"Winter Wonderland Tour" - Day 1 an early start

It was an early start for our first day of "Winter wonderland"road trip on a beautiful Brisbane Morning...and the ladies were rugged up.

Marjorie, Maree and Anita

With 19 adventurers in total , 10 bikes , 3 support vehicle we were ready for 1,200km of the most amazing blue sky riding and community ever.

As the city was waking we made our way onto the Gateway motorway for our quick run up north to our quick coffee stop at the big BP..... dave was still taking phone calls on his headset or just checking emails? We  then the run up Steve Irwin Way, Landsborough to Maleney for well deserved morning tea break

Wow how magnificent was the weather as we rode off down the hill to Kenilworth, then Gympie for a fuel stop and drink...and onto Kilkivan (thanks Des for the heads up) for lunch at the "left bank", Anita wondered what it was like to sit astride the mighty Kawasaki Custom.

oh...yes, its alway the young one with the flashy yellow sports bike that runs out of fuel.... no guage is always going to get you in trouble Reuben ...but there was plenty of help to the rescue.

After lunch it was great ride on the Kilkivan-Tansey rd shortcut ,then onto the Burnett Highway up to Gayndor for some of Maree's fantastic soup and crusty bread.

 True to form we had a little more drama with Leigh breaking his visor screw and whilst he was off looking for a replacement we headed off to the rest area for our soup...and we did tell Leigh didn't we? Anyway..after a futile search attempt and numerous calls we had to continue onto Monto without him. Unknowns to us he had headed off to Monto earlier with a broken phone...and had been enjoying some welcome refreshments at the Hotel Albert as we were worrying where he had got to.

So after the little interlude with the missing rider and empty fuel tank we were running into the afternoon sun directly into our eyes...difficult riding conditions but we finally made it to Monto,later than planned but grateful for a refreshing drink.
They say things come in threes...we already had two then we had to do the with the shortage in beds (so it was mattresses on the floor for the De-Bruin's, thx guys)....despite the VERY SLOW service we had a great night together...and Phil swore he would not order the calamari again!

Now check out day 1 video.....