September 23rd-Oct3rd Travelling Time.Sydney,Coffs Harbour,Noosa,Gladstone and Mackay.

Its time to hit the road again. The bike's packed up to the rafters and we're off!

Batemans Bay, we kiss you a fond farewell. Townsville, get your hats on, 'cos here we come!

Apparently miles from everywhere

Not too long until our first stop, the heat is on and so are the leathers. Wearing heavy boots and helmets its hotter than the devil's BBQ. Berry is such a pretty place we stopped here on the way down. Today is literally a pit stop - well coffee stop actually, & they have a fine old bakery there which serves us very well!

Oh, Go on then!

Coffee Mmmmmmmm

Still time for a few photo opportunities. This garage offers the perfect backdrop for posing in leathers. We cannot resist.

That's what im talking 'bout.

Looking hot! Literally!

Right then, onward we go! With Sydney in our sights its time to get going. There are some wonderful things to see along the road back to Sydney & we are in the favour of the weather Gods again. Although it is windy, its dry and sunny and thats great news for bikers. The wonderful coral trees line our journey.

WOW

The luminous red against the azure blue is breathtaking it fills me with joy each time we get to whizz past them along the route back to the City. Happy batteries are fit to burst. Time flies and I find myself day dreaming on the back of the bike - all manner of ideas and dreams. I like that about travelling by  motorbike, sometimes hours on end with nothing but your own thoughts. Before we know it we hit the Sydney traffic and boom back to earth. We are fortunate to have wonderful generous friends, Steph and  Dickie, & they're happy to put us up even though they've only just moved into a new place (which is very swanky by the way!)

The rum store

Guess what? It's an old rum store and right on the water! A big thanks to Steph and Dickie for putting us up again. After the long ride Steph insisted we go and check out her new local pub for refreshments. "Well if you insist"...

Rude not too really

We had a lovely stay as usual and were made so welcome. Lovely to stay with good mates and have a catch up. Steph and I have been friends since school and so its always lovely to get together and non-stop yak for a day or too.They also have a rather splendid Indian restaurant on the doorstep. (Oh dear they may never get rid of us.) We get up early the next morning and we're off to Coffs. It's a six hour hot long drive.
We make good time though.The A1 is becoming very familiar. We have time to stop for a coffee and decide to go to Nambucca and see if Anne, Ian and Bob the dog are at home. They're in! & we're very happy to see Bob again and have a catch up with Anne and Ian. We so enjoyed our house sit for them. It was delightful to see Bob and he hadn't forgotten us it seems.

Not a long stop though and we are back with this lovely lady. One night in Coffs and who better to hang out with.

Two of my fave humans

Having Niecey in your life is a little like having a personal Yoda. She's not only extremely funny but also very wise. She has a cupboard of wisdom! It looks like this:

The wise store cupboard

There are some real gems posted up in here; words of wisdom from Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Barry Humphries too, but alas nothing from Yoda. I love to stay with Niecey, never do I feel more relaxed than in her home. She's a diamond, & like me Niecey loves nature. I enjoy talking with her about the plants, trees and ferns in her marvellous garden. Her knowledge is broad and she knows all the cute names for things. Its a horticultural education. She also seems to be a dab hand with the camera and got this 'look of love' shot of me and Jason.I really like it.

On Nieceys balcony

Yesterday Today and Tomorrow

This is 'Yesterday today and tomorrow', all in one plant. Growing very nicely in Niecey's garden.'Yesterday' are the very pale washed out flowers, 'today' are the violet mid tone blooms and 'tomorrow', the darkest rich purple ones. So pretty. It has a wonderful floral scent too, almost like Jasmine

We have a schedule to stick to though and so sadly we have to get up early and say farewell to Niecey. Just as well as its boiling hot and only getting hotter. There are muchos kilometres for the bike to eat up to get us further North and to our next stop. But on a tip off from Deni, Niecey's daughter we make a pit stop in Bangalow. WOW it's beautiful, she's right in knowing we'd love it!

So pretty

My kinda town

We stayed longer than planned... it was so pretty and the shops so inviting. It reminded me of the other towns we have fallen for: Bellingen, Nelligen and Braidwood. They all have in common heritage buildings and laid back grandeur. These towns have gold fever in their history too and the feeling of the wild west is still present. I like the nostalgic atmosphere these streets have, its comforting and friendly. Back to the bike but not before a few choice T-shirt purchases are made for out next host & I.

