Day 8

Today I went from Cann River to Lakes Entrance. It was a long day, over 120km I think. The hostel in Lakes Entrance was large and a bit unpersonal. Because I wanted to slow down my pace, I decided to stay one day at this touristy place.

Day 7

Today would be quite hard, with lots of hills between Eden and Cann River. Although the landscape was nice, the trip was a bit monotone. At a campsite in Cann River I met a young guy, Kevin. We played soccer for a while. He lived on the campsite with his family, which made it hard for him to find friend. Only a caravan and I were on the campsite.

Day 6

The first restday was in Eden. The information office recommended a cruise in Twofold Bay to see the scenery and maybe some dolphins. The cruise was quite nice and after a while some dolphins showed up. Unfortunately the water was very unclear so they were hard to follow. After the cruise I made a walk around the town, on a boardwalk and the beach.

Day 5

Day five, the journey was from Bermagui to Eden. To be honest I don't remember that much from this trip. I was probably getting tired after the four days riding. The end of the day was in Eden, a nice place, famous for the whales. I decided a restday was a good idea. At four o'clock a thunderstorm was arriving. I needed accomodation quickly. Luckily I could get a double in the Great Southern Inn. When I called the price was 40 dollars, but when it was apparent I was a backpacker they only charged 20 bucks.

Day 4

I actually didn't want to leave the hostel at Batemans Bay because it was a nice place with cool people. But the journey had to go on, to Bermagui. This was quite a tough route and for a while I wanted to stop in Narooma and get a sleeping place there. The landscape from Narooma to Bermagui is really nice. In the evening I drove past lake Wallaga... pictures will follow

Day 3

The third day I drove from Nowra to Batemans Bay which can't be seen on the map. This trip had quite a lot of inland roades. At the hostel in Batemans Bay I met a Dutch guy, Willem who was travelling around Australia and New Zealand and tried to get a diving license. At the same hostel there was another biker, Matt from America. He drove the other way around, from Melbourne to Sydney. We talked for a while about our adventures and what to expect in terms of roadconditions to Melbourne. He was really amazed that Dutch people are so nice. In Bermaqui he met a Dutch couple at a campsite and they payed for his stay. He'll probably visit Holland in a short while.

Day 2

Day 2 went from Wollongong to Nowra. With a new chain, an inflated reartyre and new motivation I first visited the very nice industrial area of Wollongong... followed by some nice coastlines near Kiama. The road from Gerringong to Nowra was pretty tedious. Concluding this wasn't a very nice ride because there was a lot of traffic and the roades were small.

Day 1

I already posted something about the first day on this blog. This day I went from the centre of Sydney to Wollongong through the Royal park and along some nice coastal roads. As mentioned earlier this really was a bad day because of the broken chain and the flat tire. The hostel in Wollongong, which was partly a house where a family lived, was very nice.

Update

Today I finally arrived in Melbourne after 10 days of driving. The driving went easier than expected and I could have more restdays. I stayed a day in Eden, Lakes Entrance and Philip Island and even two days in Foster (Wilson's Promontory). The journey was something I won't forget very fast because of the people I've met and the wonderfull (at some places) landscape. These days I will update this site with some pictures, but first a picture of how I started in Sydney, the 24th of February.

Update

Hi, it has been a while since I've updated the site. I'm now at a YHA hostel in Batemans Bay at around 300k from sydney. Unfortunately I can't upload any images or docs i've written because I'm on a webpoint. THe riding is going ok,sometimes it is very hard to get up the next hill with soar legs. But when you arrive in the next town everything is forgotten. The first day I had trouble with my chain which snapped three times. Luckily I could buy one in Wollongong before the shops closed. My credit is running out so i'll update soon, with some pictures i hope.

Flight Cairns

After three months of hard work at the Wackett Centre I’m finally going on a deserved vacation. Old colleagues probably started laughing by now… I really had a great time the last three months. At first it is always a bit difficult to settle in a new environment and workplace. Many uncertainties like, will I find a room in time etc. Luckily the people at the Wackett Centre were always willing to help.

