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Hey Ho Yakamo!!!......C'ya in January!.... Posted by Mike Lynch [Email]  (#81) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Mike Lynch) on Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:16:18
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Tonight I fly to Australia for a month. C'ya Dec 31st! Here's the article describing my forthcoming trip that I wrote for our local BMW Motorcycle Owners Club magazine called Road Signs...
Oct 14, 2005 – Road Signs
Hey Ho Yakamo!
Letting somebody borrow you motorcycle is just not done, kinda’ like loaning out your spouse, well not really, but you get the idea. On Nov 29th Kit and I fly to Australia to see how the motorcycle loaning thing works. So far so good. Actually it promises to be incredible,
We met an Australian couple, Lin and Prue van Coppenhagen in the Alps on our first tour with John Hermann and company back in 2001. At the time Lin and Prue were riding a borrowed R1100GS that had been customized in BMW “M” colors, everything painted, anodized, plated or whatever, very tastefully done. Lin and I hit it off and Kit and Prue as well as they both were fond of riding pillion as Lin calls it. We exchanged info and said we’d like to visit Australia some time, the usual good intentions.
Two years later Lin and Prue’s son enrolled at UC Riverside and we helped him acclimate and sold him an old VW Vanagon. Lin and Prue and their other son from Amsterdam came to our house for an extended visit, 3 months total and the fun began. Part of their visit they spent touring the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas with their son in the Vanagon, which was sorta’ romantic as Lin owned a VW van in Europe when he first was courting Prue. Three more weeks were spent house sitting for us as Kit and I sang and danced our way across the Camino in Northern Spain. And another three weeks were spent by Lin and Prue riding my R1100RT “Zelda” up to the Sierras, Tahoe and beyond with Amos and friends. Kit and I had to work and couldn’t join them. In between there was a household of van Coppenhagens on and off for 3 months, which Kit and I found thoroughly delightful instead of our usual empty house for a change.
The deal was Lin and Prue would ride my bike here and Kit and I would come to Australia and borrow theirs. Lin was an outstanding rider, his bike at home in Perth was a K1200S, we had ridden together in the Alps and it was obvious he knew what he was doing. Lin is a man of means, and insurances and licenses and we made sure the bike and the liability were all covered and he took excellent care of Zelda in the 5,000+ miles he rode servicing the bike once and replacing a tire or two as needed. The division of labor with the van Coppenhagens is that Lin pilots and when the journey is over Lin rests his back and Prue cleans up the bike. I tried to convince Kit that was a good system, meanwhile Zelda was no worse for the wear, actually a little cleaner, and it was time to cash in on the exchange in Australia.
The next year in 2004 we were lucky enough to get to hang with Herm and the gang in Corsica and Lin and Prue wanted to go along, delightful! We reunited in Corvarra at the La Fontana in the Dolomites where we had first met them and proceeded across Italy to Corsica and then back up through France and Germany. For Lin and Prue Corsica with me, Kit, Herm and the gang, was an interlude on an extended European motorcycle tour for which Lin had purchased a K1200S in Munich on a buy back arrangement as a less expensive alternative to renting.
Upon our return from Corsica we started making arrangements for our going to Australia. Meanwhile Lin and Prue had relocated from Perth and the west coast to the east coast near Port Maquarie. As I mentioned Lin and I really hit it off and there’s almost a psychic connection. When Lin got done with Zelda in the Sierras he and I both began to think that maybe riding in the Sierras was far superior to the riding in Perth and that maybe he should ship his bike to Sydney for me when I came to Australia. I was thinking this to myself and he brought it up out or a clear blue sky. Well that problem sorta’ solved itself as Lin and Prue moved to Port Maquarie on the Gold or East Coast soon after. Again when I called Lin to advise him that we had booked our tickets to Australia for an entire month, out of nowhere he tells me that he has borrowed his brother-in-laws R1150RT for Kit and I and he would accompany us to Tasmania on his K1200S.
So it’s all set, we arrive in Sydney Dec 1st for the whole month of December through the 31st arriving back in San Diego New Year’s Eve. From Sydney we shuffle ourselves down to Canberra to pick up Lin’s brother-in-law’s RT. An RT is ideal for Kit and I as we have our top box (to put more stickers on) and tank bag for our RT that we use on whatever RT were riding. Also a familiar RT will be good for riding on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately for me I’ll be following Lin until I get the hang of it. From Canberra it’s down through the Australian Alps to Khancoban, then Bairnsdale on the coast, on to Melbourne and then the ferry to Tasmania for 6 days riding in Tassie. Then it’s back to Sydney for the Ballet at the famous Sydney Opera house on the 20th and then back to Lin and Prue’s home in Port Maquarie. Did I mention that when Lin met Prue he was working as a professional tour guide? Should be quite a trip! We’ll be in Port Maquaire only a few days as Lin and Prue have their large extended family coming for Christmas so we’ll take Lin’s K1200S, or perhaps the new R1200GS that Lin has ordered, up to Rockhampton and Yeppoon near the tropic to visit my cousin who I haven’t seen in 30 years.
When we parted in Germany last year at the Sonnenberg Hotel after Corsica. The four of us were celebrating and Lin exclaimed “Hey Ho Yakamo” and that’s become our rallying cry, our toast to the good times. It was quite awhile later that I finally asked Lin about that and where was Yakamo? He said that he had made it up, there was no Yakamo place, but doesn’t it sound swell mate, and so Australian? So lift your glass and yell Hey Ho Yakamo and you’ll instantly feel better.
, Tue, 29 Nov 2005 16:16:18 <-- Viewing This Message
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