Riding from the Mountains to the Coast the journey continues on my Royal Enfield Himalayan S1-E17

I woke up to rainbows and... D'oh! But also, that storm that had blown in yesterday evening had dumped snow on top of the mountain. No wonder it was so cold up at Dead Horse Gap when I came through. I got up and saw that there was rain clouds from the mountains and where I was going was clear as. So I was going to quickly get up and back up and bail. But, I've noticed I have a flat back tyre. So, I'm going to use my little hand pump and pump it up just to see if it's a slow leak. So see if I can get at least out of the rain somewhere. And then go from there. It's starting to rain again so I'll have to wait for this rain score to go and then I'll get back out there and try and get this tyre popped I guess. Just trying to swap the valve end for my mountain bike. Yep, this was going to take a while. So if I remember correctly, Chase from Royal Enfield said I could go up to 42 psi on the back. So that's where I'm going to start. So, the tyre was up. For now. I had to download yesterday's footage as I'd run out of space on my memory cards again. So, it wasn't going to be a quick getaway. Everything's just a little harder to do once it's wet. Normally I'd put everything outside on the ground so I can see it all which makes it easier to pack. And also freeze up the tent to be able to roll up the air mattress and sleeping bag. I'd just have to work around the rest of my stuff. Normally all the parts of the tank go in the same bag. But, with the cover being wet, I'll separate it until I can dry it out. Trying to get away early just kept hitting roadblocks. But, finally with everything packed, it was time to hit the road. I thought I'd check out the pressure in the back tyre to see if it had gone down at all in the last hour. Of course the air pump is out of order. This could be the story the whole day. Just finding a working air pump might be a challenge. Hopefully this garage will have a working air pump. It's an old style air pump which really wasn't designed for spoked wheels. The readout isn't as accurate as a digital one but it looks like the tyre is holding the pressure. So, I'm going to chance it and continue on. While I was at it, I thought I'd put a little lubricant on the chain after riding on the dirt roads yesterday. I was riding through the Monaro Plains. It's known as the treeless plain. And many people think this was because of clearing for livestock to graze. But, it is a classic case of how geology and weather affect the land. The soil in the region is thin, the temperatures are cold, and the plain falls in a rain shadow area between the eastern escarpment and the snowy mountains. This results in the land being covered in very few trees. I rode through Cooma, which is known as a gateway to the snowy mountains. The road started to deteriorate. It was like a slalom course between the potholes. Then, it turned completely to dirt. It is bitterly cold. Just pulled over to put on some more clothes. I'm going to put on thermals, the first time I have the whole trip. It is that cold. It probably won't take long until it warms up, until I head to the coast. But, right now, I tried to put up with it. And, surprised to be on a dirt road. I haven't actually seen anybody, just checking, anybody on this dirt road for the first 40km or so. It said about 136km with no service, as in fuel or anything like that, or food. So, I just checked the back tyre. It seems to still be up enough. So, hopefully, I can make it to the other end, and get to another gas station and check it. And, hopefully, it stays up during the day. And, I can sort out what I'm going to do tonight or tomorrow. Well, put some more clothes on. It is cold. I have one, two, three, four layers on already. There had been consistent rain all last year in this area. And, I'm gathering, with the conditions of the roads I've seen, they're still trying to catch up on the repairs. It's still really cold. But, I've pulled over because I've noticed I'm near empty. And, I've still got the two side tanks of fuel, the spares. So, I'm going to put those in the main tank, because there is nowhere from here north that really has a stretch without a gas station around. Now that the fuel's sorted, heading to the coast to try and warm up. Now, that's an impressive hedge. I'd come to the edge of the eastern escarpment. It was time to drop down to the plains below. And, to find out how fast or slow this leak was. It had gone down to about 26 psi. So, I think I should be fine until I find somewhere to stay for the night. Which meant traffic. Something I was not looking forward to. Now, why did I come this way again? This traffic is hectic. I was getting pretty tired towards the end of the day. And, I'm not really sure where I was going to go. But, I was close to