Friday 28th January 2011 – Contrary to my first thoughts, I’ve now decided to return to Melbourne via the east coast highways – going through the centre at this time of year would mean dealing with temperatures in excess of 45C and I’m not sure I’m up to that again. Whereas the east coast route will only be about 30C! Plus its a much more populated and interesting route and is also a more direct route to Canberra and Bateman’s Bay. The only trouble is there’s a cyclone developing off shore so there may be more flooding, but hey ho, either way there’s risks involved and I’d rather take my chances on the coast than melt in the desert again.

So the plan is to spend 2 weeks getting from Cairns to Noosa (just north of Brisbane), where I’ll stay with a friend of my brother’s, then another 2 weeks from Noosa to Canberra, then a final week or so getting back round to Melbourne where I’ll stay for a week so that I can sell the bike before flying to Hong Kong on about 12th March (dates not confirmed yet) then back to the UK a few days later. Along the way I hope to take in places like the Whitsundays, Fraser Island, Byron Bay, Coff’s Harbour, Newcastle and Palm Beach (where they film Aussie soap opera “Home & Away”). So its going to be a great trip and I intend to savour every moment.

I feel quite sad that my trip is coming to an end. I’ve had the most wonderful time here and I can’t believe I actually managed to ride the width of Australia in 8 days!!! It would have been great to have had some romance but I think the lack of it has made me learn how to find happiness within myself and that in itself is a wonderful thing. And who knows, I’ve still got 6 weeks to go ....