Day 34 - Braidwood, New South Wales to Bemm River, Victoria - 418kms

I awoke in the middle of the night and had to wander down the barely lit hallway of the late 1800's era hotel we were staying in to find the bathroom. It looked and felt so much like the Shining I was waiting for two little ghost girls to appear in the hallway. When we got up the sun was out for the first time in 36 hrs and the ride was that much better after the suffering of the previous day. We made out way through the Monga National Park which teemed with wildlife. Four bright red and blue Parrots flew right next to me for nearly a kilometre until I nearly went off the road while I was watching them. Around every corner were live kangaroos in the road and not so live wombats along the side. The temperature continued to rise as we neared the coast and our plan to skip Canberra was feeling better and better.

The rest of the day was spent cruising down the coastline of New South Wales and Victoria which involved crossing lots of rivers and bays on skinny wooden bridges that play hell on motorcycle tires. As we got into the rainforest the road was constantly wet and I was wishing I had replaced my rear tire a little sooner.

Mike put his trust in me once more and we headed down a rough dirt road with all the fun off road bits including sand, mud, fallen branches, washed out sections and forks in the road with no signs. Luckily my map reading was spot on and we emerged from the woods to the coastal town of Bemm River. The weather was great for camping but the forecast called for rain so once again we tucked into a pubs hotel room. I can't believe I've never known you can rent a room for the night in pubs in Australia.
My bike seemed to be getting louder and louder so I did some investigating. When I pulled the muffler off there were two large holes under where each header comes into it. My bike pretty much had straight pipes on it which explained my ringing ears at the end of the day. As I stared at it with no idea how the holes got there and no idea how I was going to fix them I went to bed thinking everything would be more clear in the daylight.