I got up at 9.10am, and we went down to have breakfast, since they only serve it until 9.30am or something.

We paid for it at the front counter, the guy there was the guy who'd been on call last night, who'd sorted out the stuff up with our room.

My mate apologised for stuffing him around last night, but he told us that he'd been up half the night anyway.

He then joked that we were the last people to eat breakfast, so we had to eat everything so he didn't have to put anything away. Somehow I don't see me eating the entire contents of 3 catering boxes of cereal.

I had a big breakfast, I was starving, and then we went back up to the room, I had a shower and got dressed, then we collected all our stuff, phone, ipods, chargers etc.

My mate didn't have anything with him, just his wet weather gear that I'd ended up carrying, so he didn't have a shower or anything, because he had nothing to change into, since all his stuff was in the car, which was now in Brisbane, 400km or so away.

I loaded up my bag, we checked we had everything, and then we went down and loaded up our bikes. My mate had a smoke, and then we took off, it was about 10am.

We rode another 100km, since we both still had half a tank of fuel left from last night. I don't remember much of that trip, I'm pretty sure that it was uneventful.

About 11am, we stopped in for fuel, I think we were at Grafton, and while we were there, my mate was telling me that this was as far as he got last time, because the clutch in the car had died, and he'd had to get it towed, and get a new clutch, and sleep in the car because he'd brought his dog with him.

After he'd got the car all fixed (having to borrow money off his mother in law, which he'd just paid back a few days before), he gave up, and went home again.

Next door to the petrol station we were in, was this weird house, it had a huge "Jesus Lives" sign hanging in the front verandah, and chairs all over the place, and a stack of speakers stuck all over the walls.

While we were hanging around in the service station, some weird looking people came out of the weird house, got in a Terago van, and took off somewhere. I didn't like the look of the place, or those people at all.

We did another 200km run, this too was pretty uneventful, It was warm, that was nice, I remember I was riding along with my jacket undone.

About 160km in to the trip, we went through a little town, and past a sugar refinery, we'd slowed right down, and as we came around a bend, there was a cop sitting there. We weren't speeding at this point, so we were left along, and just kept going.

We got to the big prawn, at Ballina, and we pulled in for fuel. We fuelled up, and moved our bikes, and went inside.

It's a restaurant and stuff too, and it was now about 12.30pm, or perhaps 12.45pm, so we decided to get some lunch.

We ordered our food, I was feeling too hungry, so I just ordered a sandwich, expecting to get one of the soggy premade ones out of the counter, but they made a fresh one, that was good.

We also both ordered apple juices, and they asked if we wanted pop top ones, which I assumed to be the ones with the vacuum sealed metal lid, that pops up when you open it, but then they gave us these crappy little bottles with caps you drink through, like you'd give to little kids.

I couldn't be bothered arguing, and I wasn't all that thirsty anyway, so I just took it and went.

We went and sat to wait, I noticed they had a Daytona USA arcade machine in there, wow, must be new, that only came out in about 1994 I think.

My mate told me that the cop near the sugar refinery was the one that had busted him on the last trip, which he almost managed to talk his way out of.

The cop had been busy busting someone else, and hadn't had the radar gun on my mate, and was claiming that my mate must have been speeding because it sounded like he was. What a ridiculous thing to claim, which is why my mate was talking his way out of it, asking the cop if he was claiming that his ear was calibrated to know what speed all vehicles are doing from their sound.

He'd nearly got out of it, and then our mate, the guy who lives in Newcastle, who'd been following a bit behind pulled up, and explained that why my mate's bike sounded like he was speeding, was because he had a straight through exhaust can, so at that point my mate got slugged with a defect notice for his muffler.

After telling me that story, my mate went for a wander around, and he came back and told me that they also had one of those old cocktail machines, oh wow, I went over to have a look at that, and we were just about to sit down for a game of space invaders, when the woman served our food.

We went back, ate our lunch, and relaxed. My mate asked if I wanted a beer, I said no, because P licenses are now zero alcohol, so it's not worth getting pulled over for speeding or something, breathalised, and busted for drink driving because I had one beer.

He asked if I wanted a light beer, same story, it would be even worse to get done for drink driving after having a light beer, and I don't see the point of drinking light beer anyway, that shit taste, with none of the effect.

I just finished drinking my apple juice. My mate went in to the loos, I waited with all our stuff, and then I went in and relieved myself.

When I came back, my mate asked me if the two old guys were in there, I said I saw one old guy in there, and he went on to tell me, that when he went in there, there was an old guy standing at the urinal, and another old guy had come up and tapped him on the shoulder.

