The Adventures of SpeedRacer, Senorita & Speedster

Rock n Roll Dance

2010-07-29T14:53:00.005+10:00

On the 17th of July, Sutherland Ward hosted a Rock and Roll Dance featuring an Auction of a range of things to raise money for their youth to go to TREK later this year.

We definitely couldn't miss out this first dress up dance for Tristan. Jade and Levi were in charge of the decoration and they did an awesome job. You even may see some familiar faces in the hall of fame.

Doesn't Courtney look like a real Rock star!!! Love that hair!

Thanks to Courtney Leon and last minute arrangements I was able to dress up for the dance. My GREASE days!!

Doesn't Tristan look like a mini Rock Star on his jacket and jeans?

Pam got herself a nice skirt to join the party in style!

What's wrong Levi? Tristan seems to be having a great time!

Tough Bloke Competition

2010-07-14T08:14:00.008+10:00

by Tate Ryan

Finally after two months of training the day arrived to see if I really was man enough for the Tough Bloke Challenge held at Cataract Scout Park near Wollongong. T Boggs the Melbourne Vegan gathered a few of us unfit Sydneysiders to join with him in the race to help him look good. Inspired by the challenge and the need to get my legs back in running order I accepted the challenge with about two and a half months to prepare. I definitely needed that time as it took me at least two months to get comfortable running the required 6Km at a reasonable speed. The training let me get to know my new neighbourhood as well as a devised some tough but enjoyable running routes from Bexley to Arncliffe.

By the time the race hit town I knew I could do it without having heartache so I felt prepared. The race was tough. Firstly I was amazed at how popular it is. There were hundreds of people doing the race throughout the whole day. It was a real enjoyable carnival atmosphere. Hanna and Tristan were there in support. Hanna was happy because it was finally coming to an end and she’s hoping my training will now not interfere with other things I have been putting off because of it.

Trent, Shack, Chris, Hass and I hit the starting gates at about 10.15am. I managed to finish 49 minutes later with cuts, bruises, sores, rash etc for my effort. It was a cold morning and some of the water challenges were freezing whereas the mud pit outdid its reputation by being more of an icy cold quicksand pit. It was so hard to move in. And no way of escape with barb wire above your head keeping you locked under. The final challenge of a rope crawl did the most damage though as it scrapped and burned the skin right of your legs as you made your way across.

All fun and games though. I was quite happy to do it in a reasonable time a couple minutes behind Trent.

We all went back to Engadine and played Risk to early evening. As you might expect as an internationally renowned Risk Champion, I took the win, which was a nice way to end the day!!

Also my mate let me know he saw a picture of me in the Telegraphs online newspaper. The photo was soon after the mud pit where I had to ditch my shirt because it was too heavy with all the mud on it.

SpeedRacer & Senorita are PARENTS!

2010-05-05T11:51:00.003+10:00

As you can see I haven't updated this blog for a long, long time! But I have a good reason for that. Our little Speedster has finally joined us in our adventures. In fact he got adventures of his own and you can check that at:

http://speedstersadventures.wordpress.com

SpeedRacer and I are a bit on hold with our adventures, without the bike and Tristan taking most of our time, we decided to just enjoy him at the moment. When he gets a bit older we'll try to take him with us. That'd be really interesting going camping with a baby.

Anyway, register on the other website so you can receive the updates from my little bundle of joy. I'm more consistent with that blog as I get to update at least once a fortnight.

The Apartment & Christmas Holidays

2010-01-08T12:52:00.010+11:00

Our New Home

December was a bit hectic for us. We have finally moved to our apartment, after having it painted and having the floorboards sanded and polished. It looks great now!

Since we got married, we've always lived in furnished places, so this is actually the first time that we needed some furniture, because we had none, we just gathered some that people gave to us and bought the bear minimum. As you'll see in the pictures below, things don’t match or are not the best fit to the place, but slowly we'll get new things here and there.

During the holidays we were able to make the apartment a bit cosier and looking a little bit like a homey home.

That's us reaping off the disgusting carpet they had there before, so we could have the floorboards polished. Look at that yellow wall, I hated it!! PS: you can see my 26weeks & 3 days bump on the mirror

We had to scrap all these dirty sticky stuff that was under the carpet.

