... Go

The day has arrived. The bags are packed. It was a close call; I was still packing at 2am.

Dave sends me an SMS saying he wants an 11am start. That works for me because I could do with some sleep. The weather in Canberra when I wake up is not bad; a bit cloudy and slightly cool but comfortable enough. I meet him in Duffy and after some heartfelt goodbyes between him and his missus (that's Kirsten) we're off on The Odyssey.

The first leg is to Cooma and then to Nimmitabel. Dave reckons the pie shop in Nimmitabel is awesome so we stop there for lunch. I've been past Nimmitabel before but didn't drop in; won't make that mistake again because the pie was superb. Then we're off to Bombala. I don't know how Dave's handling it but I'm freezing my tits off. The weather that I thought was not bad turns out to be bloody awful at highway speeds. I'm hoping it's warmer at the coast.

From Bombala we turn onto the Cann River Road. I've ridden a few roads but this has to be one of the best I've experienced. Beautiful sweeping corners on perfectly smooth tarmac with spectacular scenery. Being on a bike means you get extra senses coming through and the crisp clean smell of the forrest is uplifting. At the bottom of the road we stop and reflect and grin from ear to ear as we simultaneously realise we have three months of this to look forward to.

We turn onto the Princes Highway towards Lake's Entrance, our end point for the first day. When we arrive it's already well past sunset so we pick the first camping ground we find, quickly put up the tents under the glow of headlights, then off to the local RSL for a feed. A pretty successful start to the trip.