Australian Museum of Sport. The tour was fantastic and the guide excellent. It was a very worthwhile hour and a half and included visits to the changing rooms which the day before had been occupied by the Australian and West Indies cricket teams. In the Australian changing room the white board still had details of the team field placements from the day before.
The rest of the weekend was spent visiting sites in Melbourne including a tram ride to the beach at St Kilda before an evening flight back to Wagga.
The following week was spent on admin and getting the bike up and running. I had put the battery on charge on the day after arrival. I added some petrol to the tank and the bike started at the first push of the starter button. I went for a ride to Coolamon and back, a round trip of 60 odd miles, to make sure the bike was running well and it appeared satisfactory. I was in Wagga having a coffee on Friday morning when for no reason I decided to look at the Tasmania ferry booking on my phone. It’s a good thing I did. It appears that I had booked the return crossing the wrong way around. Fortunately I could amend the booking online but the day I originally wanted to leave was unavailable so I booked the following day’s sailing, the 15th February. Kate and the gang left for a week’s skiing in Japan on Saturday (I drove the car back from the airport – a 5am alarm call!) and I left Wagga on Sunday afternoon for Albury where the bike was booked in for a service on Monday 12th, my birthday. Although Albury is only 72 miles from Wagga and I normally do the return journey and service in one day, as it is on the way to Geelong from where the ferry to Tasmania sails, I decided to stay over for a couple of nights. On Monday I dropped the bike into the dealership and walked the 3+ miles into Albury centre. I was wandering around the Murray Art Museum when I received a call from the dealership to say that the cylinder head gasket required replacing, that they didn’t have one in stock and it would have to be ordered. Normally next day delivery is out of the question in Australia given the distances involved but I was told that they were pretty confident that they could get hold of the spare part to have the bike ready for collection on Wednesday afternoon. This would allow me to make the ferry in the early evening of the following day. Fate had a part to play – my messing up the original booking and the bike requiring repair! Anyway, it meant a further two nights in Albury. The dealer said that I could use one of their demonstrators today, Tuesday 13th, so I rode away on a Royal Enfield Super Meteor 650.
It’s the first time I have ridden a cruiser and I really enjoyed it, once I became used to the feet forward riding position. I spent a good 5 hours riding around the countryside east of Albury including some twisties in the hills. Not a bad way to pass the time!
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