Below is how the apartment looks now:
Our kitchen

The living room. Mind you that the lounge is there just for the looks, you can’t actually sit on it for a long time otherwise you sink in it =)

Our dining room. We got the table and chairs from my work. It's useful for the time being! We don't have blinds for any room yet.

Our bedroom. Lucky to find a very good second hand bed. It fits the room well. PS: another sneak peek of my 29 weeks baby belly

The messy room, eventually will become the baby's room. To be sorted during my time off work.

and the bathroom. That's it! The tour of our new home! You are welcome to our home any time! It's small but full of love =)

Christmas Eve

Brazilians have a different tradition than Australians for Christmas. Back home we celebrate Christmas on the night of the 24th, we do the big feast that night and families exchange presents. Here in Australia, they celebrate Christmas on the 25th, they have either big breakfast or lunch and exchange presents then. Because we are a family of both worlds, Tate and I celebrate both days. Lucky us!!!

This year we invited Tate’s family to come over to our new place on Christmas Eve for our Christmas dinner. I had the day off so I was able to prepare all the food!!! It was so yummy!!!! We all had a wonderful night together, after dinner we read the Christmas story and shared some grateful thoughts about the ending year and set goals for the year to come.

We managed to fit everyone on the table! Courtney, Neil, Pam, Grandma Val, Levi, Jade & Hanna. Look at the ham!!! I also prepared 3 types of salad, rice and got some fresh bread.

Us

For dessert: fruit salad and Torta Holandesa. Brazilians would know that very well. It was the first time I made it and it wasn't too bad!

Tate did enjoy that!!

Christmas Day at my in-laws!

Muscly boy! Ready for the feast!

30 weeks & 3 days

Grandma and I

One of the baby's present

New Year’s Eve

Levi, my brother-in-law, got tickets for the family to watch the famous Sydney fireworks at Garden Island where he works. We had a great spot and Pam prepared a lovely picnic for everyone, as we had to be there early to get the good spot and wait till midnight to see the big show. It was all worth it. The fireworks were amazing!!!

31 weeks & 3 days

Garden Island

I look so puffy!!

Our picnic spot

Farewell 2009!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Our birthdays!!

2009-11-26T10:12:00.006+11:00

For some of you who don't know Tate and I have our birthdays only 6 days apart, I'm on the 11th and he's on the 17th of November, and then, after 2 weeks is our wedding anniversary, which is coming up. So as you can imagine, every year is a bit hard to decide what to do, surprise no surprise, combined or separated, cheap or expensive, lots of planning, bookings and sometimes headaches, just to please one another.
For this reason, we've planned to have the baby after all these celebrations and holiday season, I don't think I could cope with another birthday between November and January.

Anyway, this year we had agreed that we'd do a combined birthday in a Brazilian Churrascaria with all family and friends. I was all excited about it as it was a 1st time experience for most of them.

For Tate that didn't seem to be enough to celebrate my birthday, so he told me he'd like to take me out for dinner on the 11th, my birthday night. For my surprise, the dinner was just a pretence for a much bigger thing, he had bookings for us to go see the musical Wicked, which was a awesome experience. I loved the dancing and singing, it was my first time seeing a musical, even baby Ryan enjoyed it by kicking every time the singing was a bit loud.

Dinner at the Vibe Cafe

We dressed up a bit for the event!

On the 14th night we went to Braza Churrascaria and had 18 people invited. Huge table!! The place was great, the food was authentic Brazilian style BBQ and lots of 'picanha'. Everybody seemed to have had a wonderful time and their tummies reached full capacity. We had even grandma Val showing her dancing skills on the dance floor by the live music guys. It was a memorable night!

Happy Birthday to us!!

Everybody looks so full!!!

After all these celebrations, it was hard to come up with some great idea for the 17th. Tate had for his birthday breakfast in bed, which I must say it was really good and then in the evening we had dad, Erana & Mick come over to share some nibbles and chocolate cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday to him .

Choc cupcakes look so yummy!!

Pregnancy

2009-11-12T10:28:00.005+11:00

Tate and I haven't been taking a lot of pictures of the pregnancy, it's going all so fast and we've been very busy with everything happening at the same time, e.g. looking for a car to buy (ours blew up), buying the apartment (which settlement has been postponed, but we need to start researching and getting quotes for all the work it needs to be a better liveable place), going to garage sales and shops looking for furniture for our place, we haven't even started thinking about baby's furniture yet. I guess he would fit in a suitcase for the first month, wouldn't he? Rebeca, my sister, did, and she slept there till my dad was able to build her a small bed. We still got more than 3 months ahead, so hopefully by then, things will be a bit more settled.

