Opera, Outback & Ocean Guided Motorcycle Tour

Sydney Opera House to the Southern Ocean by way of the outback, in ten days. This guided tour covers 3,241 kilometres and eleven nights, and the stretch in the middle takes it a long way from the coast.

Bathurst comes early in the trip, and with it a lap of Mount Panorama, which is a public road for most of the year and a genuine pilgrimage for anyone who has ever watched the Bathurst 1000. The Blue Mountains come before it, then Parkes, Lake Cargelligo and Hillston as the farmland thins out and the distances between towns start to stretch.

Broken Hill is the turning point. It is a silver-mining city built in the middle of nowhere, with a working mine, an unexpected art scene and the ghost town of Silverton a short ride away, which has stood in for the outback in more films than anywhere else in Australia. After that the Flinders Ranges lead south to the Barossa Valley, then Victorian back roads and the Great Ocean Road into Melbourne.

BikeRoundOz runs it with a lead rider, a tour guide and a support vehicle, eleven nights in three and a half to four star hotels, daily breakfast and welcome and farewell dinners. The bike is your choice from their fleet, or you can ship your own. Fuel is charged at cost, with flights, insurance and most meals separate. One thing to know: departure dates are not yet published for this one, so it is worth enquiring rather than assuming a date.