After the first Captain Copernicus fly-about, we headed back east along the Bells of Line road – this was the first of many rides recommended by our tour organizer, by the Australia Motorcycle Atlas and given the true stamp of approval by the crazies on ADVrider.

With a bit of elevation gain v. Sydney, we felt a temperature difference and recalculated: if it’s August and therefore hot with Washington DC’s summer, then – yep, sure enough – it ought to be winter in Australia. As a point of reference, Sydney is about as far south of the equator as Raleigh NC is north of the equator. From Sydney, our plan is to ride north the Cairns. Cairns is in the topics, about 1,200 kilometers north of the tropic of Capricorn. Relative places in the Americas include Jamaica and Honduras.

We ended our first day of riding only an hour or two northwest of Sydney, fairly close to where we began. Although we did not find Doug’s chair, we found something nearly equally important: we found Doug’s plotter-printer. No, actually I’m just kidding – so far as I know, Doug’s printer is well accounted for. What we DID find was a bit of confidence in our rented bikes and some first-blush familiarity with our new environment, and a great place to stop for the night. . .

Day two put us on the Putty Road, one that was among the most recommended of the entire trip. Here are a few shots. . .

And while this might look all well, good and safe to you, I should make note that warning signs of our chief suspect, “the marsupial” were everywhere.

Lastly – for this post – I’ll note that I did bring my Cabana Boy hat. In my (un)official capacity as BMWBMW’s Cabana Boy, I can imagine no honor greater than to offer the symbol of my office to all people in all places. (But I will note that more than one person has asked if I claimed the hat at customs – it is after all a plant - - who’d have guessed?)