Keep up with Geoff and Colin's amazing antipodean adventure

Monday, December 14, 2009

Intrepid journalist and author Geoff Hill and fellow rider Colin O’Carroll have now started out on their latest motorcycling adventure – circumnavigating Australia using the legendary Highway One on a pair of Triumph Tigers.  The 15,000 mile odyssey is expected to take 10-12 weeks to complete and Geoff will be blogging throughout to keep readers up to date with their escapades.
Geoff and Colin enjoyed a grand send-off from the Adelaide Motorcycle Festival in Belfast on the 12th February, before flying to Oz to collect their bikes from Triumph Australia. 
Highway One is the longest national highway in the world, covering practically every major inhabited part of Australia and includes large capital cities, busy holiday resorts, dramatic coastlines, forests ranging from tropical through to temperate gum forests and giant karri stands. Scrubland, deserts and huge tropical swamps are amongst the variety of landscapes to be seen en route.

Geoff Hill is no stranger to long distance motorcycling. His last trip, the Nambarrie Run II, covered 16,500 miles from Chile to Alaska, again on a Triumph Tiger and the highly amusing book covering his travels - “The Road to Gobblers Knob” – became a best seller.

Week one of the grand Adelaide to Adelaide adventure....

 riding two Tiger 1050s 15,000 miles around Oz, and what's been the highlight?
Not setting off from Belfast in pouring rain at four in the morning.
Not even picking up the back-up vehicle in Adelaide which the chaps at Wicked Campers had painted up for us with the word TRIUMPH on the side and rude quotations everywhere else.
No, it was the moment when we collected the keys of the two Tigers from the endlessly helpful guys at Peter Stevens, the Triumph dealer in Adelaide, starting up the engine and hearing that sweet hum which had been all the way from Chile to Alaska on my previous adventure and was again in this moment the sound of freedom and the open road.
We got the bikes all stickered up and headed off, and it was immediately obvious that not only were they the perfect choice for the trip, but that the Triumph clothing was ideal: with the vents open on our jacket and trousers, they were cool even in the searing heat of an Oz afternoon.
Even better, when I took out the winter lining, thinking I wouldn't be needing that for a while, I discovered an extra pocket in the jacket, and as we all know, a chap can't have too many pockets on an adventure for important stuff like Werther's Originals, Swiss Army knives and the like.
Sorted. Onwards!
Check out the progress of Geoff Hill and Colin O'Carroll as they ride around Oz for the next three months on www.adelaideadventures.com along with the taster for the Oz adventure documentary which is now on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv17GDIuVMg

Geoff’s trip is sponsored by Adelaide Insurance Services.