Our first destination today was Castle Hill. This is located not far the hotel and winds up a steep hill to almost 600m giving the most panoramic views all through 360 degrees. Extremely popular road for walkers and cyclists getting their Saturday morning workout. We then began the trek north until we reached our 2nd stop for the day. Frosty Mango provided us with an excellent breakfast. The temperature is creeping up now and by the time got going again it was 27. We kept on for a bit then turned off for a 50km trip inland to see the spectacular Wallaman falls. Apparently the falls with the highest sheer drop in Australia. The road was fairly straight through sugarcane plantations and then we went over a cattle stop and for the next 15km there were cattle grazing the roadsides and wandering anywhere they pleased. Fortunately they were not bothered by the bike and basically just ignored us. A bit like being in India again. We then bagan a steep and windy hill section of about a 600m asc...

Only about 300km to go today. We set off in bright sunshine, it was hot already. Just out of town we ran into a bit of fog and as we climbed away from town it got quite thick. This lasted for probably 40kms or so and as the temp dropped to around 18 it was slow but very pleasant going. We stopped off at the seaside town of Bowen for a look and what a treat. Beautiful sandy beaches and a real laid back feel about the place. I think I would prefer to holiday here rather than Airlie beach, a bit like comparing Mt Maunganui and Waihi beach I reckon. After coffee at a beachside cafe we hit the road again. It is very dry here, lots of dried up river and stream beds. The bush also is quite sparse compared to what we have been used to. Funny what you see along the way. We saw an extremely long train filled with coal. I’m not sure if it is exported from here or used in the sugar mills which dot the landscape and all have a black smoke chimney stack. We made good time to Townsville and after a s...

A day out today. On and in the water. We went on a tourist boat first to a lookout over a beautiful bay. Then to a beach with pristine white sand beach which is apparently 95% silica. Great to buff up the jewellery. After a couple of hours we visited two reef sights for snorkeling. We enjoyed the snorkelling but were left a little underwhelmed with the reef in this area. A big highlight of the trip was seeing humpback whales both on our outward and return journeys. All in all a very nice day out.

A chill day today. After a leisurely breakfast we went for an exploratory walk. It is such a pretty place with lovely beaches and a laid back little tourist street of shops. There was a market on as well and out in the harbour, sure enough was a cruise ship, funny how these two things go together. Spot the cruise ship in the photo. Quite overcast and it looked like it might rain so we headed back to out hotel just as it began to spit. We sat on the deck having coffee and it rained a bit harder and made the place smell so fresh.It didn’t last long and the sun came out again. A little bit of tropical foliage. Yesterday on the way here I got a message from the BMW that it was low on oil and sure enough when I checked it was on the low side. I found a Kawasaki dealer a few ks away and went off in search off the black gold. No problem, back to the hotel for a top up. I went down to get on the bike and got chatting to one of the cleaning ladies who gave me loads of ideas for places to see be...

It is still nice and warm here, but for the first part of the day there was cloud cover which made for pleasant travel. 500+ km today and not too much to report in the way of highlights. Some very unusual rock formations in the background. I did get breathalysed in the middle of nowhere at a checkpoint. First time in my life I actually had to blow into something, I nearly ran out of puff! As we move north towns and settlements and towns become more sparse, so it was a roadhouse for breakfast and gas. The choice was chicken n chips or stale sandwiches, so a stale sandwich and coffee it was. A lot of sugar plantations along the way. We have got into the habit of stopping regularly for a drink and one such stop happened to coincide with a one horse stop with a shop sign Peters Ice Cream. The sign screamed disappointment and I don’t think I have ever seen a more rundown and ramshackle place in my life. They did have a fridge with some ice-cream in it and the lady happily took $10 off me fo...

Away before 8 and once again lovely and cool 20. The air flowing through our mesh riding feels very refreshing at this time of day and lasts until the temperature rises to about 25 then it just feels like warm air and after 30 its like a hair dryer. An easier day today and after we left the cane fields and citrus orchards behind it was just a tree lined road with grazing pasture in behind. Not particularly interesting but it was shady which was nice. We stopped for breakfast in a pretty village called Miriam Vale, 2 eggs 3 rashers of bacon and toast for $12, can’t be bad and that will sustain us till tea time. We stopped for a look around Rockhampton, a lovely little city on the Fitzroy river. Lots of hotels and apartments and the inner city was beautifully kept with lovely island gardens and the heritage buildings were mostly well preserved. Unfortunately there were a lot of empty retail spaces, seems that the life has been sucked out of it by the big box stores that line the roads in...

