Super Bikes Here we Come

 

     Moe to Phillip Island

Cold, wet and very windy, typical Phillip Island weather!

We set up our van on the Grand Prix trackside camp ground. What a great atmosphere. Everyone was here from bikers to enthusiasts to down right ferals what a wonderful mixture of humanity with everyone extremely friendly and chatting about the great weekend to come. Caravans and tents aplenty with camp fires lighting up as the sun went down set the scene.

 

 

Friday the weather was better but still chilly. We drove around the island doing the touristy thing and for me to get my bearings as I'd be driving around alone for the next couple of days doing my own thing, as I find watching motor bikes go round and round quite boring.

 

  

Then back to the track to check out the motor cycle expo and walk around the pit stop.

 

We even got to star on the cover of the Spokes magazine.

( Along with everyone else who walked past that stand!)

 

 

Our mate Paul arrived that night so Steve had someone to play with over the next couple of days.

 

The boys spent Saturday watching the preliminary races and driving around the track, beer in hand having an absolute ball. No rules here other than to have an awesome time.

As for me I had the day all to  myself and made the most of it. Firstly off to yoga  on Churchill island which is another island off  PI connected by a one way bridge, coffee with the locals I met then I wondered around the Churchill Farmers Market tasting and buying yummy foodstuffs.

 

Next into Cowes for a bit of retail therapy and to organise my next days tour to French Island.

After returning to camp I decided to go geo caching for those that haven't heard of this its a world wide treasure hunting game where you use a GPS to hide and seek containers.

 

This is where my adventure begun after Paul drove me over to the other side of the track and I tramped out the gate and through thick bushland (I nearly even trod on a snake)  I found my little treasure YeeHaa! But they had locked the gates on me as the racing had finished for the day. Shit! Luckily a couple of security guards spotted me and after telling me I have to spend the night out there they relented and found someone with the key to let me back in. OMG note to self: check gate closing times.

 

 To the left is the bush I was walking through and to the right is the little container I found. I just had to note inside the container my Geocache name and date I found it then return it to the hiding place for the next person to find.


That night was a ripper with chicken on our spit, copious amounts of wine and to top it off our neighbours Lyndon and Prue joined us around the campfire with his guitar singing all the golden oldies.

 

Sunday was a beautiful day. Paul and Steve went to the track nursing hangovers and I took off on my tour of French Island which was a ferry ride across Westport Bay.

 

We were met by our guide Lois who stood about 4 foot tall and drove what looked like an old 1960's school bus. What a character but very entertaining. She was a fourth generation islander with a font of knowledge.  We saw heaps of koalas and we drove all over the island with her explaining about the natural history.

 

 

 

We then visited her great grandparents old chicory farm which now hosts the Bayview Chicory Kiln Museum. If you can call it that to me it was just an old property full of junk. Here we had delicious
Devonshire tea and iced coffee made with chicory.




I arrived back at the campsite happy but exhausted  as was Steve so we had an early night and set off for Melbourne on Monday morning to have a few minor warranty details on the van fixed. One of them turns out to be not so minor so we will come back  at the end of our trip and spend a few nights in Melbourne while they fix it.