We spot this fine old fella having a rest in the shade on the verandah outside the pub.The perfect place to rest ones massive head on such a hot day. Temperatures are soaring and as we motor off its a sweaty 36 degrees. Phewy. Leather biking gear anyone?

Churchill?

Loaded high

Glasshouse variety 

The scenery is ever gorgeous. Being on the bike together is a such a great way to feel part of the landscape and the experience is so much richer than being in the bubble of car. After our long stop we are chasing the sun, we don't like to drive at dusk, least of all because this is when Kangaroos get more active and there are enough of them laying dead along the road sides to remind us to be careful. We arrive in Noosa nice and dry as the sun is setting. Just managing to out run the rain that threatened us for the final hour riding. Rain 0 - House Sitters 1.

A long bum numbing drive to Noosa but we don't mind at all. Here are four very good reasons why:

Now tell me you aren't in love already!

Many years ago whilst camping in Byron Bay it was my good fortune to find myself parked up next to a wonderful green camper van. It was a corker! Out came my sketchbook to do a few drawings of it. The van turned out to be the travelling-wagon-of-greatness belonging to Tom and Margie Wegener and their then young son Finley. It was kismet for sure. They are without doubt fine specimens of the human race and I am very proud to call them very close friends. I hadn't seen The Wegs' for sometime but they are those sort of friends where that is of no consequence.There are too many fabulous things to say about the Wegeners. So i'll sum it up with this face.

Wegener joy.

Amongst their many talents and skills (they're film makers, journalists, world class surfers, master board shapers, & writers) they are two of the most outstanding parents I have ever known. Like I say, too many things to write about here, but if you know anything about surfing you'll be familiar with the name Wegener. Tom is a surf legend, responsible for the resurgence in longboards and alaias long before it was d'riguer and magnet to the hipster. His boards are coveted around the globe & you can read more about his quest to change the world one surfboard at a time here: http://www.tomwegenersurfboards.com/

We have a few days to hang with the gang YEAH! - & make the most of it we will! We're so excited we go black and white for a few days. I'm very happy to be back at the Wegs'. It hasn't changed a bit and that's a good thing. The kitchen remains the hub of this warm and fun household, usually with Tom at the helm making pasta, pancakes or eggs. Margie keeping things working and laughing and smiling all over the place.

And yes we are!

Serious and not so serious

Tom, Fin and a ghostly Sunday

We have great weather - well come on, of course we do we're at The Wegs' -  and they're nothing if they ain't lucky!

You lovely lucky fella

'House' is pretty much open at the Wegener's and today is no exception, there are more guests arriving in the form of musical maverick Mr Mike McCarthy (that's a lot of M's) and his beauty of a wife Sophie. They also have a Joseph in tow and Joseph has a huge beard in tow. I laugh when we pick up Sunday in the car from a sleep-over and hear Margie say to her, "Come on, move over, I know he looks big and scary but he's a real softie" She's dead right too. They're all lovely and its great hanging in the Wegs' kitchen with everyone.

Good Pancake

Bad pancake

Man and guitar

Its time to hit the beach.En mass we head out in the Weg-mobile we're a one man surf band on wheels!

Fin and Sun

A bevy of bathing beauties if ever there was one

Ever so 'Lawrence Of Arabia' don't cha think?

Margie has been busy and we have our very own sausage sizzle already packed and ready to go. Never did a snag smothered in ketchup rolled in a slice of white taste to close to heaven! We have cold beers and lots of laughter. Just the ticket after some fun in the water.

Trying out the surfies

We are in excellent company, feeling like a couple of extras from Endless Summer, can it get any better than this? Well come on, we're with The Wegs of course it can! A huge white whale tail is spotted on the horizon. Boom Boom boom, he is playing and splashing around in the waves. Smashing the water time and time again showing off the power of his huge tail. It goes on so long we even stop watching! Now that is something.

Whale tail!!!!!!!!!!!

Tom makes many boards all shapes and sizes, but this is the 'Surfie' its finless fast and fun. Tom and Margie give Jason and I a few pointers:

1. Put the board below your bits.
2. Hold the nose at the sides and wait for the wave to touch your bottom.
3. Push down on the board as the wave takes you.

I have the jitters but Sunday stays with me, bless her, and tells me what to do to get under the 'Champagne' that's the frilly white water to you and I. Jason picks it up pretty quick and has one big smile on his dial. He has a great time playing around on the Surfie and even caught his big first ride-in body boarding! Look at his chuffed face. It was lovely to watch him enjoying the water so much and I had a moment- lapping up all the smiles and laughter coming from our good friends and newly acquainted ones with beards and guitars.