Well, for all those who kept asking me for photos, here they are. Chubby Hanna!

Took this photo this morning especially for the blog. (24 weeks and 2 days pregant)

Below are some retrospective photos.

By the way, for those who don't know yet, we are having a BOY!!!

I didn't look to puffy on this one, did I?

Look at the bump!!! (20 wks 4 days)

We got a really nice weekend to show the South Coast to a couple of Brazilian friends that are in Sydney studying English. Thais & Paola. I met Thais in my 3 months trial in an Electronics course at Liceu de Artes e Oficios.

21 weeks & 4 days (around 5 months)

We are so blessed to live in such a beautiful place!

Morning picture, I look so puffy!! (24 weeks and 1 day)

Diesel and Dust Tour 2009

2009-10-13T08:34:00.012+11:00

by Tate Ryan

The long awaited 2009 Diesel and Dust Sydney – Gold Coast Motorcycle tour had been in planning for about a year and now it was time to hit the road. Neil with the Triumph Bonneville, Shannon on the Trident and Tate with his Suzuki had found the time and now were ready to go. Shannon had arrived from the Gold Coast a few days early to prepare for the trip.

After taking Shannon to the motorcycle store and getting him all kitted out with the latest clothing, he at least looked like a biker. Now he just had to work on fine-tuning his riding skills to suit the problematic Triumph 1978 Trident and 1980 Bonneville.

30/09/09
The planned date of departure was Wednesday the 30th September. Shannon and Dad were supposed to take off in the day, while I would depart later in the evening after a work function and meet them at Tanya and Frank’s on the Central Coast.

Around midday I got the bad news that the Bonneville had some clutch problems, which had forced them to return home and work on the bike. I, however, was committed since I had my bike and gear all in the city ready to leave after work. So off I went and spent the night by myself at Tanya’s.

01/10/09
By morning there was no good news as the bike was still being worked on. It wasn’t until about midday that they left home and arrived at Tanya’s at 3pm. Although exhausted from the trip, I didn’t let them rest, we had to make ups some of the lost time. So at around 5pm finally all three of us took off together with the goal of getting to Foster/Tuncurry, which was a solid three-hour ride.

Although arriving late the upside was we spent up big and got a nice cabin for the night. Waking up to great weather in the morning was great even though we only briefly got to enjoy some of the nice beaches and atmosphere in Foster.

It was going to be a big day as our end destination was Dorrigo. A solid 300km ride. The ride was good, for me at least as my Suzuki always is a very comfy ride. At times I did feel sad for Dad and Shannon on the triumphs getting beaten up by the wind and pushing the bikes to the limit speed wise.

The first stop was Taree where we had to get some repairs done. The Bonneville was pretty dangerous with a loose chain but the guys at the Honda store did a great job in fixing it up. In the mean time we had a massive breakfast which kept us full for the whole day.

An unfortunate moment on the road for me got me in trouble with a psycho police woman who was out for my blood, booking me and giving me a sizeable fine to ruin my day. I did my best to keep positive for the rest of the day.

A couple of hours later, we were all a little tired from the ride and had a little family argument before continuing the ride to Bellingen/ Dorrigo.

The Bellingen/ Dorrigo ride is one of the more beautiful rides I have been on. Great twisty roads in a hilly area with superb scenery and we were doing at Dusk, the sun going down and the great weather and the charming little towns we rode through made a magic moment.

We were very pleased at out motel accommodation for the night, which was attached to the main historic pub in town. The pub was a friendly environment with great food and a cool place to relax finishing off the day playing some pool. For the record, I beat Shannon and Dad beat me.

We also managed to drop into ‘The worlds smallest motorcycle museum’/ Café before it closed. The Argentinean owner is one potty mouth, but he had a great looking café with a massive Ned Kelly bike and some great decorations. We promised to drop in the morning for breakfast.

