I always thought Bondi Beach was this huge expanse of white sand full of beautiful people and bordered by enormous surf.I went there yesterday to have a look. It's a sort of bijou Bude but without the cream teas. It's really small - most disappointing.

Mind you, I had a lovely ride around the general vicinity of Sydney, and there are some stonking views to be had over the harbour. I took the opportunity to have a ride over the bridge as well, although not as fast as Mark Webber on Sunday (I expect you read about that fiasco).

I think I told you I'm at a campsite on Botany Bay. I went for a ride around the bay to the National Park. Very nice, and hardly spoilt at all by a) the Caltex oil refinery in the middle of it, and b) the final approach to the airport directly overhead. Quite like the New Forest, really.

The gearbox. Well, considered opinion of the experienced mechanic who took the bike for a ride the other day is that the clutch splines have dried out a bit, and he doesn't think there's anything else wrong. As we'd have to take out the box to regrease, he reckoned there'd be nothing to lose by taking the end off the box and checking it out. Trouble is, they can't do it till Monday even if I take the box out myself.

So I've now gone to plan B. Bike gets crated on Friday morning and collected by the shipper in the afternoon. It'll be on a flight over the weekend. Meanwhile, I'll arrange with the dealer in Santiago to have a look at things for me when I get there. We'll see.