I love my BMW.

[Gary in Aus]

Not in the Biblical sense.

 

Last week , youngest daughter at school camp, so we have 2 days free.

 

My wife and I loaded the RT with some changes of clothes and rode the 340 kilometres down the Princes Highway to Narooma {680 km round trip} to visit her mother who has just had a fairly large melanoma removed from her leg.

 

Wound is now a 8 centimetre crater below her knee and some serious scarring from skin graft taken from her thigh.

 

Anyway we left at 8:00 AM on the Thursday , did a quick ride over the Sea Cliff Bridge , and then headed south.

 

The autumn weather was around 24 degrees C {just cool enough to put the liners in Sue jacket}, crystal clear brilliant blue skies that those who have been to Australia will appreciate , no breeze and because it was a Thursday very little traffic.

 

Fairly boring freeway for about the first 50 kilometres then into typical Princes Highway ranging from racetrack smooth flowing bends that will have a pothole halfway through that a GS would not be out of place, to short straights that provide some of the limited overtaking opportunities.

 

As we did not have a schedule we detoured to Green Patch on Jervis Bay for morning tea overlooking the "whitest sand beach in the world" at Huskisson.

 

Local kangaroos will try to take the food off your picnic table and are a pain in the arse.

 

Back on the road and a stop in Ulladulla to buy some of the best Anzac bicuits on the south coast .

 

The highway follows the original tracks and at some points is right beside the ocean and then heads inland to skirt estuaries and lakes but it always comes back to the coast to stay away from the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. {naval charts distributed today still use profiles of these mountains drawn by Captain Cook over 200 years ago}

 

The New South Wales south coast is dotted with small communities that were started on either fishing , dairy farming or forestry. As these industries have have either prospered or perished over the years the have left their own characters.

Most have a link to the sea and Moruya , Narooma, Ulladula and Batemans Bay all offer superb seafood and local produce such as cheese.

 

This area is unusual to the rest of Australia as it has tall forests of straight coastal gums, rich paddocks of lush green grass , regular rainfall and lots of estuaries and short rivers .

 

We virtually have the road to our selves and overtake probably half a dozen cars/trucks in 340 kilometres.

 

The road generally is of a very average standard and is known for the number of accidents that occur.

 

The RT soaked up every bump , every crack in the road at lane joins , corrugations in the bitumen and loose gravel on corners dragged onto the road by trucks.

 

It just does everything so capably and easily. Admittedly sometimes I would have liked a little more power when over taking but that just reflects my impatient to wait.

 

At one overtaking area with an overtaking lane ,I have pulled into the right lane and gradually accelerated past a truck and have reached around 140 kmph and in the rear view mirror I see that I am being rapidly approached by a dual cab ute trying to pass me before the overtaking lane ends. I pull back into the left lane to let him go past and it is a "P" plate driver {provisional driver aged from 17 to 19 years limited to 80 kmph maximum speed} doing at least 150 to 160 kmph ,driving with one hand on the wheel and talking on his mobile phone on the other. Trust me these are not the roads to be doing 160 kmph on especially in a Rodeo dual cab ute.

 

From then on I kept a mental note of where we were on the road so that if we came across his wreck we would be able to give the ambulance services a approximate location. We lose so many young people to car accidents and combinations of speed , inexperience and poor conditions are just fatal.

 

After visiting in-laws at Dalmeny , a supeb dinner of King George whiting in tempura batter at the Quarterdeck in Narooma ,we headed home on the Friday in once again coolish autumn weather , afternoon tea at Milton and after stopping at antique shops in Berry we had dinner at Kiama before a 45 minute trip home.

 

I would have been happy to have kept riding past home and continued up the coast .

 

I am really happy with my purchase of the RT nearly seven years ago and am still a very happy owner today. Two up with a bit of luggage on a variety of roads from ordinary to bad, good fuel range and consumption, adequate power , bloody brilliant suspension and brakes , good weather protection , comfortable and a feeling of durability like a good swisss watch.

[Eschelon1]

 

I would have been happy to have kept riding past home and continued up the coast .

 

___________________________________________________________

That sounds about right. The RT will do that to you.

 

Sounds like a great ride. If you like seafood, you should ride the Oregon coast sometime, nice scenery there too!

 

[Carnadero]

I would have been happy to have kept riding past home and continued up the coast .

Some years ago while on vacation in Sydney, I took some time out to ride Greyhound up the Pacific Hwy to the mid-north coast. I wouldn't mind traveling that road again, but on two wheels instead.