02/10/09
In the morning we were visited by a local triumph owner, who had seen us ride into town the day before. He came looking for us in the morning and found us. (It really isn’t a big town). After taking a closer look at out the triumphs he wanted us to come and have a look at his. So all four of us jumped into his three seater Ute and drove the short distance to his house. His pride and joy Triumphs sitting in his garage. It was good meeting such a passionate Triumph fan and such a nice guy.

Back at the motel we finalized the packing at the same time all our neighbors did and it looked like a motorcycle convention as we all took off from the motel.

We pulled into the café for breakfast before heading west to Hwy 91. I was happy that we were going to be off the Freeway but I had no idea how good this road was going to be. Most good windy roads are short, say 30mins. But this one was a solid two hours of great riding; fast narrow twisty roads, with only a few cars to get in the way. Such a great ride I had to do it again on the ride home.

We made it to Grafton. I would have liked to stay of the coast freeway but we were feeling the pressure a little to get to Gold Coast before dark, so we jumped back on the freeway and headed to Ballina before taking the coast road to Lennox Head where we stopped for lunch and also at the Macadamia castle. (Only in the Gold Coast, you still get these theme-based places).

At the castle, dad’s bike had more fans gathering around and asking if he wanted to sell it. The final stretch to Shannon’s home at Reedy Creek wasn’t too bad. After stopping to see Allan’s family and baby Bronte for a while, we finally made it home and were greeted by the family and all the kids, as well as Hanna who had come up to spend the weekend there. It felt great to arrive, 1000 Km riding over two day really left me with a sore butt.

05/10/09
After a day rest at Shannon’s with some great food, Dad and I were ready to head home on Monday morning. The plan was to take two days, 500Km per day stopping over in Armidale.
I remember hoping on the bike and my backside being sore, still suffering from the first trip.

We headed towards Lismore so we could stop at Johnny’s farm. It was great to see him and his son. They were looking forward to getting some rain while we were not looking forward to the expected rain. Had a great lunch before saying our goodbyes and heading to Casino, stayed off the New England hwy by heading to Grafton and then back onto the Great Hwy 91 with all its twists and turns.

However, this time the experience was a little different. The rain hit us before we got on it. Dad was smart and put on the rain pants before we got soaked and hailed on. The hail was strong and I’m sure put a few dents in my helmet.

We almost turned back because dad’s bike’s breaks were really bad and I was worried with the rain and the windy road that it was too dangerous. But he wanted to push on and give it a go, which was great for me.

It was a long way to Armidale and as expected there were no petrol stations. About 100Km out of Armidale my almost empty tank warning came on. Then about 50Km from Armidale the warning really started flashing hard. It was already dark and I thought I was doomed to pushing the bike for 50Km. However I rode really slow and somehow made it. I love my bike!!

We pulled into the first camping site and got a cabin before heading out to another pub for a great meal. The one thing I will remember about Armidale, is that it is so cold. One freezing town.

06/10/09

After filling up with Petrol in the morning we head out on the road. Our first stop was Tamworth. We pulled into a famous Motorcycle museum, full of classic bikes, dominated by Ducaties and then a variety of older brands that died a long time ago.

Dad’s bike could have fitted in nicely in the museum.

We were pretty bored of the Hwy by Tamworth so decided to head inland to Nundle. A beautiful ride with very few cars, great weather and scenery. Another one of those great riding moments. Unfortunately at Nundle, the only way out of the place is on off road tracks so we had to take a paved road that lead to the Hwy again.

The Hwy of course leads through Scone, Muswellbrook and Singleton. Then cutting across to Cessnock and the Hunter valley back onto the Pacific hwy to Gosford.

It was dusk as we were on the Pacific Hwy almost heading into Sydney, the weather was still cold like it had been all day but the falling sun looked beautiful and I had one of those I love motorcycle riding moments and then suddenly as we got to the crest of a hill we could see huge hail clouds just storming down on us. It was depressing to see. They came up so quickly we had no time to stop and get dad to put on the rain pants. Within 5 minutes it was like a flood. Rain bucketing down and massive balls of ice smashing us.

I could hardly see where I was riding, it felt like someone had pushed me into a pool with all my motorcycle gear on. We pulled over to the side of the road with a lot of other cars as it was getting a little dangerous. In amongst this I had dad yelling at me for not pulling over at service station like he told me to do about 30 minutes before. If I was soaked my dad was really soaked as his clothes were a lot less waterproof than mine.

