The Cormanus Chronicles

[Cormanus]

Day 13: 24 October 2016
Phillip Island to Melbourne (187 kms)


[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1nG63m6uAxkxVpNueeYPyfZct1XY&usp=sharing]Day 13: Link to Map

It was a gloomy sort of morning—cloudy, cool and a bit unappealing. But at least it was dry as we packed up our camp and made ready to go our separate ways. Noroomtomove who, by my reckoning, had done a sterling job not to flee to the comforts of a mud-free hot shower and a comfy bed the evening before, was first to roll out. Pterodactyl and I left a bit later and made our way to San Remo for a cup of coffee.

After that we separated; him to return to Sydney; me to head to Melbourne to jettison some gear and collect Mrs Cormanus from the airport. To my considerable delight she had agreed to join me for the next leg of the trip which would take us across Bass Strait on the ferry to Tasmania. While most of our attention would be on catching up with family and friends, I planned we’d cover a bit of ground together on the bike.

I was a bit nervous about how it would go. Mrs Cormanus comes with me on the bike occasionally and enjoys it very much, but she is given to getting restless when she has to sit still for too long. Frequent stops are necessary, so she would not enjoy my usual touring schedule. So I wasn’t sure how she’d go spending too much time perched on the back. Still, I was delighted she was coming with me and that it would be in Tasmania which we both love.

The ride to Melbourne was uneventful. Straight roads, freeways, police officers, motorcyclists heading back from a weekend on the island, increasing traffic. Same old, same old. The Tom Tom app on my phone took me where I wanted to go without fuss and I took all my gear off the bike before heading to the airport to meet my wife.

We were staying with my niece and her husband who had kindly agreed to store gear for us while we were in Tasmania, so we made our way there. They took us for a walk through Footscray past the Flemington Race course where Australia’s major horse race, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne_Cup]the Melbourne Cup is held on the first Tuesday of every year. The entire country stops to stuff itself with chicken and champagne and watch it on the television.

A great, authentic and inexpensive Vietnamese meal and a comfortable bed capped off the day.

Day 14: 25 October 2016
Around Melbourne thence to sea (376 kms)



[url=https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VC-KAGZN8zebt59dhmS9ez98wGk&usp=sharing]Day 14: Link to Map.

The morning was given over to repacking gear so there was room for me, Mrs Cormanus and the gear on the CB. The one, slight, technical problem was that Mrs Cormanus was to fly home from Hobart which meant we had to take her bag as well as mine rather than packing into one bag. We also had to address the problem of waterproofing and the back pack which Mrs Cormanus would not be able to wear while the bags were on the back.

So we came up with this inelegant, but practical solution.



And who said a CB1100 can’t carry a back pack with style?

After we’d sorted all this out and stashed my camping gear, the beer cool … er, top box and other things in the shed at my niece’s house, we decided to take a ride around Port Phillip Bay to see what we could see.

Not much as it turned out—for most of the way to Frankston the GPS led us a merry inland dance past houses and through endless traffic. However, we partook of an agreeable lunch at Waves on the Beach at Frankston before a leisurely ride back to the Station Street Pier where we were to catch the Spirit of Tasmania for the overnight trip to Tasmania.

Waiting to board.

Since I last caught the boat to Tasmania in 2014, it has undergone significant renovations and offers a more agreeable experience. The seating areas are more spacious and comfortable and there seem to be more of them somehow so one doesn’t feel quite so crowded.

We both like being at sea, so we passed an agreeable evening and, in due course, wandered off to the four-berth cabin we had to ourselves.