As the time has now come for the final leg of my journey, I feel that anti climax feeling I always seem to have each time I know a trip is coming to an end. It is also the time when I start to wonder where to head next. Each trip being more daring or extravagant.

Ria and i were standing beside our bikes when a couple of blokes walked our way to the German registered bikes beside us. We now know them as Peter ffrom Bavaria and Thomas from Berlin. Our initial thought was that they were travelling together until we found they had only met each other that afternoon also.

Peter was a 71 year old retired Doctor from Germany who didn't look a day over 60 and Thomas was a teacher taking a sabbatical year to travel the world. Both guys spoke good english and soon we became four. We lined our bikes up on the boarding line and spoke generally to each other for an hour about where we had been and the highlights etc.

Peter was making his way back home now as he had been previously travelling with his wife who had made an emergency dash home after being notified of a sick friend. Thomas was heading back as well to deal with a medical condition he developed along the way. So in a way we were all on our journeys end except they had a heap more travel to get home than we did.

After getting on board we had agreed to meet up at the bar on deck 9. This was a problem as from our cabin deck 9 was secured for crew only. We went to deck 10 where Peter joined us a short time later. Thomas failed to appear and I searched for him only to find he was back with the others upon my return.

We started having a few drinks as the boat left dock and then they brought out some smuggled beer and wine they had hidden in a bag. So that was consumed as well. We shifted to the dining area where we had a dinner and by this time we knew each others background quite well.

The funny thing is, all the people who rode bikes acknowledged each other on the boat and spoke. We spoke to a NZ couple who were heading to Bathurst on their 700 BMW. Yet all the car people stayed in their own groups.

After speaking to these guys about there travels I am inspired to put the bike on a boat and travel Europe. There is no reason not too and it has been added to the bucket list. Besides we have a place to stay in Bavaria and Berlin now. Soon the beer shifted to red wine and then back to beer. So I found myself in the same situation as I did on the last night of the mainland tour.

Peter had to go and skype with his wife and then headed back to his cabin and eventually Ria had had enough and went to bed. I partied on with Thomas till the bar closed.

I found my way back to the cabin and woke Ria up to tell her I was drunk. Which I figured she established that very quickly. I was quickly told where my side of the cabin was.

The next thing I knew the wake up call came over the intercom at 5.45 am and I lifted my cast iron head off the pillow. Again I was paying for the previous nights behaviour on my final ride home.

At 6.30 we went down to deck 5 and the four of us met and said our goodbyes. Melbourne was showing signs of bad weather and this was confirmed as we headed over the Wesgate homeward bound.

Like everytime a Ballarat person travels back to Ballarat from Melbourne, the temperature drop 6 degrees as you come out of the Pentlands and the dark cloud is there to dump that welcome home rain down on you for your last 50 ks. So we wern't disappopinted and any homesickness we felt was soon forgotten.

Ria and I had completed just under 1500 klms in 5 days in Tassie. This has now marked the official end of my Aus trip. I have loved every moment and I am extremely glad that the new machine has proven to be so reliable. It has been great travelling with Johny and Shirl and Ria over the past two months. Ria has proven to be an excellent pillion. A lousy camera operator but great pillion. She has the bug and is expecting me to start planing an extensive European trip for our retirement.

John ans Shirl dropped in today to see how the Tassie leg went. we talked about our mainland experiences before Shirl threw out the east Coast suggestion. Johny has fallen trap to Southbank BMW by purchasing the ultimate road touring machine and I can see he is itching for more bitumen.

So thanks to all who followed us through this trip and poked fun by your comments. They were great entertainment to us and certainly make you feel you are always not that too far away.

Don't be surprised though to receive an email for adventures in the not too distant future.