Australia - G'day Mates! Day 80 (7281 miles)

Waiting for our first mode of transport in Oz.

We arrived late on a Friday and although the Tenere was due in the same evening we would not be able to process through Customs until the following Monday so had pre-booked a Greyhound bus from Brissie to Toowoomba where Dennis and Dell (a couple we met at the Horizons Unlimited meeting at Silverton) lived and had kindly offered to look after us for the weekend. It was a perfect mix of chilling out (just what we needed after a long flight) and seeing the local area (including a few bike shops!)


By Sunday we were a bit more lively so Dennis and Dell (pictured) took us for a walk to a lovely spot called Crows Nest Falls then on to our first Aussie pub.

John with the AQIS inspector during the quarantine inspection, the bike was so clean that the inspector wanted to know if we had ever used it! He watched the whole unpacking process which took a while. By the end of it he had given us his name and number and offered us a bed in Brisbane if we were passing through!

The flattened crate after we had removed the bike. The crate was very substantial thanks to Warren and Steve of the LA shippers, Schumacher Logistics, for their service and work on the crate. All passed and cleared through Customs we are ready to go late that Monday afternoon but we are too late to make our planned destination for that day, especially as there is a wild storm blowing in over Brissie. So we returned to Dennis and Dell’s (well they said to come back anytime but possibly didn’t expect to see us quite so soon!) So our first taste of riding in Oz was through a monsoon like downpour quite typical of Queensland in the rainy season.

Our first main destination was the Carnarvon Gorge 250 miles north of Toowoomba. Another first for John in Oz and first for Jane ever was the 16km of dirt road into the gorge. In sections it was very rough and slippery and there were four river crossings which are probably ok in a 4x4 but the Tenere was a touch overloaded for comfort so we closed our eyes and hoped for the best! It did ok.

This Rufus Bettong joined us at our tent for dinner late one night, unfortunately what Jane and I had chosen for our meal did not appeal to the Bettong, and we were not going to try what he was digging from the ground so we all sat looking at each other like a couple on a unsuccessful blind date. He was very cute!

We got used to waking up and seeing new neighbours each day. Meet the Wallabies.







Various areas of this spectacular gorge that we saw on our 2 fairly leisurely 10k hikes. For hardier souls this plus more of the gorge can be combined in a 7 day hiking/camping trip.

This is John a nice Aussie bloke travelling on a Vstrom from Melbourne to Queensland and back again, he was our neighbour at the campsite.

Camp McComb



Pretty flowers in the gorge (we could make up some Latin names but some of you may do the research and catch us out!)

Ward Canyon in the is home to the King Ferns the biggest type of fern in the World, these are not the only ones in existence but they are very rare.

A fine example of the Knobblius Kneeus tree.



The Art Gallery. A sacred place within the gorge where there are over 2,000 examples of Aboriginal art estimated to be thousands of years old. Some are carvings but this example is called blow stencil art because they blow paint over objects to create the picture. There was something magical about this place, it was very peaceful.

A river crossing in the gorge

Pretty Face Wallabies (you could tell we are tourists we took hundreds of pictures of these!).

We don’t what this bird is called (Dennis or Dell may know) but it’s Mohican was pretty impressive!