Basecamp to Kingscliff

27th April

Its the second leg of the journey, the real one now, no turning back. With some adjustments done to the bike, like refitting the airbox snorkel! Not the brightest tool in the box when it comes to the actual mechanics of motorcycling, I read that it may run better with it out, getting more air to the carb, but, when I actually thought abot it, it seemed logical to me that the bike would run a lot leaner, therefore run hotter, no wonder the exhaust was melting everything, including me!Its running a lot better now, though I still don't have that elusive 16 tooth front sprocket yet, Caboolture m/cycles were supposed to txt or call me when it arrived, they haven't done so, bloody bike dealers, never get back to you when they say they will!

Anyhow, I digress, travelling a wee bit north to join the D'Aguilar highway as it seemed to look an interesting ride on the map, took me a few k's north west to D'Aguilar before hookin a left and droppin south and over mount Wee, an obvious bikers road, judgin from the amount I saw and the motorcyclist warning signs of accident black spots. All the while I'm edgin my way towards Brisbane city, a few glimpses of the skyline in the distance confirmed I was heading in the right direction...for once, even though it was a few photo opportunities missed.

Brushin the outskirts of the city was a bit of a lottery to the direction I needed to go, signs for my route were few and far between, so it was more guesswork really, but I got through it and headed to the Ipswich motorway so that I could cut back and join the Logan motorway to get on the Lindesay highway to continue heading south avoiding the main highway and to make things a little more interesting.Beaudesert was the lunch stop, even if it was a burger :) then to cut back across east towards the Goldcoast via some great twisty roads and over the Darlington Ranges, finally emerging at Nerang.

Next was Southport on the north side of the Goldcoast, I could see the highrise skyline of the coast for a few miles away, as it got nearer I was really shocked by how big it was, South Port and all the way through Surfers Paradise is a mass of highrise hotels and business centres, a little like the beach front in LA, kind of :) golden beaches, palm trees with the highrise backdrop, surfers, skater boys and golden tanned beach babes, handbag pooches, fitness freaks and a fatman :) (I dont mean me either!)very interesting but very plastic, if you see what I mean, not really my scene, so I carried on down the coast.

Light was again my enemy, riding through less privellidged towns, well they actually appealed more to me, more real, but limited accomodation, even the campsites were booked out. My only real option was a motel about 10k's over the New South Wales border in Kingscliff, funny how suddenly all the the vehicle licence plates have NSW on them, it wasn't expensive by motel standards, it was in the budget chain, but lets say that I had to blow the next three night accommodation budget to stay there, but I did get my own room :)