They guy at the urinal had just turned around to face him, and had pissed all down the other guy's leg. He'd gone off at him, and then gone over to grab the paper towels you dry hands on, and start trying to dry his trousers off.

I'm glad I missed that when I was in there.

We grabbed our stuff, and headed back outside, we'd been here for about 45 minutes now.

A big bike group had turned up, we spoke to one guy sitting on his bike, parked near ours, they were going down south, and out west, we warned him about the cop down near the sugar refinery.

My mate had a smoke, and while I waited for him, the bike group took off, and headed back where we'd come from.

We bummed around for another couple of minutes, checked everything was in order, and jumped on our bikes and took off again, we're only a couple of hours from Brisbane now.

We did the first 100km without issue, and then went over the border into QLD, instantly the road got better, we now had about 4 lanes going each way, and we continued heading for Brisbane.

About 150km in to the trip, I'm just going along, following my mate, minding my own business, and the idiot driving some huge black 4wd next to me just starts changing lanes on top of me.

I put my horn on, but it's pretty pissy, I never did get around to mounting the 120db air horn I bought on my bike, so I just held that on, and the guy continued coming over, I started moving over to the right, and slowing down, so that hopefully I could just drop behind him, rather than get squashed against the concrete divider.

He kept coming over, and I still had the horn on, I was preparing to punch or kick the side of his stupid car, but he must have got close enough now (I was now out of the lane, into the rocks and crap between the lane and the divider), that he was able to hear my horn, and he swerved back into the lane he'd come from, and I was able to get back into my lane.

I flipped my visor up, and I gave him a mouthful, but he had his window up, so he wouldn't have heard me, he would have seen the gestures I was making with my left hand and arm though, and then he put his hand up like "oh sorry". Dickhead.

We kept going, continued the trip, we were both getting pretty low on fuel, so we swung off the motorway, and headed into a service station, at Staplyton, or Stapylton or something.

As soon as we got in there, to the bowsers, and got our helmets off, I asked if my mate had seen the dickhead run me off the road, he said he hadn't seen it. I don't know why he has mirrors on his bike, he never uses them, and I think they're pointing at the sky anyway.

We refuelled, and my mate called his wife, so that she could come and get us, since we didn't know where her sister's place was, (where she'd stayed last night).

She said she'd be out on a a certain street in a little while (Dunno what street, I was just going to follow my mate, and hope he knew where he was going). I went and got a drink, and sat and relaxed, nearly there.

We jumped back on our bikes, and headed out, back to the motorway, we went to the next exit, got off, and then just followed the road a bit. My mate took off, so I raced to catch up, and then I realised that he'd seen his wife, so we followed her.

We got to a set of lights, on red, and he pulled up alongside her, and spoke to her, I just waited back (I wouldn't have fit up the side anyway) and then the lights went green, and we all took off.

We weaved our way through some streets, and to the complex where my mate's sister in law lives. We parked in the car port, and went inside, it was nice to sit down. I've no idea what time this was, but I think it must have been about 3.30pm.

We just chilled out for a while, and they asked me how long I wanted to stay there, because my mate wasn't riding any further from here, he was piking out and getting in the car to do the next 400km to Bundaberg, so it was just how long I needed until I was ready.

At this point I'll mention I'm annoyed. I spent probably an hour or so in 5 minute bits as I added to this blog during yesterday. Yesterday afternoon my machine decided to crap itself, and because I was typing in the editing window on blogger, I lost all the stuff I'd typed, because I hadn't saved as a draft. Now I have to write all that stuff again, which pisses me off. Crappy windows.

Ok, so we're sitting around at my mate's sister in law's place, I'm just relaxing, getting ready to do the next bit of the trip, another 4 hours or so to Bundaberg.

My mate didn't want to leave his bike in the carport, because he didn't like the look of the people around the area, there was a backyard we could have put it in, but it was a common backyard, to about 8 or 10 units, and that was probably worse, because then kids would be more likely to muck around with it.

He joked that he should park it inside, and his wife said that her sister had offered that.

About 4pm, my mate's sister in law's girlfriend came home from work, and we chatted to her for a bit. My mate asked her about parking his bike inside, and she said that was fine, that there was room under the stairs for it.

We moved the stuff out from under the stairs, and found some cardboard, and put it down in case there were any oil drips, and then we moved his bike inside, and pushed it in under th stairs.

I think there's a photo of it parked there, I'll have to see if I can get it, it's a classic.

