We had a lovely evening last night at the Currambine Bar and Bistro with about 30 of our riding buddies from the Perth Motorbike and Sidecar Meetup Group. Vince originally founded this group on 9 Feb 2013 and has grown to 682 members! Awesome friends who make us feel very special, supported and loved ….. they share in our passion for motorcycle travel and encourage and inspire us each time we see them. They are the “family” we choose for ourselves and have even organised a welcome home ride for us in 2016. Many will be following our travels closely and perhaps living a little vicariously through us ….so we have to make sure we have the time of our lives….and theirs!  Stay tuned guys – watch out world here we come…..

Post on Meetup from Karen Herriott Partridge

At our family Farewell Dinner one of our daughters and her family gave us a very unexpected and beautiful gift – some BOOT PLATES. The company usually makes inspirational statements for people in the fitness industry such as runners, athletes etc. She contacted them and told them about our plans and they made these specially for us – we are the first “motorbike” ones they have produced – Woo Hoo, we are trail blazers!

It’s ALL STATIONS GO in the Partridge house these days, we are busy packing up our “normal life” into boxes, selling off the extras or donating them to good causes (so we don’t have to store too much). We have listed our house to rent out and people are coming through looking to lease it for the 12 months we are away. We have organised with a friend to care for our dog on her farm whilst we are away … I think he knows Mummy and Daddy are leaving him behind for a while! I am in my last two weeks at work (where I have been for the last 16 years) handing over to my replacement and Vince still has a further two after that….. we are busy catching up with friends and family as best we can and trying to see as much as possible of people before we leave… we are going to miss them. We are booked into a photography course this weekend to sharpen our skills to take those HERO shots to share with you all from our world travels…..they will be AWESOME! I go from being super super excited to scared shi@#less….. but my friends say that’s normal given the circumstances ….I can’t wait! ……something tells me our lives will never be the same again…..BRING IT ON….Here comes ADVENTURE GIRL!

As part of sharing our adventure with others we had a logo designed (by Kiri from Clockwork in Perth) based on our simple design and working to provide constructive feedback. There was a lot of backwards and forwards emails as they didn’t seem to get just how ANIMAL our bike is (initially drawings looked like a scooter!). We eventually went in and met with the graphic designer and things moved forward quickly from there. Once we were happy with the logo and font we moved into having some stickers made (with Steph and John), and within a couple of weeks they finally arrived today! Awesome! We can now share these with our friends in Perth and those we will meet on the road along the way!

 

The ANIMAL was shipped from Fremantle, Western Australia by Bikes Abroad on board the Margaret River Bridge. The ship docked at NQ8 on the morning of 29th Jan and left in the evening of 30th. Karen and Vince went down to Freo to sneak some pictures through the fence as they were not permitted on the actual wharf! Bye Bye baby – see you in the UK.

The trip has been a dream for Vince for around 5 or 6 years, Karen has shared the dream since early 2014. Like most people, it seemed so long away, with plenty of time, and although some very preliminary planning work had occurred and the ANIMAL had been purchased, it was not until late 2014 that they really knuckled down in earnest with their planning. Attendance at the Horizons Unlimited meeting in Perth, Western Australia in Oct 2014, along with the DVD collection they had been watching, served as both informative and inspirational. In early Jan 2015, this was the practice packing for the panniers, with only a couple of weeks before the bike was due to be shipped. Hmmm ….very impressive!!

ANIMAL: Does my bum look big in this?