Ken and Carol thoroughly spoiled us with their warm hospitality, and gave us some tips on 'Packingology' in which I think they both have Phds. They had a BBQ the day before we left and invited some other overlanders; Haydn and Diane who rode from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and are next year heading to South East Asia, and Mark and Aasha who will be in South America when we are there. Ken and Carol are once more planning a trip, to South America too so we spent a great afternoon and evening swapping stories and routes.

Hame and I spent most of Monday whizzing around Brisbane getting the bike sorted and doing some chores. Finally, finally, we headed North out of the city with a legal bike, two brand new tiny sleeping bags to replace our huge and heavy old ones and some thermals for me (it's a bit colder than Malaysia here!).

It was cold and dark by the time we arrived at our friends Marcus and Lissa's in rural Imbil but they warmed us up with homebrew, Lissa's fantastic curry and a great welcome. Again, we were throughly spoiled with great Aussie hospitality and spent a good few days catching up and enjoying being in Marcus and Lissa's beautiful self-built house in the bush, and wandering around Imbil, a very Aussie village.

We made a plan to head to Fraser Island before going North to chase the warm weather, and the four of us spent a night camping on Rainbow Beach, near Inskip Point, where we could catch the Fraser Island ferry. Hame and I managed to roll gently off Bertha as we hit a bit of soft sand leaving the campsite and as we rode up to the ferry...

...Hame turned to me and said, "Erm, do you think this is such a good idea?" I'm usually the cautious one but with a bit of bravado I didn't really feel I said "Nah, no worries mate, she'll be right" (or something like that). And so off we went, and yes, the sand was soft. Hame managed to get half a tonne of big red machine onto the ferry while I watched. This is him coming back, on the way there I was too busy watching in case he needed a push to take pics.

It's hard enough to walk on sand, let alone ride a heavy bike so we spent the ten minute ferry ride wondering what we were letting ourselves in for - Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world!

Hame rode cautiously off the ferry and found the harder sand near the waterline. He soon found it was fairly easy to ride on. I was terrified at first as the bike felt very different, sort of squishy, but once we got going it was just amazing. The beach is 75 km long, and mostly deserted.

After riding about 40 km and enjoying every minute we found a camping spot in the dunes about 500m from the only tap on the beach and a kilometre or so from the nearest shop. With the Pacific roaring in front of us and clear skies at night revealing more stars than I have seen in years, it was perfect.

Every night as we were cooking, our headtorches would pick out a pair of eyes glowing in the dark from the corner of our camp as a dingo would appear looking for food. Fraser Island's dingoes are the purest bred in the country and there are very strict instructions on keeping them wild, absolutely no contact is allowed. They are not fierce, and once we stood up and looked bigger the dingo would run off, sometimes to appear again, sometimes not. One got quite brave and came within feet of us, but he soon vanished back into the night as Hame turned to face him.

Fraser Island is one of those Aussie icons I've been hearing about for years, and it lived up to its reputation. We spent one day walking through rainforest, over sandblows and along the beach; another day riding up the beach to see some of Fraser Island's famous landmarks.

The best day for me though was riding to Lake MacKenzie. We'd heard the roads were "OK", so taking off the heavy luggage we decided to go for it, thinking we could always turn round if it got too hard. At first I was terrified as Bertha seemed to spend a lot of time going sideways, but as we got going I realised all those weekends holding a petrol can in the pits while Hame took part in off road races through Malaysian jungle had been worth it - he kept us upright and moving over roads I'd have struggled to get down on my mountain bike. Hame's attitude to bits of road that made me close my eyes in horror was simply to hit the throttle. After I got over my fear I began to find it incredibly funny. The harder the road got and the more Bertha behaved like a bucking bronco, the funnier it got, I just hung on for dear life and laughed! This is a good bit of road, we didn't dare stop for photo's on the bad bits or we may not have got going again.

We arrived in one piece and marvelled at the lake, the clearest water I've ever seen with white sand beaches, surrounded by forest. The road back wasn't quite such a source of amusement; the sand had dried and poor Bertha spent 15 km in first gear, getting very hot and skidding a lot.

We could have stayed on Fraser Island for days more but were both keen to head North, and into the outback so with regret we left at low tide and enjoyed the last bit of beach riding.

Back on the mainland we rode West towards Roma but on the way had a bit of a problem, Bertha was not starting properly. Hame thought at first it may be the battery so we kept going. As we rode along we saw our first kangaroo. We'd been told that the times to avoid road riding are dusk and dawn as there are suicidal marsupials around but the one who bounced across the road about 10m in front of us obviously wasn't wearing a watch as it was lunchtime. It was great to see though, finally we were off on our way into the vast Australian bush.

By the time we had reached Miles, about 300km West, the bike wouldn't start at all, and charging the battery didn't help. Hame took it all to bits and confirmed his worst fears that it was the starter motor. After a few phone calls to a local electrics shop and then to Chris back at the BM Shop in Brisbane, we realised we had no choice but to head back there. We spent the night in a friendly motel in Miles then the next morning, back to Brisbane...

Hame is at present with the bike getting the starter motor reconditioned (I think, I'll leave the techy stuff to him to explain later). While it was good to catch up with the friendly Brisbane crowd again we are a bit frustrated that just as we finally got going we had to turn back again! Having said all that I'm secretly pleased to be back in the land of good camping shops though so I can buy more warm things, it is cold! Hame, of course, is fine and can't understand why I feel the need to wear everything I own.

(Emma)