It was quite a miserable ride from then on, until we got the chance to pull into a service station in Hornsby and shake ourselves off and try to get a little warmer. 1 hour later it was a relief to arrive home in Engadine, have a warm shower and some good food. Did around 550Km for the day. 2500Km for the trip.

The final moments of the trip reminds me of the joys and pains of motorcycling. To reach the high moments of freedom, adventure and overall cool experience you have to also be willing to accept the pain and discomfort of that comes with it.

But no doubt it is an awesome feeling and I will sadly miss my Suzuki VStrom DL 650, which I will clean up and put it up for sale. It was a bike meant for Hanna and I to Tour on and we have got a lot out of it over the year. But with baby coming along it won’t be able to truly fulfill the purpose of its creation. Time to pass it onto to someone who can enjoy it as much as I did.

Arthur - Our potential 2012 Olympian

2009-09-28T09:58:00.003+10:00

Isn't my little brother the greatest!!! He was on the front page of the Magazine Folha de Sao Paulo Newspaper this weekend, as a potential Olympian for 2012 Olympics!!

GO ARTHUR!!!

He's the gymnast at the front doing the split.

I love this little guy, he's like a son to me!

Our holidays in Brazil - July 2009

2009-09-11T09:33:00.017+10:00

I wish I could write a great story about our holidays but no time!!! It's been too long that I haven't updtades this blog so I decided just to put the photos and you can imagine what the story was. =)

After 5 years, the 4 of us got to be together again. That's quite a memorable moment.

(Arthur, me, Tate, Rebeca & Israel)

FLORIANOPOLIS - SC

Isn't my baby sister a cutie!! We were all there for her 2nd birthday!

That's the bunch in Florianopolis - Mirante and Praia da Joaquina

What a lovely couple!!

Where is Rebeca? Crying at home cause her boyfriend didn't come on this trip as he was somewehre else in a competition. She missed out a great afternoon.

GRAMADO - RS

The other highlight of the trip was seeing my grandma. We hadn't seen each other in 7 years.
Yes, we do have winter in Brazil. We drove 550Km south of Florianopolis to go to Gramado and enjoy their special hot chocolate and great foundue!

Mind you, this was a 2 day trip and the 550Km back turn to be 9h drive because of the horrible weather, torrential rain and horrific truck drivers on BR101. I don't know how we managed to get home alive.

We quickly stopped in Canela on our way home. The rain gave us just a tiny break.

Beautiful waterfall in the background.

SAO PAULO - SP

My dearest friend Grazi hosted a delicious barbecue lunch for us.

(Me, Tate, Grazi, Kadu, Samanta & Andrew)

We decided to walk up to the highest point of Sao Paulo (Pico do Jaragua) 4.5Km. I almost died!

Almost there!

We made it!! But of course I couldn't walk all the way down, so I asked for some Korean girls a ride. Luckily they lived close to my mum's place and we got a ride home.

NORTHEAST BRAZIL

Doesn't this look like paradise?

Maragogi - AL Natural swimming pools

Our JetStar jump!

Meu Brasil, meu Brasil, brasileiro! Eu amo meu Brasil!

Praia dos Carneiros - It was an adventure to get there, but we made it, after mini-vans, roads with pot holes bigger than cars and moto-taxi.

Can you believe we survived for 7 days out of our backpacks? Some snacks, water, clothes and the laptop!

Praia dos Carneiros

Guess the name of the city... Porto de Galinhas - Chicken Harbour.

Therefore all the chickens around!

However, we went there to see fishes, can you see them? There were so many of them swimming around us. It was a bit scary though.

Soon you'll see me like that. Speedoritz is on his/her away!!

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

2009-06-18T09:03:00.011+10:00

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.

Thank You!!

2009-06-15T09:17:00.002+10:00

Hi Guys,

Thanks a lot for your comments and emails. I appreciate your love, kind words and interest in our adventures.

The great thing with this blog is that I got long time friends that were not in touch for a while to contact me. That was awesome!!!

Thanks again and I'll keep updating it with more interesting stories.

Love,

Hanna

ATTENTION!!!

2009-06-10T16:38:00.003+10:00

Oi pessoas,

LEIAM e COMENTEM o meu blog!!!!

Hi people,

please READ & COMMENT my blog!!

