Bear Spray to Sea Spray: Sydney to Hallifax

LAST DAY OF RIDING!

It was our last day on the bikes, and an easy 400km ride back-tracking our route slightly but ending up in Halifax.

We ate breakfast at the hotel, with a lovely view over the harbor, before loading up the beasts for the final time and heading back out through the 'burbs of Sydney.

The GPS decided to take us on a scenic route, which was apparently the fastest route to Halifax, but all the same it seemed to take longer than the ride in. We just took it in our stride, as we hate back tracking as a rule, and will always prefer a new route.

The route took us North through some country backstreets to a Car Ferry, just like the ones we have back at home across the Hawksbury river.. almost identical in fact!.

We rode through some lovely scenery that reminded us a bit of the Hebrides, and eventually found our way to our hotel about lunch time -as usual- we were too early to check in. So against all better judgement, walked through the garden to the adjoining Wendy's to eat a meal that I would see again. and again... and again... *sigh* I just didn't learn from the first time I ate Wendy's.
Never again - this time for sure!

After eating our burgers and fries, we wandered back to check in and started to clean our bikes proper. First order of business, was to take both bikes about 2km down the street to 'do it yourself' car wash. You know the places that have those high pressure washers that really don't do that good of a job, but are much easier than getting on all fours to clean the bottom of the bash plate.
Lucky for me this place took credit card, and we spent about $30 cleaning *most* of the gunk that had accumulated on the bikes since we gave them a little bit of a clean in Bangor. To my surprise I was able to get the majority of the calcium chloride off the undersides, paying particular attention to the more stubborn deposits

My bike had no mud guard on the rear wheel (it broke in Russia and I never replaced it) so quite a lot of road grime had accumulated under there. A good blasting though and most of the junk came off. One small thing I noticed is that the little tool box pannier I had added, did appear to smack into the back brake caliper, despite the manufacturers (and the Internet's) claims that it would miss. Not a biggy -now the trip was over - but there was still a Bleed Nipple shaped dent in the bottom of the pannier.

Megan's bike got a the same blasting, but being black, it shows up the dirt much less then mine. very handy to have. We rode both bikes back, being very aware of soap on knobby tyres, and also to avoid any puddles or dirt patches on the road.

Luckily our room had a sliding door that opened onto the car park, and we could just wander in and out to clean them, have a rest, more cleaning, more resting. The weather was hot, had turned overcast and was really muggy. I broke out my silly fold-up wide-brimmed hat, and despite Megans multiple protests, stripped down to a t-shirt and my boxers, after being dutiful to check for any holes that may become the locus of an eventual registered sex offender listing - should I crouch down the wrong way.

We went over the bikes with a fine tooth comb and checked everything.
We hand washed the bikes twice, starting at the front wheel, and moving very slowly back over the whole bike, paying special attention to the radiator/oil coolers, behind the front wheel and under the rear mudguard to make absolutely sure there was not ONE insect or any mud at all. even the smallest speck would not be tolerated by Australian customs.

We pulled off our number plate covers and cleaned the dust from under them, making sure the back of the AUS plate was also clean. I bought a scrubbing brush and tried as best as I could to poke between every fin of my oil cooled heads in search of debris and dirt.

We pulled off all the seats, and everything else that would come off, including push-fit fairings, inspection panels and the luggage and cleaned under it all.

Finally after there was no visible dirt, we gave both bikes a liberal coating with WD-40 on all the painted steel, and Mr Sheen on all of the plastic parts.

We went to bed that night, sun-burnt, arms aching, and reeking of WD-40. The mammoth task was now finally over. we had spent the best part of 8 hours cleaning the bikes and had only stopped because of the lack of light. We were happy and and relieved

Until about 1 am in the morning.

When it started raining.

It only lasted a while luckily, and the next morning after a bit of a rinse off and some more Mr Sheen, the bikes looked mint again.

First order for this morning was to sort our luggage, repack everything, and send everything we didn't need back with the bikes on the ship.

We policed up all our clothes, separated them from our camping gear, and made two piles - one for the plane and one for the boat.

We cleaned the panniers inside and out, polishing them with Mr Sheen, and fitted them back to the bike. Looking at the giant pile of shit we had to take back with us, we called a cab and hit the local Walmart, and came back with 2 large and one carry-on 'wheely' suitcases.

After a bit of tetris-ing, we had our new luggage packed, and the bike panniers locked up like those practical-joke tins with the snakes inside.
We tentatively rode both bikes to the local Harley dealership for crating, (it would suck to dump the bike in the street now) and sadly shut our helmets into my top box for the trip home.

We walked back to the Hotel, checked out, and we wheeled our luggage to the the Harley dealership to fill out the paperwork, before getting a Cab to Hallifax airport where we would spend the night in the transit hotel, ready for our early flight To San Fransisco the next morning.

The last day had gone like clockwork. Everything had fallen into place with no headaches, from the car wash down the road, to the Harley dealer within walking distance.. and finding luggage at Walmart easily. Seemed weird to me that things went off without a hitch.