Day 2 - back to sunny queensland

woke up in Tenderfield. in the Royal hotel. heard some bikes roar so rushed out the door to harangue them. Those of you who know me and know how shy I am will be shocked to hear that I ran out in my flannel jamies (NSW is cold OK?) I asked these boys where they been where they goin? From Brisbane - rode to Darwin, then decided to go to Alice, then thought "we're close enough to Adelaide" so they went there. They were on their way home after 3 weeks away (there was 12 of them but a couple had gone home so there was 7 left). Tentteerfiled was their last night stop b4 home. They had a ball. They made me jealous.

Anyhoo JJ made me go back inside and get dressed.  I was also tired of seeing my own breath freeze in front of my face....Loaded up the bikes - did I tell you JJ wanted to camp? I love camping - I've spent many nights out under the stars bedside my bike - so don't get me wrong, but I hate the cold. So after he showed me the pile of sleeping bags, tent, thernmarests, campstove (like we do when we used to go climbing - in a stationwagon with plenty of room) - etc I said we were going away for 4 nights and we could stay in cheap pubs. JJ put the crap away. I don't even have panniers. I had 5 pairs of undies and I was ready to go! and 2 pairs of bamboo sox which I will explain later.

Found CoFFee - not great but not dirt either. Also found the local bike shop!! So I chatted up the owner (as I do) because I needed cold weather gloves. He's a great chap - moved there from Byron and loves the place. Gave me a good discount (I promised not to tell how much) but I also said I would give his shop there a plug so - the bike shop in Tenterfield NSW is a great and friendly place to go for good gear and great bargains and the service is impecable. and the owner's name is....ooops I forget. But he's lovely.

Where to go? The twins (Bonneville One and Little Red Rocket) were both recently tuned and were going like the proverbial. I think the girl rider on LRR is a bit faster that the boy on BO (like that?? I made it up myself after I gave her away!!) and the girl does not piddle fart around with this and that. So she sits on her bike, engine warm, and curses like a trooper under the visor, legs twitching (who's seen me do that?) waitning for the boy to GET GOING!!

Gilr takes off like a rocket just to let off the steam and after a while thinks "better wait here" pulls off the road into a sand pit and falls over.  F!&K. Phillippe's brother was right behind me (well he looked and sounded like Yogi, I swear) and dusted me off, helped me pick up the bike and I was actually a bit shaken. also bashed up my leg and dropped bike on the opposite side to the one I dropped LRR in the mud 3 weeks ago.

Day 2 - to be continued