Just caught a wave

Throw the roses!

I really like to watch Tom, Margie and Fin surf. Its quite something how easy they make it look. I stood for a while and watched Fin running towards the waves, board under his arm, into the surf. Paddling out under white water and then waiting for just the right wave. He looked so comfortable atop a wave, his body relaxed, knees bent, no sign of concentration, just doing it and so naturally. He's miles away from the wee snickett of a boy I first met all those years ago in Byron Bay, all blonde hair, PJ bottoms and little red welly's... 

Us two Tozers

Hockney sun baker?

Mike and Sophie had to be back in town to play their gig by early afternoon so we packed up the van, ate the final snags and had an impromptu Wegener portrait session with the lens legend Jason Tozer. (See earlier master pieces.) Jeeze those Wegeners are photogenic too! There's a surprise...

Musical Maestros McCarthy's

In all this heat and after all that surf there was only one road to travel, the well known road to beer. We got the front row seats and prepared to be caroused by the talented McCarthy's. (http://mikemccarthy.com.au/home) Mike has performed around the world and his music has featured in many fine surf films. The afternoon was delish. Beautiful tunes and lyrics. I enjoyed watching Sophie watching Mike & it was really beautiful when she too joined in to harmonise with him. That man can't half play! The way he strums takes it from plain old 'guitar' to 'GEE-TAW' !!!

At half time Tom went to the bar and came back with this!

The Mighty Hopper

What a great day, you think that would be enough fun for one day eh, but hold on a minute, were with The Wegs... we still had much more fun and japes to squeeze out of the day. Back to Plantation Creation for evening dinner and a lesson in how Italians do it.

Dough Balls

Tom teaches Sophie and I the dark arts of making pasta. Its a skilled job, but we pull it off and soon plates are piled up and tummy's filled.

Nom Nom Nom

 One great day that gets filed under fabulous and stored in the special section of the memory banks. Thanks so much Margie and Tom.

The bike outside Toms workshop.

A Tozer by a Tozer (Well - soon to be!)

Noosa is very swanky and evidently affluent (http://www.visitnoosa.com.au). The main strip, Hastings Street is clean and slick, wide paved streets with fancy modern architecture and fully glass fronted stores. Swanky brands fill them, jewellers and private galleries. It's busy too, lots of fine looking people out shopping and keeping the many chic gift stores open. 

We have a pootle around; its affable and I like looking in all the lovely shops and checking out the shoes and jewels. There is a great shop called Lamington which is really cool and they have some fab bits and pieces. I want to buy something but the motorbike wags it finger knowingly and says 'ah-uh Katy there just isn't space', instead I console myself with cake and coffee, 'cos that only takes up tummy room. Take that motorbike! You space conscious grinch.

Was it good, Oh yes it was.

We head to Eumundi and the famous markets (http://www.eumundimarkets.com.au/). Its really busy and buzzy. Lots of stuff you've seen elsewhere but also some cool interesting stalls with oddities and curio. Jason got locked into the cigar box and biscuit tin guitars:

Bet those play some 'smokin' tunes... (see what I did there?)

Thats a lot of puff

There are plenty of folks about and we do some fine people watching. I love that about travelling. The people change a well as the landscape and are often sculptured and fashioned from their surroundings. Noosa has its fair share of bare foot surfers and laid back cool dudes. It has a very relaxed and chilled atmosphere, or maybe that should be vibe. Its young too and seems like a happy place. Of course we find ourselves looking in the estates agents windows again...

and this years great surf hair goes to...

Back to The Wegs' and time to get packed and get off along the road and Northward to Townsville.

I'm sad to leave but we have a very splendid send off with the full quartet of Wegeners and the added bonus of the McCarthy's and Joseph and Josephs beard. I Love The Wegs' house. Its oozes cool...

Cool stuff

More cool stuff

Did we show the cool stuff yet?

...but I love them more. Unashamedly and mightly. Is it possible to have a crush on a family? Going to miss this lady's smiling face for a while.

Giant laughs

And they're off!

Wise young Sunday

The last word should go to Sunday Wegener. This beauty of a quirky long limbed, lean legged young lady. Here's her 'Resapea for Happniss' - I'm all-over 1, 4 and 6...

Goodbye Wegs' - hello road... and tarmac and sugar cane. Fields upon fields of it. It's a beauty of a day for biking. We head North through more and more fabulous landscape. It's vast and wide and green and lush. The breeze is cool and welcome and the skies're so blue. Red earth contrasts sharply with the green and gold of the cane fields. I feel like a motorbiking Dorothy flying along a not so yellow road in a landscape like Kansas.

