Notes from the Saddle – Australia Encompassed 2013 – Riding into Melbourne – Compass Expeditions Motorcycle Tours and Rentals

Our 2013 Australia Encompassed Motorcycle Tour was a great success with the riders having enjoyed the ride through the heart of Australia. Read the final post from this year’s trip and enjoy the photos below….we would love to have you join us next year to see why the riders love it….

The Australian Encompassed ride has come to an end and everyone has gone their separate ways so let me fill in the last week of this incredible ride from the top of Australia to the bottom.

We departed the Lyndoch Hill Resort with an ominous looking sky as we rode into some of Australia’s finest twisties of the Adelaide hills via Gumeracha, Chain of Ponds Road & Cuddlee Creek before arriving at Australia’s premier motor museum at Birdwood. We all spent a couple of hours inside marvelling at the staggering array of motor vehicles on display from a 72 W model Kenworth to a scooter and absolutely everything in between, you would need 2 days to do this place justice.

After lunch on the banks of the Murray River in front of a paddle steamer we rode into the Coorong National Park, a landscape of sand dunes, lakes and a plethora of birdlife, everyone especially appreciated our accommodation that night, an indigenous owned cultural resort with a million dollar view and a management team very keen to explain to us the history of the traditional land owners and land.

Crossing into Victoria we rode into the 300 million year old Grampians National Park with some more amazing twisties and a land of epic lookouts, waterfalls and forests.

The following day proved to be a challenge for all riders as the heavens opened up and it poured as we rode the 2 hours south to one of the worlds most stunning coastal rides, the Great Ocean Road . Fortunately the following morning was kind to us as we were greeted with warm weather and sunshine. A magnificent day ensued as we rode the coastal road that is precariously squeezed in between the stunning forests of the Otways National Park and the thundering Southern Ocean. The ride was punctuated by Koala sightings, superb coastal views, sensational twisties & wonderful back country riding as we took the rarely used back roads into Melbourne.

We had travelled over 6000k since Darwin and ridden from the shores of the Timor Sea to the Southern Ocean all in 19 days, a wonderful wharf -side dinner was a fitting end to this experience rich ride, we can’t wait to do it again in 2014 and already have interest

Enjoy the photos below which show just a few of the highlights of another amazing Motorcycle Tour