Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in
Australia and New Zealand
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Deane & Jack's Motorcycle Trip in Australia and New Zealand |
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April 15, Gympie to Noosaville, Queensland 100 km (62 Miles) |
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The Great Australia Tour is Complete!! 12,440 km (7,713 Miles) Today's ride was a short one, just to take the bikes back to the rental company, Aussie Biker, in Noosaville, about 90 miles from Brisbane. That completes our tour of half of the Continent of Australia - in 32 days!! (The continent of Australia is about the same size as the 48 contiguous states of the USA, so imagine traveling half way around the US near the shoreline, and then cutting back across the whole country in the middle, to get back to the starting point.) We got up late in Gypie, did a re-pack of our "stuff", and stopped by a car wash to clean up the bikes. They weren't too dirty, but we had run through rain a few times, and picked up road grime and bugs. Dave Pearce, owner of Aussie Biker, takes exceptionally good care of his rental motorcycles, including keeping them extremely clean, so we wanted to return them as clean as we could, after 7,700 miles. Having the turn-in of the bikes completed, we caught a bus for the 90 miles to Brisbane International Airport. By pre-arrangement, at the airport we were picked by our good friend Clint Lovell, and stayed overnight with he and his wife Charleen. We've really enjoyed getting to know Clint and Charleen, and look forward to returning their hospitality when we can ride with them in the USA. Yes, Clint and Charleen are coming from Brisbane to the USA to ride a Gold Wing, along with their friends and ours, John and Karen Gilbert from Melbourne! The two couples are renting Gold Wings in Los Angeles. They will come in the last week of August and the first part of September, and Jack and I are planning to meet and ride with them at some point on their tour of our Southwest! In that same vein, I have had quite a bit of email correspondence with Judith Ottosen. She and her husband Frank, are Gold Wingers living near Perth, in the far western part of the state of Western Australia. Judith has been very helpful in giving me advice on our trip, as I was doing the planning, and as we went along. While we didn't have enough time to ride the very long distances to get to Perth, I will get to meet Judith and Frank at "Wing Ding" in Billings Montana this summer! Judith and Frank have ridden in the USA before, and plan to do a lot of riding from Billings this summer.
Now all that is left is for me to get on an airplane and fly back home to Albuquerque and my wife Diane. That happens tomorrow! Our tour has been a lot of fun, but I'm ready to be back in Albuquerque with Diane again. She has been wonderful in letting me go on this trip and others while she keeps the home fires burning. I will put out a little wrap-up on the trip, including some statistics, in a separate commentary. |
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