Kayama. And, it's a beautiful spot. So, I thought, yeah, I'll camp there. There was no free camping spots left. No National Park spots. So, I went OK, Kayama Park. Nothing. I didn't realise it was a weekend. So, yeah. That sort of put a span in the works. But, tonight, a stealth camp. So, it's pretty quiet. There's no one here. I'll just, yeah, camp out here and then get up before dawn. So, nobody knows I'm here and move on. It's about 5.30 in the morning. So, time to get up before the sun. Might watch this sunrise and check out the surf. This beach is pretty cool. How fun did that wave look? It's just a magical little bay. And, there's nobody here. This is quite typical of the south coast. Little pockets of magic like this. I hadn't been to this one before. So, it's a good find. And, lots of really good grass. So, I'm about an hour south of Sydney. And, I've still got to work out this slow leaking tyre. So, I thought I'd better change it. Otherwise, it's going to take a while to get back. Well, I'll have to stop at every gas station to pump it up again. And, I thought, who's got a garage that I can do it in so it's out of the sun? And, if I get over it, I can just leave it there and come back to it. I mean, normally, 10-20 minute thing. It's high sometimes. Just don't like playing ball and either hard to get on or off. Without, obviously, the right tools. So, craftsman day. I think we're going to go and see if he's home. I made my way back to the bike and I was off again. As highways are boring and busy, I thought I'd take an alternative route. Also, I could link up with the one refuge motorbike riders have who live in Sydney. The Royal National Park. Originally called just National Park, it is Australia's first national park founded on the 26th of April, 1879. Becoming the second national park that still exists after Yellowstone in 1872. And about a decade before, Yosemite National Park in the United States. Though, the land in Yosemite was put aside for public use in 1864. Well, those guys are giving it the beans. Maybe they were going too fast to see their 60 km per hour speed limit. Due to the dappled light, maybe? The roads are tree lined, a lot of flying turns and some tight hairpins. Just for good measure. So, if you don't know who Dave is, go and have a look at the Black Butt video about the tree. But Dave is a timber guy. Not wood, timber. Craftsman. I got that wrong once. They don't like being called woodworkers. Anyway, he's now assembling his latest project he's working on. Which is a cabinet, I think. I'll get him in to explain it. He hasn't finished yet, but it's quite impressive. I was once told that your hand is not a hammer. That's correct. This is a custom job that I've been working on for a few weeks. A client wanted something with curves. It's going to be a side cabinet. So I've got two doors that are going to open up here and a third here in a shelf. And then, if you just look here, we've got a bunch of slats. And it's a fairly simple, clean, minimalist kind of design. But the technical side of it is that I've made these little slats. The whole job is made out of tassie oak. And these little slats go into these little grooves here and here and around the sides. So that when the shelf's in, you can have access and look through the sides only. And when you're from the side, it completely looks like it's closed off. And there's only a certain angle, these tiny little slats, that allow you to actually get some light in there and some visual. So it's been a pretty technical job. It needs to be really perfect. And there was no kind of room for error doing this stuff. But it's come out really good. Nice yoga mat. My wife doesn't know about that one yet. So, yeah, does the job for this. How many times are you going to assemble and disassemble this? Just a few. Looks really easy. You can go light to dark. You can pick that up there. Thank you. That's actually very impressive. First assembly, this is awesome. It is amazing what you can create from wood. I mean timber. So now to tell Dave the real reason I came. Dave, can you help me fix the flat tyre? Really? I'll show him that it's been slowly going down. How's it going? That's so full. No, you don't need to change it. Once you get on. So, if I've tyre issues and this does something weird, we know who we're blaming. Because I'm going to go with him and wait until I get back. So I'm here just checking out some of Dave's new creations. Have a look at this little chair he's made. I am a big fan of creativity in all its forms. Seeing an idea actualised. And it's comfortable. Good job, Dave. I can head off now. Just going to keep heading north and see where we end up. See you, mate. Till next time. Later, dude. Heading north along the Pacific coast. It feels like I'm almost home. I mean a thousand kilometres is close to home for an Aussie.