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9 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
Posts: 3,579
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We had originally planned to go to the coast at Iluka.
 Screen Shot 2018-05-09 at 22.22.07 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Chris in Mona Vale had put us in contact with Peter and Kay Forwood and we heard from them last night. They are away on a cruise this weekend Saturday until Tuesday. They live 100 km north of Brisbane, but will actually be just north of the city tomorrow for a family event and so can meet us for lunch there.
This means a 280 km ride in the morning from Iluka unless we go farther north. This is a good spot to decide to change the route and we will still go north on th B91 now further and all the way to Casino, where we will take the B62 thru Lismore to Byon Bay. These are all secondary roads with little traffic and will leave us with only 175 km to go tomorrow.
 Screen Shot 2018-05-09 at 22.22.59 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
From about 30 km before Casino until Byron we saw numerous people pulled over by police. It is interesting unlike NZ people drive 5 km under the speed limit and now I see why. There is definitely a palpable police presence here.
Byron is a hip surf town with cool vibe. Our motel had direct beach access thru the back fence. We arrived with about 20 min to spare before sunset. We enjoyed a long walk down the beach where it was 21 degrees even after dark. The town is hopping there are numerous cool places to eat and live music and buskers on every block.
 Queensland-2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Last edited by saralou; 9 May 2018 at 15:04.
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13 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
Posts: 3,579
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We left town about 9 and did a side trip off the M1 into koala territory (no sightings) and then headed back to the freeway to make it to Numbah by noon for our lunch meeting with the Forwoods.
 Screen Shot 2018-05-09 at 22.24.27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4151 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
Super nice people and so humble. There trip was epic was done before the cellphone/internet age. Their bike has been ridden in every country in the world including all the island nations.
Peter and Kay Forwood on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. World's Most Travelled Motorcycle.
They advised us on a route north to end at their house where we could camp in the yard as they will be away this weekend. We traveled thru Samford to Dayboro again on great riding road. Here we stopped at IGA for a slush and as we were getting ready to go a man in van pulled us and said “are you on HU?”. His neighbor had seen us parked and called hill to come down from Mt Mee “because you have to see these 2”. He is the Hepko Becker dealer here and a big HU fan. After our chat we continued up the hill to Mt Mee and then on to Woodford, Peachester, and Beerwah. We then had a short trip on the M1 to get to the Sunshine Coast and Maroochydore.
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13 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
Posts: 3,579
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Here we will camp in the Forwood’s yard and we can use the public facilities at the river 50 m away. We then had a message from them that their cruise is cancelled as the last sailing this week there was a woman lost after jumping overboard.
We arrived to their yard and set up the tent up under the biggest tree for shade. We had stopped at the ALDI on the way and took our meal down to the river side for a picnic.
There are thousands of Lorikeets here and just at sunset (and sunrise) they go insane with squeaking and flying about. It is quite a sight and a racket. We tucked in for our urban camping for a quiet night other than the birds.
This morning we walked into the city centre along the river for breakfast and then further along to where the river meets the sea at Cotton Tree. We stopped at the Woolworth on the way home and took our lunch across the footbridge near the house. It goes over to the island in the river. Here at low tide you have to walk a long way out on the sand bar for it to get deep enough to swim.
Late afternoon Kay and Peter arrived home and we had access to the laundry!!! Tonight we all walked into the town to a great Asian fusion place for dinner. In the morning we rode their bikes back to Cotton Tree for a swim in the ocean and so the guys could do some body surfing.
 Queensland-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We then saddled up the bikes and rode just 15 km to across town to join a party in a park with some of their friends.
 Queensland-11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
It is a hot day and in the afternoon it was the for a swim in the river to cool off. Kay made us a lovely turkey dinner.
 Queensland-18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We were up early to swim in the ocean again and then set off north.
 Queensland-19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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14 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
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We are trying to get to Cairns 1700 km north, but west as well. Well actually we had to ride south first to join the tourist route. The road is surfaced, but at times it is just a strip of pavement down the centre of a dirt road.
 FILE4188 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4193 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4195 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4248 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We wove our way north west thru small towns to arrive to Munddubera just after 4. It was 34 degrees most of the day and we were happy for sunset when it cooled off considerably. We walked into town and had a pretty good meal at the bar of a local hotel.
 FILE4253 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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15 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
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Today we may or may not make it the 558 km to Emerald.
 Screen Shot 2018-04-17 at 20.44.16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We gassed up before leaving town and then rode north to Banana on the A3 or Country Tourist route.
 FILE4256 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
The riding is mostly thru farmland, but there are some treed areas and hills. West from Moura we continued on the 60 and more west thru flatter and flatter landscape and on very straight roads and passing thru the small towns and villages.
