Day 1:

5am - Left home with the sun just lighting enough not to be riding in the dark and within 15mins down the 110 speed limited highway it was coming up just nice. Headed for Brisbane and hit some early workers traffic but just slide down the side of them for 40ks or so before getting moving again. Ducked around the top edge of Brisbane and headed for Ipswich and Warwick, excellent run so far.

9.05am - Pulled into Oman-ama (small place just before Inglewood) for fuel having run 387klms so far. Just after leaving I hit some rain so pulled into Iglewood under a old shop verandah to get the wet gear on. It bucketed down for 15mins or so and then went away. Good run from there on also.

12.05 - Pulled into Moree for fuel having gone 244klms with that leg in 3hrs. Had severe wind (no not from me smart guys) most of the way over the past 100 or so klms (which continued on to Narrabri) As I was leaving the BP I noticed the oil light flicker and kind of fade away, I started out but decided it was best to double back 1/2 klm to a Suzuki dealer I had seen, he checked it and said it looked like a switch problem as the oil was good. (it continued spasmotically for the whole ride so will investigate now I am home, oil is still fine)

3pm - entered Gunnedah end of day one, 201klms this leg making a total of 838klms in 10hrs for day one with no problems.

Met up with Chris in the street, he arrived earlier than expected at 4ish and I was just celebrating the find of new boots and free socks no less

We had some beers and ate Chinese, early night.

Day 2:

5.45am - Left and heading for Mudgee via Coolah and Gulgong, bit of fog but doable at 120k without problems.

8am - arrived at Mudgee, 240klms, had a great section near Sofala and all in all a unreal ride down these back roads I highly recommend this bypass of the main drag.

11am Saturday - got to Cowra, 244klms for a total of 484klms today in 5 1/4hrs.... Following Chris so its his fault we were a wee bit fast

Home to Cowra, 1322klms in 15 1/4 hours total with stops.

Spent the afternoon making new friends and having a few beers, everyone got on like we had known each other for years. We had lunch in the pub and drifted outside for more chat and drinks. Also spent a lot of time checking out each others steeds, Ron had bought along his tape measure and was busy measuring screen heights ... well we think thats all he used it for

At 8pm we heading for dinner, hmmm well we did head there but about 9.30pm we actually got our food. Long story and they did their best, food was excellent.

I headed for the sack about 11pm and a few continued on, maybe a sore head or two tomorrow me thinks but hey thats why we gathered, better than sitting watching telly somewhere boring.

Sunday day 3:

5.20am - out of bed, showered and went walking the town. Great time of the day to be about and everyting was crisp and fresh. Called my wife and chatted (did at each stop along the way to keep her up to date with things. We have two smaller kids so it was not posible for her to join me this time, but next year she will. Caught up with some about just after 6am at the Imperial as they came alive, Wayne had been out walking also, think I saw him in the distance at one stage. Breakfast and ready to roll out the front at 9am. Looked great 11 GTR's in a row plus Alan from Canowindra had his ladied ZZR600 as his GTR was in the shop and RobS had his mate along for the ride on another Quaka.

9am - headed for Boorowa, had some fun here well I did have to get in front enough to get pictures now didn't I Boorowa certainly did put on a show for us, mate are we good or what (dumb luck more to the point it was a big day there with bands and parades etc) Rounded out with a return run past Frogmore (Wayne just had to go there or he would die so he said)

2pm approx back at Cowra 210klms and had heaps of fun on the twisties, might have to do the cut rubber stopper on the centre stand REAL soon so I can lean her over a bit further if thats posible.

Drank more beers, well Stevo tried but couldn't quite face it just yet and drank Coke maybe later. Steve's lady Tracy got there about 4pm and fitted right in.
Got some pizza for dinner and we all shared the evening out the back of the pub. By the way Steve recons his room was a refurbished bathroom lol but he had fun.

Monday day 4:

6am - left Cowra and headed for home, cool morning but not too bad.

9.30am - Ran through to just off our track by 9klms to get fuel at Dunedoo and so glad we did, nice feed and a great little place. 321 klms to Dunedoo.

2.30pm - Llangotlin where Chris lives 415klms total of 736k for today in 8 1/2 hrs. Chris cooked up a feast and we drank some more beers and watched the bike races he had taped.

Tuesday day 5:

5.40am - headed for home. Not much to say about this leg just head down and think how great the time had been.

8.20am - Warwick and 266klms stopped 15mins and headed off this was the only stop I made Tuesday. I ran up via Toowoomba and onto Esk then down to Beerwah where the Croc hunter lives and onto the highway for home.

12.10pm - arrived home with 343klms this section and after getting the gear off I dived into the pool.

Total trip home : 1350klms in 15hrs

Total start to finish : 2878klms over the 5 days, is this heaven or what

Would I do it again tomorrow ? well maybe a few days.

In fact we head back down to Tenterfield about 3pm on Thursday (tomorrow) and then over to Yamba for a few days with the kids in the Nissan Pathfinder, so it never ends.

I just love the open road, till next time