Three short videos that Conor took on Saturday showing me riding the bike through vastly different scenery on our trip to the markets and back. Mareeba, our destination, is in the Atherton Tablelands, a massive food-producing region with nearly 2,000 farms growing bananas, mangoes, avocados, corn, citrus, and macadamia nuts, and also renowned for coffee plantations (such as Skybury in Mareeba) and local distilleries. I haven't visited a coffee plantation yet... We started ri

Mareeba Market On Thursday I fitted my camera mount and Beeline to the Honda and hoped to check them both out before we headed to the market in Mareeba on Saturday. I was after some good footage and a record of the route to share later. On Friday I checked the camera and Beeline out when I went to fuel the Honda up, and both appeared to be working well. However I didn’t check available free space on the camera memory card, and ran out on the way to Mareeba. I was also unab

Wednesday began quietly, with my dirty clothes pile reminding me that I’d been away for a week so it was time to put a wash on. No problem with getting it dry afterwards. We were due to go to Charles and Debs later, as it was their turn to host ‘Wine Wednesday’, where a few neighbours take turns to host an evening get-together with drink and nibbles, so I fired up the Honda and headed for Port Douglas to see what I could find to take. The first thing I discovered, before any

Friday was a bit of a chillout day. I didn’t do much other than get my clothes and things ready to take for the weekend camping, then take the bike into town and pick up a few bits from the supermarket. In the evening we went to Sea Bean, a tapas restaurant I’ve been to before, then home and a quick whisky before turning in to be ready for an 8 o’clock start in the morning. We set off only 10 minutes later than intended, and headed for the first stop, Mareeba, where we got f

I woke on my first morning in Australia to a sound that was both familiar and at the same time out of place here. Rain. It didn’t last long, though, before the sun came out and the ground started to dry. Then it started again, and this time it really came down. The good news is that after today the weather’s getting drier and warmer, although to be fair it’s tee shirt temperature now. Overall very reminiscent of a Manchester summer in fact. It’s fair to say that a bike ride w

In a few days’ time I’ll be making my way back to Australia. It’s almost two years since I left there but I remember it well and can’t wait to see it again. Some things have changed since my last visit. Kerry and Conor have a dog, Murphy, who arrived shortly after I left last time, and I have a motorbike, a Honda VFR750 which turned up not long after Murphy and with a lot of help from Kerry and Conor. Photos of both are below. The bike came from Milla Milla, which I visited o

Firstly, a massive thank-you to Kerry and Conor for doing so much to help make October such an awesome month for me. Without my blog I wouldn’t have remembered everything, but in a good way just because I did so much while I was there. I wouldn’t have had it any other way though. Burt Munro (The World’s Fastest Indian) is famously quoted as saying “You live more in five minutes flat out on a fast motorcycle than most people live in a lifetime”. As a biker I get that, but I re

On Saturday morning we washed and showered, broke camp, had a coffee and were on the road for eight o’clock, heading for Cooktown. A...

Friday morning at 7.30 we set off heading North towards the Cape York Peninsula. We turned off the Captain Cook Highway before Mossman,...

I woke on Friday morning to discover it had rained during the night. Just to put this in perspective; by 7.30am the ground was only...

Click the link to share the ride as we ascend over 400 metres through the rainforest via seemingly neverending bends. The tarmac is the...

This morning’s first job, after a leisurely breakfast and coffee obviously, was to fuel the triple up. Then it was off to the Mowbray...

I couldn’t believe it’s been a week since I flew out of Manchester airport. Until I counted the number of t-shirts needing washing! So I...

Please bear with me while I just take a minute to address the bikers in the audience. You know when you’re out on a ride, clear blue sky...