It's a great landscape busy with Machinery and men working in the fields. Parts of it remind me of Cuba and the sweet potato farms they have. There are fields with tracks and carts filled with sugar cane mulch. Men in tractors and cane cutters. The sort of country that has inspired great writers like Steinbeck in America, and here closer to home Tim Winton. It's a very romantic Van Gogh vista. I lap it up and spend time thinking about writing about it all myself.

Queensland is fabulous.

We have still a few days to get to Townsville and we fall into our pattern of riding for a few hours at a time, rest our numb bottoms, get a coffee and cool off. We have a few stops pre-planned. The first is in Bundaberg. We're stopping to see an old friend of mine and take care of the small matter of a wedding dress's first fitting! Oh yes.We are soon to be married. On New Years Eve is Sydney, on the water no less!

Jo will be making my fabulous frock along with her son, my dear friend and designer Ben Smith. It's a quick visit and i'm happy as can be with progress to the dress (which Ben has shipped to his mom from Melbourne so that I may try it on and have changes made all whilst we head north). How marvellous of him! Lucky girl. It's great to see Jo, if only briefly, and we shoot off with the promise of a return visit on our way back down to Sydney.

The roads out of Bundaberg are dry and the land is flat. For miles on either side of us it's beige and sun dried from all the heat. Totally different again. There are miles & miles with road kill littered all along it. It's upsetting to see so many animals killed at the side of the road and a reminder of how it's we humans that are cutting into their habitat. The road trains are huge and when we pass at speed the bike is buffered and blown from their wake. It's hairy at times but Jason is an experienced and careful driver. You soon get used to, it but i'm happy we're doing this stretch in good weather. I make a mental note to always check the forecast before starting long riding days.

Not so beautiful

Beautiful 

Our bed for the night is at this charming B&B in the not so charming Gladstone: http://offthelanebnb.com.au/ . We're greeted by a huge dog called Boof, he's super-friendly and sooky, and then by Fiona who is taking care of the place for her sister, who's the owner. It's a gorgeous old Queenslander. Two in fact! Fiona tells us that two have been spliced together. It's sure great to get the boots off and have a cool shower. 

Love the stripes and shadows

Someone's happy at breakfast!

Cool and calm.

To Mackay today! & another 6 hours at least to get there. Travelling this way brings it home to me just how BIG Australia is. It suits me and my sensibility, I feel like we have endless space and places to explore. The skies so high and wide. I feel free and light in this huge place. From some stretches of road there are no buildings, as far as the eye can see, for an hour or more. We keep, on and make only one stop for lunch, so we make great time and arrive in Mackay and out our B&B before the light fades.
Jason is bushed - the driving today was into a headwind and the past few days are catching him up. Riding a bike requires more concentration than car driving -  you have to balance the bike and manage the weight of it - & the weather can quickly change the day and the ride considerably so it's no wonder he wants only to eat and get into bed before we leave for our final day on the road to get to Townsville.

As we drive along there are so many new things to see and I would love to stop & take pictures of the road signs with quizzes that are designed to help drivers stay awake, or the huge gatherings of Kanagroos we see, or the farmers in their fields, or these: Dust Devils! Now I really do feel like Dorothy in Kansas awaiting the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Emerald City.

Real live dust devils

More nothing to see here

Fours hours pass before we stop to rest and we see only road trains and a few other cars. There are a couple of bikers who wave and nod too. We have joined a club it seems, and when we stop another guy rides in and chats to us about the bike and where we are headed. He's driven up from Tasmania in only 5 days! Thats crazy.
Now there's only heat and dust and road, & we're happy to be only a few hours away. Just time a re-fuel and a pit stop snack.

Of course

After 2,070 kms in just a few days, a weary Jason and I drive through Bowen and into Townsville. The edges of dusk creep closer in and as we turn into the road of our new house-sit as the sun is coming down. A family of Wallabies hop alongside of us and disappear into the bush. Last task of the day is the steep Evil Kenevil ramp of a drive to ride up to the house, which is exciting, and much longer (and steeper) than anticipated!

We are greeted with excitement and waggy tails by Gini & Suki our latest foster doggies. It's time to take off the boots and get acquainted with Natalie and Tim, our hosts, before they leave next day for their holidays. Well Done Jason! For all that excellent driving and getting us here safely.