Shostakovich Plugged

While in Perth "Girlfriend-like-creature" told me I needed to be back in Melbourne by the 2nd for some undisclosed reason.

The reason it turned out was a performance of one of my all time favourite pieces of music: the Shostakovich String Quartet number 8 in C minor.

The performance was in a small art gallery in town and was played by a quartet called Shostakovic Plugged who use amplified semi acoustic instruments.

What a wonderful and special suprise. That GLC is kind of ok.

The violinist talked prior to the performance and I was surprised to learn that the peice was dedicated to the victims fascism and that the four note theme, which has been in my head since I first heard it more than a couple of decades ago, is actually based on Dimetri Shostakovich's initials.

The music was beautiful, scary, devastatingly powerful and darkly disturbing. Even GLC said it wasn't awful.

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Day 19

Waking up feeling a little cold in my sleeping bag, I checked the temperature and found that while it was a nice sunny morning it was only 2 degrees.

Cooking and eating hot porridge in the cold, still morning was a joy and I finished breakfast with a strong coffee while I contemplated packing up my tent for the last time.

The ride through the Grampians was great. It's such a spectacular place and I saw more (living) wildlife on the roadside than I 'd seen previously on the entire trip.

Exiting the Grampians at Dunkeld I pretty much felt like I was now on very last bit of my holiday. The riding was cold but I took regular little stops to warm up and before I was probably ready for it, the Melbourne skyline was on the horizon.

Lots of stop and start traffic on the Westgate then there I was pulling into the garage. Trip over.


What a fantastic trip it was. Amelia and I covered about eight or nine thousand kilometeres and had met a whole bunch of interesting people and saw a whole bunch fantastic, spectacular and never forget type stuff.

While I don't think I'd do the trip again I'm very glad I've done it.

Next big bike trip planned is to Mount Gambia via Great Ocean Road in November.

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Day 18

Checked out of motel and started the long ride through the Ngarkat Conservation Park.  Finally made it to Boarder Town and fueled up and then after reminiscing about "girlfriend-like-creature" and my last stay at the Dukes Motor headed off for Horsham.  Again riding through the green and yellow of wheat and canola fields.

Stopped for supplies in Horsham and started towards the Grampians  The road sign to Melbourne saying 300km or so away sort of tempted me to head straight home but I kept on and finally the mountains came into clear enough view that they distracted me from my desire for my own bed.

Pretty soon I was in the mountains and the roads and views made it all worth while.

Eventually found a fantastic campsite which was pretty far of the main road and completely isolated.  Perfect.  I set up camp and, as it was feeling a little cold, actually made a fire in the camp fireplace.   Cooked a yummy barbecue chops dinner under the stars and then watched the fire burn down to ashes over a couple of glasses of red.

Day 17

Waking to another sunny day headed off for Magnetic Hill which was a pleasant 20 minute ride out of town.  We carried out careful scientifically controlled experiments to see if the mysterious powers of Magnetic Hill would have any determinable effects on motorbikes.  Allegedly a vehicle parked in neutral at the bottom of the hill will role back up the hill.  We experimented for about 10 minutes and this is what Amelia had to say about the amazing results.

Next was the ride through to Morgan where we caught the ferry across the Murray.  It was nice to be riding through the big fields of canola and wheat again.  Slowly the crops started changing vineyards and orange groves.  The wild flowers besides the roads were quite brightly coloured.

Shortly after getting off the ferry Amelia and I stopped for a light snack and after consulting the map realised that this may as well be the time to split up.  Her plan was to go on to Mildura to visit a friend, mine was to start heading south to visit the Grampians.  We had a final fuel fill up together and gave each other a hug and said good bye.  Actually we said, "maybe see you at band next Tuesday."

I spent the rest of the day fanging it down to Pinaroo.

Day 16

Pretty much only two goals for day 16.  The first was to get Amelia's rear tyre changed in Port Augusta and the second was to sleep somewhere on the other side of the Flinders Ranges.

After a quick bit of internet research and a phone call we found the shop we needed set off for a leisurely ride into Port Augusta.

Amelia's old tyre

Getting the tyre changed was no fuss at all, while we waited we had lunch and I changed my headlight bulb had conveniently lost low beam during all the riding around in the dark.

Me changing my lightbulb

Amelia's new tyre

Next was the Flinders Ranges which we decided to cross at Horrick's Pass like last time.  This time with the clear skies and the sun out the views were spectacular and with curvy road dry the riding was a lot of fun.

With nice long stretches in the foot hills we eventually came to Orrorroo where, starting to feel pretty cold, we decided to stop for the night.

The Orrorroo Commercial Hotel was the best country hotel experience we had.  Very  friendly good food, and good rooms.  During the course of the evening we chatted with the other quests, many of whome were in Orroroo to work on finding grasshoppers. 

Back of napkin directions to Magnetic Hill and other places

After dinner we had a conversation with David and Carly who were staying near by.   They gave us lots of directions for our next days travel and also referred us to Magnetic hill.