 FILE4263 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4276 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4277 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4279 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4283 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4287 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4300 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4318 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4339 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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15 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
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Just about half way Daniel noted his voltage meter was reading low at 12.5. When we got back to the main road (the Capricorn Highway) and onto Dingo for gas. The voltage was holding and we hoped to get the 150 km to Emerald to swap out the stator, but 60 km later the voltage was dropping and luckily there was a very shaded rest stop right there. We changed out the regulator, but as usual no luck and we had to swap out the stator. This is our last spare as Sara’s was changed in Wellington.
 FILE4416 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2504 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2506 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
It was then 90 km to ride directly into the setting sun. We had a room at a pub and it came with a free  !
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15 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
Posts: 3,579
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We messaged the HU HUBB in Darwin and have had several replies with addresses to use to ship the new stator from the USA. We in the end sourced the part online in Oz and they want to ship to the Yamaha dealer in Darwin.
We have to decide which of 3 routes to take to Cairns from here the direct (960 km), the inland (1058 km), or the coastal (1119). In the end we went for coastal even though it is a bit longer since we have not seen the ocean for a while and because we will likely backtrack to Charters Towers (inland and direct routes via CT) on the way to Darwin. It is supposed to be a scenic historical town.
 Screen Shot 2018-05-13 at 18.08.07 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Screen Shot 2018-05-13 at 18.09.06 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Screen Shot 2018-05-13 at 18.08.38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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15 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
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We woke to a cloudy (yeah) day and cooler temperatures for our ride north to Townsville.
 Screen Shot 2018-04-22 at 21.50.38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We left the beach and backtracked to Mackay and back on the A1. There are hundreds of km of sugar cane!
 FILE4522 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We arrived to the iconic (full of tourists) Airlie Beach. Here we got some lunch and spent a few hours sitting by the water. We did not go into the water due to the killer jelly fish!They have spray bottles on vinegar you are supposed to take swimming with you. Everyone is in the "lagoon", which is just a swimming pool that looks like a lagoon.
 Queensland-31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Queensland-33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We had a break in Bowen at the "Big" Mango. This is another of the famous Big things in Oz.
 Queensland-34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Reef by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We finally arrived to the city just before 530.
 IMG_2509 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4536 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We are getting to Cairns tomorrow and have not yet had word that our Carnet had arrived. We received an return email from the Swiss Motoring Association that they did not get our payment sent 10 days ago and they did not ship the Carnets. WTF are we to do now as we have to drop the bikes in 2 weeks time at the shippers. We gave them our Darwin address. We need a renewed Carnet as our original will run out before we will leave Malaysia. We will exit Oz on the current one and then enter Timor Leste on the new one. We had to go down for a Grey Goose on ice. By the time we had come back from dinner we had a very apologetic email from SMA. They had a clerical error on their end and they have already express shipped they new Carnets to Darwin. Crisis averted.
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15 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
Posts: 3,579
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We did attempt to have a walk in the city, but even at 10 am it is scorching out in the sun. Another Australian GIANT thing!
 IMG_2517 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We have another cloudy and at time rainy day on the A1 to Cairns.
 Screen Shot 2018-04-22 at 21.53.13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
This was a long boring ride and in fact we had to stop half way for a nap on a bench from road fatigue. It is sugar cane or bananas for scenery.
 FILE4543 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4558 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We started to see these road condition signs when we entered Queensland. They tell you you by section if the roads are passable or flooded and impassible. Luckily we planned to be here in the dry season. (Two seasons in QLD dry and hot and wet and hot!)
 FILE4562 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4568 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4578 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4587 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 FILE4597 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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16 May 2018
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Contributing Member
Veteran HUBBer
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: RTW, From Vancouver BC 2012
Posts: 3,579
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Today is Saturday and we decided on a day trip 70 km north to Port Douglas. We stopped first at a few auto parts dealers in search of oil and then the Swede messaged us that he had just ridden 120 km to cairns and was at Yamaha having tires mounted. We were 2 blocks away so we snuck up, took this pic, and texted him! Surprise. He was also headed to Port Douglas coincidentally today.
 Screen Shot 2018-05-15 at 20.50.54 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2523 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2525 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
We drove north to Thala Beach resort for a coffee and an amazing view and then headed north for lunch with Orvar and a walk on the beach.
 IMG_2526 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2530 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 IMG_2529 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Reef-5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Reef-9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Reef-7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Reef-8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
 Reef-6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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Check the RAW segments; Grant, your HU host is on every month!
Episodes below to listen to while you, err, pretend to do something or other...
