I got up at about 9am, and started getting ready, I went and had a shower, when I came out, my mate was cooking the breakfast.

He left me to finish cooking it while he had a shower.

We were cutting the time a bit fine, it was almost 10am already.

There was no time to have a proper breakfast, we made sandwiches out of the stuff, and I finished packing my bag while it cooled a bit, and then frantically scoffed it down.

We chucked out tons of food, there was nothing else to do with it, I had no room to carry it, and it wouldn't last all day unrefridgerated on he way home anyway.

My mate had already gone down to load up his bike, I grabbed my bag, went down to reeption, returned the room keys, and then went down into the car park and loaded up my bike, it was just after 10am.

My mate's bike was still out the front from when he'd moved it last night, so once my bike was loaded, I moved out of the carpark, and parked next to him near reception.

The chick working in reception came out, and gave me some really sour look, my mate commented that that was a death stare if ever there was one, gees, what did I do?

We jumped on our bikes, and took off out of Byron Bay.

We got about 15 minutes out of town, and it started pissing down with rain. My mate and I rushed off the road, up towards a sheltered picnic area, we jumped off our bikes, and undercover.

I grabbed my wetweather gear out of my bike, and pulled it on, but it's a bit late, I'm already soaked, and now this is just going to stop me from being able to dry if it stops, though it will get warm if it doesn't.

Once we'd put our gear on, we jumped back on our bikes. My mate took off across the wet grass a bit faster than me, so he was able to get back on the road in a gap before me.

In the couple of cars that followed, one was a paddy wagon, great, I let them pass, and then I dropped in a couple of cars behind them.

I could see my mate off in the distance, and I just followed him.

We only went a little way further, and it stopped raining, typical.

We got to Ballina, and I saw my mate take a right turn at a roundabout. I followed around when I could, and then I tried to work out where he'd gone, into a service station or something, because we both needed fuel soon.

I checked the few service stations along there, but I didn't see him in any of them, so I figured he must have kept going, because we still did have a little bit of fuel.

I kept going, ended up on a road I thought was going the right way. The rain started again, and it was toatally pissing down so I couldn't see a thing. Luckily I was the only thing on the road going this way, so I was able to slow right down, and wasn't holding anyone up.

I kept going for a bit, went past some Macadamia Castle, and then realised that I needed fuel. I took the next exit from this road that advertised fuel, and headed into a little town. I pulled into the service station, it wasn't even a self serve.. the guy came out to fill peoples cars up with fuel.

I filled my bike though, I don't trust anyone else filling my bike, it's too easy to spill fuel, even I do it when I'm not paying attention.

I filled up, went in, bought a bottle of water, and then had to pay via eftpos because I realised I had no cash. I got some cash out, and asked the guy the best way back south, and he told me to head for Ballina, where I'd come from.

I got back on my bike, and headed back where I came from, back towards Ballina.

Hang on, I thought.. Ballina.. I've already been there, this guy's telling me to go back north (not realising the turn I made and lost my mate resulted in me heading back north, and the guy was right, heading for Ballina was back south).

Anyway, so thinking this guy was full of crap, telling me to go to Ballina, I started going there anyway, sure I was going the wrong way.

A couple of minutes later I went past the Macadamia Castle again. Now I know that guy is full of shit, I've just come past here. I turned around, and started heading for Tweed Heads, not realising that I had been going the right way, and now I was back going the wrong way again.

I kept going, what I was thinking was the right way, heading for Tweed Heads, and then I found myself back where the Nimbin tour bus had come to go back into Byron Bay on Saturday, and I realised I had totally fucked up.

I'd ended up leaving Byron Bay, getting to Ballina, heading halfway back to Byron, then halfway back to Ballina, then almost all the way back to Byron again.

Fuck me. I turned around again when I could, and I was back heading for Ballina again. I don't want to know how much time and fuel I've just wasted. God knows how far ahead my mate is now, like an hour probably, I'm never going to catch up to him.

It ended up being about 80km of fuel I wasted, since that was what was on my trip counter when I got back to Ballina for the second time.

This time I didn't turn right at the roundabout where my mate had, and I'd followed him, I just headed for the sign for Grafton, pretty certain that was where I was wanting to go.

I'm pretty sure I'm heading south now. At least the rain has stopped, the sun has come out, and the road is drying up, even though I'm not, because the rain gear is keeping all the water in.

I kept going until I needed fuel, and then I stopped, refilled, hopped around for a bit, and kept going. I did 2 of these runs I think, 2 hours/200km at a time. I think these runs were about 12pm, and 2pm.

About 4pm my ipod ran out. Damn. I'm still hours and hours away from home. I'm going to be insane by the time I get there.

On the third stop, my mate had tried to call me, I tried to call him back, no answer, our fuel stops must be out of sync.

I took my wet gear off, because now the sun was shining, and the road was dry, and I was feeling all yucky from being so wet for so long.

I had a packet of chips, and then I got going again.

The next stop (I think) was Taree, this was about 6pm. I went into McDonalds, got a couple of cheeseburgers, and went back to my bike to eat them. I didn't want to sit in there, because my ass was totally soaked, I didn't want to sit down, and it would look a bit suspect standing around in McDonalds eating.

I got fuel here somewhere too, and then kept going.

I was getting near home now, finally, and not really paying attention, so I ended up going almost the whole way into Newcastle.

It was only because I remembered about going down Wallsend road that I was able to bypass Newcastle, and get onto the link road.

I needed more fuel, so I stopped into service station along there.

I've been in here before. The guy who owns/runs this place is a weirdo. If I'd remembered that sooner, then I wouldn't have come in here.

Anyway, I filled up, went in to pay, and saw the weird guy. He recognised me from the last time I'd been in there, and started telling me some great long story.

I eventually managed to pay for the fuel, and escape his story, jumping back on my bike and heading back for home.

(Damn, it's now 5 weeks later, and I haven't got fuel since then, and I still have 1/4 of a tank).

I went from there across the link road, and onto the freeway, heading south. Not long now.

I got off at the Ourimbah exit, and made my way along the highway, and stopped in at my mate's place.

It was now 9pm as I got here. Christ, it's taken me 11 hours to get back from Byron Bay. Piss on the speed limit, it just makes travelling painful.

My mate's wife gave me some dinner, I sat and ate that. I chatted with them for a while, but then I was feeling really tired, so I collected my bag of dirty washing that my mate's wife had brought back with her for me, and I went home.

I went and spoke to my parents, and told them about me getting busted, and having a suspended license etc.

I sat and watched some tv with them for a while, but then I was feeling really tired, so I went back out to my place.

I sat on the computer, the first time in over four days, the last time I was on a computer was the one we took to Bundaberg, on Wednesday morning before we left.

I went through a couple of emails, decided "bugger it", and went to bed.

What a damn long day, 11 hours on the road, and about 700km.