Our 5th Motorbike Trip – “Bikies” are not made for winter.

by Hanna Ryan

Another long weekend came across and we couldn’t let it go without another adventure in our motorcycle (we need to find a name for the motorbike. We are open for suggestions), even though we’ve been extremely busy looking and inspecting places to buy and Tate’s been travelling a lot with his work. Because of that, we didn’t have time to plan a new place to explore so we decided to go to a destination we’d been before as we’d have a place to stay but also could try a different route to get there.




we stopped at the petrol station to heat up our left over Shepherd's pie from the previous night (budget travelling) / look at the sign we found on the road

The place was Orange, we really liked last time we went there. As we didn’t have the camera, we thought this time would be a good opportunity to capture the beautiful landscape as we had borrowed Jade’s camera. Therefore, we stopped at a few strategic places to take some pictures. Unfortunately, after one of those stops (the sign below),

Tate was trying to turn the bike and suddenly the next thing I see is him and the bike on the ground. Unluckily, he badly hurt his thumb but said it was alright to ride. (I guess it was just the shock and cold weather that made the pain feel a bit numb at that moment)

Because we were not going to camp, we travelled light. Just a set of clothes for the weekend, no hot packs, nor extra jumpers or proper winter gloves.

Note: whenever you decide to do a trip make sure you check the weather report because you don’t want to get caught by surprise. As you can imagine we learnt that on the hard way. I never knew that Orange or the way to Orange would be the most freezing experience we’d ever have. I had 3 layers of clothes and still wasn’t enough. The wind on the road is so harsh that cuts through all the layers of clothes you have on and freeze your skin.

After the fall, the ride was painful for both of us. For Tate because he could really feel the pain on his thumb and for me because the sun was gone and I turned to be an ice block at the back of that bike.

We finally got to our destination alive and decided to have a relaxing, warm weekend. We stayed at the Doyle’s family again and that was great. We decided to rest and stay at home so Tate could heal his hand and I didn’t really mind not going out for another freezing experience. (Besides it poured down the whole Sunday). Instead, I learned to knit with Olive. She’s such a sweet grandma.

Olive taught me to knit

David, Olive, Denise, Tate & Hanna

On Monday, we left early and were all dressed with all the clothes we could fit in and we had hot water bottles in our pockets (which didn’t last much anyway).After a bit of rain here and there, the sunshine came out and along the way we found a very interesting country road, that had nice views. We didn’t get to see the Blue Mountains this time, but it was okay. I just wanted to get home and have a boiling hot shower.




Sometimes our trips are not the most pleasant ones but they are still very adventurous and fun. I guess that’s why we do it.