2020 Edition of Chris Scott's Adventure Motorcycling Handbook.
"Ultimate global guide for red-blooded bikers planning overseas exploration. Covers choice & preparation of best bike, shipping overseas, baggage design, riding techniques, travel health, visas, documentation, safety and useful addresses." Recommended. (Grant)
Ripcord Rescue Travel Insurance™ combines into a single integrated program the best evacuation and rescue with the premier travel insurance coverages designed for adventurers.
Led by special operations veterans, Stanford Medicine affiliated physicians, paramedics and other travel experts, Ripcord is perfect for adventure seekers, climbers, skiers, sports enthusiasts, hunters, international travelers, humanitarian efforts, expeditions and more.
Ripcord travel protection is now available for ALL nationalities, and travel is covered on motorcycles of all sizes!
What others say about HU...
"This site is the BIBLE for international bike travelers." Greg, Australia
"Thank you! The web site, The travels, The insight, The inspiration, Everything, just thanks." Colin, UK
"My friend and I are planning a trip from Singapore to England... We found (the HU) site invaluable as an aid to planning and have based a lot of our purchases (bikes, riding gear, etc.) on what we have learned from this site." Phil, Australia
"I for one always had an adventurous spirit, but you and Susan lit the fire for my trip and I'll be forever grateful for what you two do to inspire others to just do it." Brent, USA
"Your website is a mecca of valuable information and the (video) series is informative, entertaining, and inspiring!" Jennifer, Canada
"Your worldwide organisation and events are the Go To places to for all serious touring and aspiring touring bikers." Trevor, South Africa
"This is the answer to all my questions." Haydn, Australia
"Keep going the excellent work you are doing for Horizons Unlimited - I love it!" Thomas, Germany
Lots more comments here!
Diaries of a compulsive traveller
by Graham Field
Book, eBook, Audiobook
"A compelling, honest, inspiring and entertaining writing style with a built-in feel-good factor" Get them NOW from the authors' website and Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk.
Back Road Map Books and Backroad GPS Maps for all of Canada - a must have!
New to Horizons Unlimited?
New to motorcycle travelling? New to the HU site? Confused? Too many options? It's really very simple - just 4 easy steps!
Horizons Unlimited was founded in 1997 by Grant and Susan Johnson following their journey around the world on a BMW R80G/S.
Read more about Grant & Susan's story
Membership - help keep us going!
Horizons Unlimited is not a big multi-national company, just two people who love motorcycle travel and have grown what started as a hobby in 1997 into a full time job (usually 8-10 hours per day and 7 days a week) and a labour of love. To keep it going and a roof over our heads, we run events all over the world with the help of volunteers; we sell inspirational and informative DVDs; we have a few selected advertisers; and we make a small amount from memberships.
You don't have to be a Member to come to an HU meeting, access the website, or ask questions on the HUBB. What you get for your membership contribution is our sincere gratitude, good karma and knowing that you're helping to keep the motorcycle travel dream alive. Contributing Members and Gold Members do get additional features on the HUBB. Here's a list of all the Member benefits on the HUBB.
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helps answer the question - Why Go? Inspirational stories by veteran travellers Greg Frazier (5 times RTW), Peter and Kay Forwood (193 countries), Tiffany Coates (Mongolia Mayhem) and Rene Cormier (University of Gravel Roads).
Get Ready! covers planning, paperwork, medical and many other topics! "Inspirational and Awesome!" See the trailer here!
What stuff do I need - riding gear, clothing, camping gear, first aid kit, tires, maps and GPS? What don't I need? How do I pack it all in? Lots of opinions from over 150 travellers!
break down language barriers, overcome culture shock, ship the bike and deal with breakdowns and emergencies."Just makes me want to pack up and go!" See the trailer here!
Grant demystifies the black art of Tire Changing and Repair to help you STAY on the road! "Very informative and practical." See the trailer here!
Ladies on the Loose! For the first time ever, a motorcycle travel DVD made for women, by women! These intrepid women share their tips to help you plan your own motorcycle adventure. They also answer the women-only questions, and entertain you with amazing tales from the road! Presented by Lois Pryce, veteran solo traveller through South America and Africa and author of 'Lois on the Loose', and 'Red Tape and White Knuckles.'
Cotton or synth sweat-wicking t-shirts with the cool Horizons Unlimited graphic on the front and a snappy slogan (changing every year) on the back.
Show your route on your panniers. Great conversation starter when you meet people on the road!
Motorcycle and travel books to inspire and inform you!
The definitive guide to planning your motorcycle adventure! This insanely ambitious 2-year project has produced an informative and entertaining 5-part, 18 hour video series. "The ultimate round the world rider's how-to!" MCN UK.
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