Page 25 - Shining On Newsletter - Autumn 2022

rip as the bay is huge (1930 square kms, with a shoreline of around 270kms and only 24m deep at its
deepest point, and the entry about 1km wide - so there is a lot of water passing in and out with the tides).
Once things had settled down I left the bike and enjoyed the journey to Sorrento on the Morningtom
Peninsula, where property starts at 7 figures and keeps going!
Won't bother you too much with the ride from Sorrento to Melbourne, other than to say the highlight was
riding the hairpins up and down to the lookout at Arthurs seat, from which you can see the whole bay,
with the Melbourne cbd distant skyline & the the Bellarine peninsula and Geelong over to the West. No
rain, again and safely back at my friend's house in Western Melbourne late afternoon.

Day 20 Melbourne to Castlemaine

I have a long term friend who lives in Castlemaine, a lovely rural town about 80 Kms NW of Melbourne.
Castlemaine was one of the towns which grew and prospered out of the gold rush and after falling onto
hard times has been rejuvenated as a lovely rural town with a fast rail link to Melbourne. My friend Ian &
his wife Susan have a semi rural property on the outskirts with a big (read huge) shed in which his
beautiful Laverda Jota and other nice bikes reside, so this is where the trusty GS will slumber on life
support until our next planned ride around Tasmania.

Total trip distance: just under 2000 miles.
2022 Update

I had forgotten about this article, started in October 2017 & by the time I found and resurrected it the
trusty R1150GS had been awakened from its slumbers for Gernot Minig, then President of Ulysses
Germany, and his wife Wally to undertake a 3 month tour of the rh half of Australia (in 2019), and Mim
and I had 'done Tasmania' on it in January 2020.

The trusty GS (with replacement rear brake cylinder fitted by Ian) has undertaken these long journeys
without a moment's trouble, and I have to say these 1150GS models are also the most comfortable
BMWs I have had the pleasure to ride. Mim is in agreement after our journey around Tassie (an article on
which will appear later this year......or if this one is any measure, in 2023)!

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