Other than my bike box being too heavy and having to swap some gear into my carry-on, the flight from Adelaide to Canberra went without a hitch.

Exiting the airport arrivals at 3 pm, I found a shady spot to re-assemble the bike and in an hour it was loaded and ready for action.

Mounting the heavily (over?) loaded bike, I wobbled off on the unwieldy beast to buy basic food supplies from a supermarket located a short ride away, adjacent to the airport complex.

My big adventure was officially on the road.

Shopping done, it was a pleasant ride around Lake Burley Griffin for some sightseeing and then, having found and photographed myself in front of Parliament House, my sights became firmly set on reaching Jindabyne nearly 200 kilometres and several days away.

It was starting to get dark as I left Parliament House so not a lot distance was not going to be covered that night.

Riding until 9:30 got me to the outer suburbs where I pitched camp in a gully just off the main road.

I had been offered accommodation by a kind resident but it involved back-tracking five kilometres and being so early in the trip, I wanted to stay true to my plans.

This then was my first night on the road and without a huge distance covered, exhausted, I slept soundly until daybreak. I had not covered my daily average of 90kms but camped in this idyllic setting, I didn’t care.