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1-19-09
Victor Harbor to Robe

I am in Victor Harbor which is where I ended up after getting off the Kangaroo ferry. It isn’t that far but I didn’t get off the ferry until about five. I found a really nice old hotel on the bay right across from a bowling green. It is an old place but they have kept it up nice. I have a really small room but it has a shower in it so I had a chance to clean up and hopefully get organized a little better.

First thing I did was go out to the motorbike shop and looked for a rear tire. Man, that last Brigstone didn’t last long and now I am the proud owner of another one. I got about 5,000 km out of the last one, which is about 3,000 miles. I will have to say that there was no slipping and sliding with it and it seemed to do well in the dirt. It is too bad they are so darn soft. It was the only tire my size that they had. The good thing is that they only charged me $15 bucks to mount it. I got to watch and was a little concerned when a kid started on the bike but after watching him he was really good at tire changing. He has done a lot of them evidently. He had to struggle with getting the chain and hub and disk brake back together but I sure did too when I did it.

My next effort did not turn out so well. I went all over town looking for a new camera but couldn’t find any thing that suited me. I will have to check more stores as I go along the road. One shop keeper said that they hadn’t restocked since after Christmas. I wonder if that is going to be the story all across the country or even the world. I am hearing that lots of the mines are closing down and some cities are in real deep dookie because a lot of their workforce is now unemployed. Those that live off those well paid mine workers are now out to lunch too. I listen to the radio and the news on the economy here sure doesn’t look good. A lot of their economy is based on exports to China and China is not importing like they used to and what they do import is now priced less.

One day when I was in the library a guy came up and introduced himself as a KLR rider and we had a good motorbike talk. He is a guitar player that is visiting his girl friend who is working on Kangaroo Island. As it turned out, when I came into Kingscote to check my email at the library and get something to eat at a restaurant, he happened to come by and sat and had some lunch with me. He would really like to take his bike and do a ride around like I am doing but is starting work and will have to put if off for a little while. It is so nice to visit with like-minded people. I sure would like to hear him play his music. His email address starts out guitarnasty…@….. Isn’t that a cool email name? See what I mean, you want to hear his music too, now don’t ya??? I will have to ask and see if he has anything posted on the Internet.

Walking around these towns is going to get me killed. I think I am more at risk here in town getting run over than I am out on the road riding on the wrong side of the road. In Australia the cars have the right of way and you have to watch your self or they will run you over. When crossing the street it is hard to remember to look to the right when stepping off the curb. And that is even when you are crossing the street in the cross walks. The cars just don’t stop for pedestrians. There are times when I have stopped to let people cross and they give you a funny look and I don’t think they really trust that you wont try to hit them when they cross. I try to remember to look both ways (rubber neck) before stepping out on the street. Screeching tires and a little horn toot gets me back on the curb in a hurry.

Out on the road they are very courteous and never seem to be pushy and want to go first. They are really into these ‘round-abouts’ and after getting the hang of them I really like them. Everyone gives right away to the cars coming from the right and it makes getting around town much easier than waiting for a stupid light to change.

Out on the highway a major road will dead end into another major highway and they don’t even put up a stop sign. Sometimes they don’t even put up an Yield sign (they call them ‘give way’). I really like the way that they have determined that the people are capable of thinking and being nice. People even wait when pulling out of side roads so you don’t have to slow down. They are overly polite. I really like that and try to slow myself down to match their ways. I really like these people. I have met only three people that I haven’t liked. Two women at petrol stations and one total bitch at a hotel (but I think she was a tourist from out of the country).

I just went downtown and went to the movie theater. They were showing the movie ‘Australia’. That is nothing like the country I have been riding through. I guess it was filmed in the northern part of the country. I looked at the audience and there were no ‘black’ people there. It is interesting that most of the people there were old and when I say “old” I mean older than I am by a long ways. I thought that was interesting. There were almost no kids there either. I actually thought it was a pretty hokey film but then I didn’t get a lot of the dialog but sure did get the meaning of the story. I am pretty critical when I see obvious errors like when they moved cattle. Jeez, you would think they would have hired a cowboy to at least get basic cattle herding right. Oh yeah, it was only a movie and not real life. She was too damn skinny…….

I met a guy the other day that said his name was Pool. I told him that that was an unusual name and that I had never heard it before. He said it was a common name over here. How do you spell it? P-a-u-l…. You see what I mean about not understanding the lingo?

My new friend Marcus sent me a link to his music… the guitarnasty dude. As he says it may not be for everyone but I like it. I like the connection to the younger generation. They will take over this mess when us old-timers are gone. I sure hope they do a better job than we have. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=121854040

1-21-09
 Robe

I am staying in the YHA hostel in Robe. The hostel is in an old mansion that was built with old world craftsmen brought over for the job of building it. The ceilings are 12-15 feet high and the building is made of locally harvested limestone. I sure wish I had a camera to take some photos of it. This is the first time I have lived in a mansion and I find it really isn’t that bad. Huge rooms and main hall with large bay windows in most rooms that make the place light and airy. The kitchen is huge too with lots of counter space and cooking tools. There is also the large wood/coal cooking stove that was built in sort of a grotto. One kid said they even fired it up not long ago. There are really nice Italian marble fireplaces in each room and the library has floor to ceiling bookshelves. The floors are nice wide planks that are two inches thick nailed down with hand made copper nails. The panel doors are about three inches thick and made out of really heavy almost black wood. The whole building is just first class all the way.

 Robe is on the coast and I rode over to take a look at Long Beach. The road goes down on the beach and I rode along it for a mile or two. I like the look of the girls in their swimming clothes. Actually the girls in their summer clothes aint that bad either. They like to tan the top of their breasts here.

This is a pretty busy fishing port and I went down to the dock today to check out the fishermen bringing in their catch. There is a weigh station that they have to weigh in their catch. I suppose it is a government program but not sure. I went down to the little fish store right on the dock tonight and ordered the special fish and chips for $8. With the Australian dollar now at $.66 that makes it a little less than five bucks American. When I am on the coast like this I like to eat the local fish. I had butterfish for the special. To tell the truth I can’t tell much difference in the fish I have ordered but they are all good. They do tend to be a little greasy but they wrap the pile of fish and chips in a huge wad of paper so it doesn’t get everything all greasy.