500km today and a very nice ride. After owning my Tomtom navigator for several yeaars now and getting totally frustrated with it at times I dug deeper into the settings and think I may have solved some issues. Some people are just slow learners. Anyway we said bye and thanks to Liam and set off in the very pleasant 21 degrees. The first 100km or so were all motorway as we bypassed Brisbane and headed towards Towoomba. We stopped in Fernvale for breakfast. This is biker central, we saw heaps of bikes out enjoying these amazing roads and the sunshine. Rolling hill country for the next couple of hundred km’s, mainly beef fattening country by the look of it with a few crops. All the way today we have seen blackened fields which are obviously a controlled burn off. There were also a few blackened areas on the verges where things became uncontrolled I suspect. There was one hill in particular that just looked like bush to me but much smoke was rising from it. It is very dry up here, I can se...

We got up bright and early and headed off in 18 degrees and a beautiful blue sky. We were soon travelling through a lovely rural landscape with hardly any traffic on the road. Just perfect. We hadn’t got very far when came to a lovely little town called Kyogle, really picturesque, we just had to stop for breakfast. We spotted a cafe with other bikes parked outside so we went in. The owner and his wife were very friendly and quite interested in our bike set up. Turns out they are just about to set off on their own adventure, 4000km into the interior of Queensland. While we were waiting for breakfast Robyn got chatted up by one of the locals, the picture tells the story! So on we went, day getting warmer and the scenery better and better and we came to a mountain range (well the locals call them mountains but they are a hilly range) nonetheless very beautiful and road became tight and twisty. There were quite a few other bikes on the road and I can see why. After this the road straighten...

A very easy day as it turned out, I thought 300km might be a reasonable day given we decided to stay off the motorway, however it just flew by and we could have gone a bit further but we had booked the motel. Anyway we set off in a very mild 18 degrees and followed the B road which took us into the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. A mixture of eucalyptus forest and farmland and punctuated with several pretty little rural service towns. We stopped in Coffs Harbour for breakfast and continued on till the next major town Grafton. Lots of motorbikes seemed to converging to Grafton and it turns out there is a car and bike show on this weekend. Checked into our motel and wandered off for a look around. Not very much to recommend this place, just a little service town. We stocked up on a few goodies for the road and wandered around the shops. When we got back to the motel there were 3 other motorbikes parked up and it turns out there is a charity ride on in the morning with around 50 pa...

Today we went in the car to the town of Dorrigo which is situated on top of the great dividing range at almost 800 metres. It is much cooler here but not cold. We visited the Dangar falls which are very nice and did a short walk down to the base of the falls. After a quick look around the town which I think is a mainly farming service town we visited a visitors centre which explained a bit about the remnants of the rain forest that we are in. A nice viewing platform provided a lovely panoramic view of the surrounding area. We then retreated back down the hill to the quaint little village of Bellinger for lunch. I sampled my first Aussie pie, admittedly from a swiss bakery but it was very nice.

 A welcome day off the bike. This morning I played with the motorbike adjusting a few things to my liking. Later in the morning we went for an explore of our local environs. A beautiful beach environment and a retirement and holiday haven.  After lunch we headed about 25 km north to the delightful seaside settlement of Urunga. This place is at the confluence of the Bellinger and Kalang rivers. A beautiful estuary and a protected wetland and reeds. A long boardwalk out to the ocean beach was a really nice walk with many birds including Ibis and Pelicans. Looking into the water there were small fish grazing on the kelp and in the other direction Kangaroos grazing on the reeds. The weather is fine and mid 20’s so feeling quite summery to us. Later in the afternoon over gin and beers we made plans for the following few days. Bit of a pelican theme today.😀 Spot the live ones in the background. I have booked the bike in for some love on the 2nd of September in Cairns.