We sat around for a bit longer, and then got all our stuff organised again, I loaded my bag into the boot of the car, and we took off heading for Bundaberg, at about 4.30pm.

Well, it was actually 5.30pm QLD time, since they don't have daylight savings, (because the extra hour of sunlight would fade the curtains), but I didn't adjust my watch, or my body clock while up there, because I was only there for a week, and it wouldn't have been worth it, so this is the only reference I'll make to the time difference, since I'll remember the times as I read them off my watch, set to NSW time.

My mate was driving the car, and I was following, since I didn't know where we were going, and after a few seconds, it was evident that he didn't know where he was going either, because we were weaving all over the place through streets, and it wasn't anything like the way we took when we went in there.

We eventually made our way back near the motorway, but not before my mate went into a dead end street, and we had to chuck a uturn, head back to the lights, and then we got on the motorway heading north again.

The next 100km/hour or so of the trip were uneventful, I can't remember anything about it worth writing about. At the end of the 100km leg, was a tollway, since it was the end of the motorway. I followed my mate, and he paid for both himself and me, and then the tollbooth worker waved me through behind him.

That was good, it saved me stopping, taking my glove off, and mucking around trying to find change to pay the toll. I really wish they would get rid of tolls for bikes, it's just a pain in the arse.

We kept going, and got a little bit further up the road. Another idiot started changing lanes on top of me. I don't remember much of that one (I'm working from notes I made a month ago), but I'm certain that I would have abused them.

We kept going after that, and when I got near having done 200km, I pulled up alongside my mate, and motioned that I needed fuel. He nodded to acknowledge, and then I dropped back, and back in behind him.

We kept going, and got off at the next exit that advertised fuel, and I started filling up. We hadn't been going as fast as we had been before, now that he was driving the car, so I wasn't as low on fuel as I thought, I only managed to fit about 2/3 of a tank in, since I was getting better fuel economy from going slower.

While I was filling, my mate came over to speak to me, and he told me something that he asked me to say nothing about, but in light of the events of the past couple of weeks, it probably doesn't make much difference now. He told me that he was having a bit of a heated discussion in the car with his wife, she's said something about wanting to go to England, without him, and he was trying to work out what she was on about.

He didn't say much more about that, just asked me not to say anything about it to his wife, which I was fine with.

I finished filling up, and chatted a bit more, and then my mate went in and paid for my fuel, I got my stuff together, and we kept going.

About 30km out of that fuel station, the ipods battery gave up, and I was left in silence. Oh d'oh, I was just enjoying it too, I was listening to "One Slip" by Pink Floyd when it went off, and the last couple of lyrics I got were:

o/`
A momentary lapse of reason,
That binds a life for a life,
There's one regret, you will never forget..
o/`

Which lead me to complete the verse..

o/`
Not charging my ipod while we were stopped in Brisbane for an hour.
o/`

So now I was left with a scary thought. I've got 170km of fuel left, and about the same distance to Bundaberg left, so I'm probably forced to ride the rest of this trip in silence, entertained only by my own thoughts. Oh god no.

After a few minutes of that, I came to a Homeresque arrangement "Shut up brain, or I'll stab you with a Q tip!", and then I continued in silence, trying not to think about stuff, just concentrating on the road.

Somewhat luckily, we only did another 60km after this, and we pulled in for fuel again, I hadn't even doen 100km yet, I wondered if my mate or his wife had to use the loo, or wanted a drink or something to eat or whatever, being the reason for stopping here (since my mate had only got out of the car at the last stop to talk to me, and pay for my fuel).

I pulled into the bowser, and took my helmet off, and got the earbuds out of my ears, since there was no point putting up with the discomfort when I couldn't even get any music.

There were a couple of cars towing big box trailers, filled with all sorts of crap, either they're going to the tip, or moving house.

My mate came over, and said that we stopped in here because he wasn't sure of the availability of fuel for the next 150km, now that it was getting a bit late, so we might as well take the chance when it presents itself.

I started refilling my tank, even though I wouldn't even need 1/2 tank, better safe than sorry. I mentioned to my mate about my ipod having given up 60km ago, and how boring it had been.

He offered me his ipod, just rattling around in the car now, and I figured I'd risk putting up with whatever songs he had in his ipod, rather than listen to nothing, so I said that would be good, and he grabbed it out of the car for me.

I finished fueling, only about $6 worth of fuel I think, and my mate went in and paid.

I put his ipod on, and got organised, and then we left.

