Enjoying Sardinia

Sardinia doesn't have much to see but has a lot of awesome roads to ride, most of them in very good condition and with almost no traffic to care about. 

Can someone explain me what this traffic sign is supposed to mean?

While enjoying the good tarmac I saw a sign about some roman historic site and decided to take a look and follow the signs and ended up here.

And at the end four closed gates and nothing to see...

Best enduro ever :-)

Autumn escape

The weather has been quite uncomfortable the last weeks, time to go south and get some sun. The ferry and hotel for the second night was reserved upfront which means that the goals to reach on the first and second day were already set, with no room for changes without spending a lot of extra money. The result of this was not very pleasant, way over 700 km on the first ridding day. The first half with temperatures near the freezing point and the other half under torrential rain. 

Bike tighten the "Corsica ferries" way :)

 
The second day was supposed to be easy going but we bump into a road closure and were forced to do an extra 70 km of twisty roads which would had otherwise been a pleasure, so not much time for pictures just keep on going.

First impressions

Next days just resting from the exhausting begin, with a swim in the beach and enjoying the sun.

A night in prison

With the available time running out, I moved up exploring the coast but north of Bunbury it's not so interesting, the sand is no longer white and even the water doesn't seam so clear. Near Lake Preston got finally the chance to take a picture of a couple emus, they always tend to run away when you see them.

This was something new for me at a gas station, watch TV while you're filling up, wonder if this would work in Europe.

At the end of the day I ended up in Fremantle where I spent the night in prison.

The next morning I crossed the bridge to Perth, shortly after found this beach which seams to be all about dogs, more of them in the water than humans, even saw a bloke with a sponge stairway for his tiny dogs get out of his car.

Then had breakfast at Kings Park and hiked the Lotterywest Federation Walkway, the park is amazing, a must if you visit Perth.

Bunker Bay

Managed to get to Bunbury without needing to get towed, searched the address of the Honda dealer in town and gave it a go, to check if I could get the bearing replaced within an acceptable time frame.

The shop employee greated me like I was their client for ages, very different from the German style "- What do I have to do for you today?". 
After explaining my problem with bike good visible. 
- What model is that? 
- It's a Varadero 
- Hmmm! 
- Well actually is an XL1000V... 
- Aaah! We don't have it on stock but could have it by tomorrow or... let me see, if you grab one from the bearing shop down the road we can have it fixed this afternoon. 
Now that's what I call service, she then corrected that it was already too late to have it done in the afternoon but she gave me all details about the needed bearing and where to get it. At least in Germany dealers don't like that you show up with parts bought somewhere else, they always try to sell you the exact same part a lot more expensive. Next day was all bike repair, chillen and beach. Having to spend an extra night in Bunbury, as I had paid for it up front, I decided to go back a bit check a couple of spots I had missed due to the forced route change and it proved to be a good ideia. Road through the Tuart Forest, which contains the largest remaining section of pure tuart forest in the world. Traditionally the state forest associated with this stand of trees has been known as the Ludlow State Forest.

The road to Cape Naturaliste, is an awesome ride, it reminded me of Cabo da Roca but this one was completely desert and I found it even more enjoyable.

On the way back I drove down to Bunker Bay, what a beautiful spot, nobody around, clear water, peaceful, best conditions to snorkel which I did :-)

Meelup beach.

Following the coastline

Went for a short ride on the weekend, this time drove the shortcut over the beach to get to Cape Le Grand National Park which is about 23 km one way and then back again.

Regardless of the problems I was having with the Transalp and it being extremely hot that day, it was an amazing ride. Spent a couple of days in Esperance, drove the great ocean drive. The waitress where I had breakfast told me about the Pink Lake but it was not that pink at the moment, apparently it rained a lot 8 years ago and it lost it's color since then.

The next day John took me to Lake Warden which is now pink, we walked the Lake until I could take a picture of the water.

This is how my shoes looked like after the walk on the salty water.

The next day I packed up and continued along the coast, when I stopped for breakfast I noticed that I had a clandestine passenger on board :-)

It was very hot and windy until Albany, a town that I did not find attractive enough to spend more than a night there.

Followed the coast until Walpole where visited the Valley of the Giants, did also the Tree Top Walk but would not recommend, it's just a round bridge for tourists to spent some money, after that I explored the coast, went to Peaceful Bay and would like to continue along the sandy track but did not wanted to do it alone with the big bike, maybe next time :)

Got this guy suddenly in front of me while walking to the Conspicuous Beach lookout, fortunately he decided to be so kind and get out of my way.

 Awesome place for an EcoNomads :)

Moved on with the plan to continue along the coast, had a look at the Fernhook Falls, looks like it's not the right time of year for to impress someone.

The road from Walpole is really nice with twists up and downs and keeping me busy with a big smile when I suddenly eared a noise that seamed to come from the bike. I stopped, looked around but did not see anything, then let it roll down the hill with the engine off but again nothing, rode a bit further until I got a save spot to inspect the bike better, checked the temperature of the rear axle as I suspected the problem to be the bearing and I seamed to be right. Due to this I had to change my planed route and head directly and slowly to Bunbury trying to keep the bike upright and hoping to get there without the need to get towed.