Brisbane And 4x4 Buds

Francois (pronounced Francewah) and Christene, we met them at 80 Mile camp ground in WA.

First, F, can I take a picture of your bike?…..Me, no worries, morphed into a chat about we were from etc and continued to their camper trailer having an issue with a split water tank so bein a Kiwi I offered to help if I could.

I only had aquaseal onboard skippy but it was a good try and partially worked, Francois found some alloy angle and used some strops to tighten the bottom of the tank and hold it together, the repair is still holding after the Gibb River road and their trip back to Brisbane.

Good times for a catch up, unfortunately the grunty head cold grip was not letting go so it did dampen thinks a bit for me, a quick trip to the doc to make sure I wasn't gonna die this week pissed me off even more with this stupidity....when the fuck is the world going to return to normal???

We still went out and did the things we wanted but yeap I was under the weather, they were so accommodating for the crook kiwi.

While there we all went over on the Ferry to North Stradbroke Island for a day trip which was well cool, the weather was very nice other than a saucy breeze which sliced through me (only cos I felt like shit)((actually I looked like shit too))(((actually I was shit))) but a good feed of greasies for lunch made the afternoon.

Christene and Ellen 

North Stradbroke Island was a great place with walks and a cruzy atmosphere, throughly recommended.

A civilise we were here picture.

Yes...old pissing kissing and cuddling 💖

They had taken delivery of a new rear tyre so with that onboard we were off towards Boonah to catch up with Craig and Sharon Idema who we met under a tree…literally., picture from 2012.

It was the Sequoia National Park in the USA and they came riding through the road through the middle of the tree, we all stopped for yarn to find out we were neighbours with them living on the little island to the west of New Zealand, again we bumped into them on several occasions on our Americas travels so our desto was to see them.

We went early and chose to grab a motel for a couple of nights (rather than cold camp in the tent) where I could cough my lungs out and spit out all the head cold crap including my brains, I had coughing fits and was so sore around my whole torso it hurt to breath, technically I shoulda got a 6 pack LOL.

I was miserable to say the least and to have somewhere quiet and warm to die for a coupla days was a good choice.

Catching up with Craig and Sharon was so cool, Boonah is a beautiful we town, in true moto traveller fashion I helped him change his rear tyre, replace wheel bearings etc and get his other bike running, he was stoked to have a shed mate for a coupla days and I enjoyed doing that work with him in the warmth of the sun as well…good times.

Boonah is a stunning wee town, super cool Steam Punk clock and other metal artworks.

We stole local knowledge from Craig and Sharon (Garmin GPS does not have a Local Knowledge And Cool Shit button) so Goomburra National Park it was for some light weight hiking and heavy weight scenery.

We spent two nights there with the second night lightly frosting so it was cool enough for a sick bastid.

On the exit we stopped to check out the roadart which was well cool.

Stanthorpe our next desto, invited by RTW travellers Nick and Mary Jane, ex Ural owner (Yeah I know…I was thinking that too). The weather started beautifully then the day we chose to go to a National Park the weather caved in which allowed me to write this....next up Stanthorpe.