The cars with trailers had left a few minutes before us, so we got a bit up the road, and got stuck behind them. My mate managed to use the last of the overtaking lane to get in front, leaving me stuck behind.

I carefully overtook the first one, on the wrong side of the road (where it was dashed lines), and then I was stuck in the middle of them, this was even worse, the trailer in front was swaying from side to side, and it was a couple of minutes before I got a spot where I could over take it, but then I did, and was able to catch up to my mate.

The rest of that trip was uneventful too, we were about the only vehicles on the road. We did another 80km run, and then stopped for fuel again.

My mate fuelled the car, and then gave me the hose, and I filled up my bike, and then we moved into a carport at the side of the service station.

We weren't far away at all now. We hung around in this service station for a while now, on the last run, I'd hit my limit for riding, my right leg was really sore (this is why I stopped in Glen Innes on my way to Brisbane last time, and the fact it was 2 degrees), so I was hopping around trying to get some circulation back.

I had a can of V, and just bummed around a bit. My mate had a smoke, and a wander around, his wife called her mum and told her that we were nearly there.

After that, we finished mucking around, got ready, and took off. I figure it's only about another 40 or 50km to Bundaberg now.

We continued along the road, this bit was good, the end was near, I was looking forward to sitting down with a beer, and having some dinner, it was after 8pm now.

As we were going along, I kept getting distracted by the sky, it was so clear, there were so many stars ("My god, it's full of stars!"), and I had to consciously stop myself from wandering up and staring at the sky.

My mate must have been mucking around with the radio or something, or just being a smartass, because he slowly started drifting over to the left, until both left wheels were off the road, and in the dirt. I was getting sprayed with crap, and just about had to run onto the wrong side of the road to get out of the stream of crap.

He realised, or finished being smart, and swerved back on to the road. We went another couple of kilometres up the road, and he started drifting again. I flashed my high beam at him, and he straightened the car up.

We kept going, got a little bit further, and then something shiny came bouncing along the road at me, I thought it was a drink can or something, so I swerved to the left around that, and then my mate hit some of a truck tyre that had blown out and was sitting on the left side of the road, and it flicked up, and I had to swerve to the right around that. Jesus, what's going on?

We got into Bundaberg, and stopped at a set of lights, I stood up over my bike, trying to get some circulation in my legs again, and then we kept going. We have to be there now..

We kept going, made a couple of turns, and ended up back on back streets again, where the hell are we going? We've done 50 something kilometres since the petrol station now.

I kept following, and we ended up on a long straight road, that had cane train tracks running across it every few hundred metres, they were pretty cool to ride over.

We made a few more turns, ended up in the middle of cane fields, and then finally we turned and parked in the front yard of a house. It ended up being 70km or so from the last stop.

I parked my bike, and then just tipped off it, and fell onto the ground. I'm here, thank god for that.

My mate's stepfather in law (does that even work?) came out, and greeted us, I picked myself up off the ground, and went inside with them, and then parked in a chair to relax.

We chatted for a little while, and they mentioned that they'd forgot to tell me it was a little bit further than Bundaberg, and I sent an SMS to dad to let him know that I'd got there.

My mate's mother in law had made us dinner, steaks and stuff, so we all dug into that. I was after a beer, but they didn't have any, they only had VB and some light beer left from the wedding a couple of months before, so I had to have a VB.

After dinner, we went out the back to the garage, they don't use it as a garage, it's more of a rustic guest house, there's a sofa bed, and tv, and stuff in the main area, and there's a bathroom in the back, and a proper bedroom there too.

We set that up, my mate and his wife dragged their stuff into the bedroom, and they pulled the sofabed out for me to sleep on.

We went and sat out the back after that, and someone dug out the bottle of Bundy Rum Black that my mate had organised for them to get for my birthday, and we cracked into that.

I took my shoes off, my feet were so sore.

My mate mentioned something about playing the xbox, which was setup on the tv near the sofabed I was supposed to be sleeping on, and I knew that was going to end in tragedy, because I'd want to go to bed soon, and then my mate would want to sit there and play xbox all night.

They worked that out, so they said I could stay in the spare room inside, that suited me. After that, we went back out and continued drinking.

We ended up sitting there until 4am drinking the Bundy Black, and chatting, and relaxing.

Then we realised there was some stuff in the car we needed, first we unloaded the computer, just put the boxes on the front verandah, and I grabbed my bag, and went around the back, and in the house.

I went out and spoke to my mate again for a bit, and then I went to bed, I think he went to play the xbox.

Phew, I finally got here, it was a 500km ride last night, and an 800km ride today.