The first week was very hectic. As you may know I had some trouble with my visa. In total I spend 600 bucks on visa crap. And hours spend waiting at the Immigation office. I’m very very happy that’s over now. First a Working Holiday, followed by an Occupational Trainee visa to be able to work at the Wackett Centre and finally a tourist visa, kind of a stupid mistake. As I was saying the first week was hectic. Going to the immigration office and finding a workstation, thanks Christian for logging in all the time… The assignment for the internship was not really clear. I didn’t know what to expect but after a meeting with my supervisor Cees Bil and the contact from GKN, Robert (Bob) Hood.

After theory studies on the web and in some e-books the assignment started to become interesting for me. It appeared the is a real concern in the conversion of CAD models to different programs. A nice and all saying example is the Airbus A380. Due to different CATIA version at the departments in Toulouse and Hamburg there was an interoperability problem. A change in design at the Hamburg couldn’t be checked at the Toulouse headquarters. I notice now that I’m accustomed to jargon in the computer aided industry. Well this problem at Airbus led to a delay in delivery, angry costumers and loss of profit of many billions of dollars.

Back to the Wackett Centre. A Dutch guy from the same university, Jacob, helped me to know my way in Melbourne. Also the trip to the Great Ocean Road with some of his flatmates was really cool. Come to think about it, I wanted to do a lot more trips in the neighbourhood (relative) of Melbourne. Like the Grampians and Wilson Promontory. I did go to Philip Island with my bike. I was ‘very nice’, kangaroos in the wild and a helicopter flight around woolaamiaaaasaai bay, or something. After some time we, Nadia, Philip, Omar, Jacob, Dipesh, Florian, Fabio for some time and later Koen, formed a nice group. We went to party at the CBD, St. Kilda and Brunswick (Bimbo’s)…Money disappeared out of my wallet to fast.

From the beginning of my Australia-trip, since I took my bike with me, I had the plan to drive from Sydney to Melbourne along the coast. This being not a very easy feat, I had some thoughts about it. Begin January I started booking a flight to Cairns, because I really wanted to see the Great Barrier Reef, and Sydney. Before I was thinking to do a trip from Cairns to Sydney with a bike and the trains. Looking at the map of Queensland I realized that in some part the Bruce highway is the only road along the coast. This was even to dangerous for me. So I settled for the hopefully better roads from Sydney to Melbourne.

Here I am in a plane to Cairns. After a nice farewell barbie at Omar’s place. Of course taking a bike brings trouble. The bike has to be packed in a special Bike box, which I actually got free, yeah. Also the bike has to be protected from the rough stuff of getting on and off the airplane. A stupid error I made concerned the pedals. These have to be removed to get the bike in the box. Because of the rust they were really tight. After much sweating I got one side loose. Of course the airport isn’t build with a stupid dutch guy in mind trying to take his bike, in a 1.8m wide box. This is a very nice flight because the airplane isn’t full. The two seats next to me are empty so I can create some leg space. I also can’t complain about the VB in my hand… and the stewardesses.

I’m looking forward to arriving in rainy Cairns. The first day I will just look around and try to find an internet café to upload this blog. Of course a trip to the Great Barrier Reefs and probably Kuranda. The 21st to Sydney where I’ll meet a friend and than the 24th I’ll start biking. I’m staying positive that my bike will make it to Sydney in one piece. I’ll probably write some more on this blog but if I don’t, see you in Melbourne…

First Post

Hi, as you may know I'm going to drive from Sydney to Melbourne with a bicycle, or like aussies say, a pushbike. The route is along the east and south coast, crossing towns like Wollongong, Eden and Bairnsdale. The journey will be approximately 1500km in total to be completed between the 24th of Februari till the 14th of March. Compared to the entire Australia continent it is still a tiny trip. This is the route in GoogleEarth



Route, check out the elevation