Our 4th Motorbike Trip – Central NSW

2009-06-10T16:28:00.001+10:00

Exploring the Hunter Valley & Central NSW
10th to 14th of April 2009
by Hanna Ryan

We didn’t prepare and plan for this trip as much as we did for our last one. This was meant to be a real adventure. To start with we took too long to leave because we couldn’t find our camera. As you can see this is a trip without photos. We can’t find it anywhere, till now. That’s really sad!! I want pictures!!!

So, the trip, we didn’t have anything booked. Tate had left a lot of the planning for me and as you can guess, I’m not so good at it, but managed to get a few destinations and maps together. Called a few caravan parks but guess what? As we left everything to the last minute most places were already booked out so we just took our chances, hoping we’d find somewhere to stay. We were all set with our food, bike and camping gear, now we are pros in packing and unpacking our stuff on that bike.

We left on the 10th afternoon (Good Friday). First stop was Buffs Point, Tanya’s house. Easy ride. A little bit of traffic but not a big deal with the bike. It was nice seeing the girls again, as it’d been 6 months since last time we were there. By the way, you’ll see on the posts below just photos of our 2nd trip which was the Central Coast but I never got the time to write about it. One day!!!

On Saturday the 11th we had a big breakfast at Tanya’s to help us on the long tight budget trip and off we went. We rode through the Hunter Valley, got to see a few vineyards from a distance and the beautiful landscape of this region. We had a quick stop for a muesli bar at the something garden and even got to enjoy some live music sitting on the grass in front of the rotunda. After that we tried a little bit of off road biking to go to a look out but soon enough found out that it would not be possible. We rode through the upper Hunter which we ended up liking more than the crowded parts we saw before.

Because the caravan parks in Singleton were booked out we had to stretch out our ride a bit further to Denman. Which was a fantastic idea as I loved the caravan park there. We had our own private bathroom and plenty of space. At night was a little bit noisy as there was a big Indian family celebrating something there playing music with drums, guitars, etc. But it wasn’t too bad, very cheerful!

From Denman we rode to Mudgee through a brand new road (Bylong Valley Way) that would have it’s official opening day the next day. The ride was great, I love these little ways we find on our rides. There are so many hidden cute spots on this land. We got to Mudgee and settled in a caravan park that was quite full but we still fitted in it. That weekend they were having the Bike Muster in Mudgee, I guess that’s why there were so many people there. Mind you, that this was Easter Sunday and all the shops were closed when we got to Mudgee, so we had to have subway for dinner and no Easter egg. My first Easter without Easter egg, very sad.

On Monday, the weather didn’t look very nice but we had to keep going so we rode to Gulgong. It’s a touristic place in this area, some Australian important person came from that town and a pub was pictured in the old $10 note. By chance we met Tanya and her husband who were lost, trying to find their way to Forbes. That was really random. Coincidences are funny and interesting aren’t’ they? Then we had a delicious chai latte in a cute café there while we waited for the rain to go. Which of course didn’t go totally, we were heading to Orange where we luckily had some contacts (a friend of a friend parents lived there) who let us stay at their place. By the time we got there we were soaked, cold and exhausted. The Doyle family was lovely, they took us in, fed us and gave us warm and comfortable shelter. The best night sleep I had in the last few days.

The next day was time to go back home but as the day turned out to be beautifully sunny and pleasant we took the long way down. We went through places like Millthorpe, Oberon, Katoomba, Blue mountains, etc. It was spectacular. How sad we didn’t have the camera with us. The most beautiful views of the Blue Mountains that I have ever seen. And the ride, oh wow! Tate loved it! Lot’s of twists and turns.

I hope you've enjoyed another chapter of our adventures.

A gente no Brasil

2009-06-05T08:55:00.002+10:00

Oi gente,

vcs nao vai acreditar, mas consegui convencer o Tate de irmos para o Brasil juntos. Ele jah comprou a passagem e tudo mais. Vai ateh ficar mais tempo do que eu.

Estou tao feliz!!!!

beijos

Hanna

Our 3rd Motorbike Trip - The conquer of Mt Kosciuszco

2009-05-26T16:08:00.007+10:00

Conquering Mt Kosciusko - Dec 26 – Jan 4th
by Tate Ryan

I was busy planning this motorbike trip from the day I got back from Hong Kong until we left. We managed to pull off a miracle, Two people on one bike, 10 days worth of luggage, a tent and cooking gear. It was one heavy bike. I have never heard of any other bikers attempting such a feet. If they did, they either wouldn’t camp or wouldn’t cook their own food.

