twovespas

Day 1 – Canberra to Albury.

What can you say about the Hume Highway? Back when we were kids it was a twisty windy ribbon of black tar that wound its way through interesting and vibrant little boroughs full of cafes, milk bars and pubs. Now it’s a very boring stretch of tarmac and concrete upon which we must be constantly on guard for twits in commodores trying to break land-speed records.

That being said, today’s traffic was very well behaved. There was a noticeable lack of trucks and the people heading off for Christmas in far off places were taking their time.

Not that today was without its dramas.

We had a very quick call-in to make on the way out of Canberra. Unfortunately, I (Morgan) realised all too late that a wasp had found its way into the sleeve of my jacket and, before leaving, left me with a nasty reminder of what wasps can do. But perhaps it was a good omen – Vespa being Italian for wasp? We’ll leave that for you to decide.

We topped up the tanks at Gold Creek before joing the Barton Highway. Zita’s odometer read 5050 and Giorgio’s 17820. The tyre pressures were checked for good measure and we were soon on our way.

This part of NSW is always a pleasure to be in – eapecially when we’ve had a drop of rain. While I always prefer the more tropical landscape, Nikki really loves the rural scene in Australia. I wish I could see as much beauty as she takes in as we trundle past the hills.

Our first stop wasn’t until the southern end of Gundagai. I was already feeling very saddle sore and just a bit too hot. Nikki was loving the ride which is in stark contrast to this time last year when she was just a bit terrified! I’m so proud of how far she has come with her riding in such a short span of time. One passenger in a passing car waved and gave Nikki the thumbs up – something that always makes her feel good. A chap in Gundagai asked us where we were headed and told us that he was ‘impressed’ before jumping back into his Porche Cayenne. BTW, what’s with Porche 4WDs? Are Land Rovers too cheap?

The line up for fuel was incredibly long but we took our turn like everyone else. Another $14.22 down the drain – fuel is so expensive! I intend to hold on to our fuel receipts for the whole trip to see just how much we spent compared to the kilometres ridden.

The ride from Gundagai to Albury was pretty much without incident. We stopped at a truck rest point to allow a couple of semi-trailers to get some distance away from us. Nikki was getting a bit frustrated with their leap-frogging. Another quick stop in Holbrook for a leg strretch was all we did before heading into Albury.

Tonight we’re staying at The Albury Manor House and we must say that we are completely impressed! The room is very tidy, the shower head is decent and the restaurant served very good eye fillet and had quite a comprehensive wine list.

Tomorrow morning we’ll take in the ‘all you can eat’ pancakes that they do here followed by hunting down some geocaches (more on geocaching another time).

Hope you enjoy the pics (when we figure out how the iPad wishes to share them with you).