Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist)

© irene waters 2015

When I think of bikes I think back to the days of my youth. In my first year of nursing training I asked Donny, a wardsman at the hospital who was known to procure good cars cheaply for the young trainee nurses to buy me a vehicle. The good car he purchased for me turned out to be a lemon and didn’t leave the hospital grounds instead becoming a hotel for nurses who missed the nurses home curfew and found themselves locked out. In my second year of training I got to know a group whose lives revolved around bikes. I was uncomfortable on the back of a bike not having a great deal of faith in the competency of the rider and decided the safest way was for me to have my own bike. I started off on a Suzuki T250 racing bike but before long because I wanted comfort for touring I bought myself a new GT550 Suzuki – a two-stroke three cylinder motorcycle.

© irene waters 2015

Dressed in my Belstaffs I took every opportunity to leave Sydney and ride into the countryside although my nursing experiences made me nervous in the Sydney traffic. Living at Balmain meant I either had to travel over the Gladesville bridge or the Sydney Harbour Bridge to get to work. The Gladesville Bridge could be terrifying with high wind gusts moving the bike. The same occurred on the bridge going to Phillip Island. Mind you I have been in a VWcar where the same happened but you do feel a little more vulnerable on a bike.

© irene waters 2015

© irene waters 2014

Two friends setting off on their round Australia trip.

© irene waters 2015

On Bruny Island off Tasmania the weather closed in as I discovered the girl with the gun and my boyfriend of the time were….. Sometimes I should have been the pillion rather than keeping my independence.

© irene waters 2015

In the Huon Valley we picked apples.

© irene waters 2015

© irene waters 2015

© irene waters 2015

Travelled to the snow.

© irene waters 2015

And with a girl friend camped at Seal Rocks after a visit to the Sarah Lee factory where we bought a strawberry cheesecake and had to eat the lot as we had no refrigeration. I only had one accident on it although I fell off it a few times on dirt roads.  It was the day of our final nursing exams.  It was also the first time I had a pillion passenger travel with me. We travelled up Sydney Road (a steep road) Manly when a car came out from the left and hit the bike towards the front pushing me over. I managed to pull it back up but was then falling towards the other side. This went on for four or five times of leaning one way then pulling it up the other way as we slid up the road coming eventually to a stop, upright in a street which went off to the right. Luckily nothing had come down the hill and even luckier was that the pillion I had on the back became statuesque and just went with the flow as though she wasn’t there. Had she done otherwise we would have eaten dirt. It was at once the most terrifying experience and yet the most exhilarating experience of my life. And the pride I felt afterwards made me feel as though I would burst with joy as to me it proved I had made it as a bike rider.

I bought this bike in 1975 and still rode it ten years later although not as my sole form of transport. I look back and wonder where I got the nerve.

Also you can see why I needed to do something with my old photos. They are rusting and the colour fading. 123Cheese is a better way to store for posterity.

Thanks Cee for sending me down this memory lane trip done in response to Cee’s Fun Foto