We survived 9 days of the trip. Travelled over 1000Kms, Camped every night in a three man tent and cooked our own food.

It was a lot of fun. Hanna looks back on it and says it’s was her best holiday ever. It was tough though and we came home a day early because we were pretty much exhausted. The hardest thing was the cold, and we were travelling through the Australian Alps which didn’t help. The nights were freezing and our tent & sleeping bags were not warm. We had to sleep in all our motorbike gear.

The scenery was beautiful though, the camping was fun, the cooking less so. It would be nice to eat better food. Sometimes we didn’t even eat because we arrived after shops closed etc.

We climbed Australia’s highest peak on New Years Eve. (In our motorcycle clothes) which was an inspirational thing to do. (A three hour hike and it was freezing cold at the peak)

On New Years day we rode to a town and watched a Rodeo, that was interesting, at the campsite, hung out with all the foreign students picking fruit during the holidays.

It was good to be home though. It was so exhausting setting up camp and packing up camp every time we moved, because it would take between 1 – 2 hours to do it. It was very complicated fitting every thing on the bike.

While riding we crashed once in mud. Also got soaked in the rain a few times….

Good memories though. Glad we did it. We were on a tight budget and did the whole 9 day trip for $500 AUD. That included everything – Petrol, camping, food, entry fees, movies etc. We were very proud of ourselves for this effort.

Our 2nd Motorbike Trip - Central Coast

2009-05-26T15:55:00.004+10:00

Our 1st Motorbike Trip

2009-05-26T12:38:00.016+10:00

(Scroll down for English version)

Oi Gente,

Depois que eu saih da Emirates, a vida ficou mais monotona. Nao tenho muitos lugares para visitar e como a maior parte deste mundo, sou assalariada e trabalho no horario comercial sempre sobre a mesma rotina. UM SACO!!!!

O sonho de viajar trabalhando acabou mas eh claro que o meu sonho de continuar viajando e me aventurando nao.

Ao inves do aviao e um milhao de pessoas desconhecidas, agora o meio de transporte eh uma moto e a companhia de um homem maravilhoso =)

Essa nossa primeira aventura foi para Camberra, capital da Australia, que eu ainda nao conhecia. A viagem foi otima, a paisagem magnifica e bem parecida com o nosso querido Brasil.

Beijos

Hanna

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Hi guys,

Since I've left Emirates, my options of travelling and taking lots of pictures to share with you have dimished heaps. Now I'm just like everyone else, work every day, from 9 to 5 on a boring office job.

However, my needs to keep exploring this world couldn't stop. So I have changed my style of travelling. Instead of the airplane and thousands of people around, now I have one companion and a

motorbike.

We have done our first trip last weekend to Canberra, the Capital City of Australia. The sight-seeing was beautiful and we had a wonderful time there, on better saying on our way there.

I hope you enjoy the pictures...

Take care

Hanna =)

Introducao

2009-05-26T12:08:00.000+10:00

Oi gente,

Decidi comecar a escrever um blog para ficar mais em contato com amigos e familia, jah que muitas vezes nao sao a pessoa mais rapida e eficiente em responder/escrever emails... Entao por aqui poderao saber mais o que estah acontecendo do outro lado do mundo.

Fui inspirada pela minha amiga Samanta que vem demonstrando certa consistencia em atualizar seu blog, achei que talvez possa seguir seu exemplo. Veremos no que dah.

Ainda nao sei se vou escrever em ingles ou portugues, mesmo porque, como podem ver meu portugues estah cada vez pior, mas isso nao resulta num ingles melhor, entao jah viu neh!
Como a maior parte dos meu amigos no Brasil e no mundo sabem falar ingles e a familia precisa aprimorar mais o uso dessa lingua, acredito que alguns posts serao em ingles, senao a maioria... mas eh claro que se precisarem de traducao, comentem no blog e eu mando um email com as noticias traduzidas...

Bom, como nao tenho noticias atuais para atualizar hoje, vou usar esse tempinho para fazer um retrospectiva, nas aventuras que o Tate e eu fizemos nesses ultimos anos...

Espero que gostem do blog!

Enjoy it!!