1st September Chinchilla 0 kms today 10,177 kms to date

We spent the day with Frances and the kids. They wagged school especially to entertain Colin and I. First of all Joshua helped me change the oil and oil filter on my motorbike. It seemed to go OK although only a good hard run into Brisbane tomorrow will show up any leaks from the sump plug and/or oil filter.

Alan and Joshua do an oil change on the GS

Here is Joshua giving us a demo of his prowess with his archery set. Libby and Bethany also showed us their skills.

The Prentices now have a fully operational Queenslander house. They have done a great job and it looks really good.

We walked with the kids to the main dam and checked out the water and the cattle.

A nice cooling paddle in the dam and some rock splitting to make skimmers.

Libby, Bethany and Joshua in their dam

In the evening Bethany organised a concert with items from her, Libby and Joshua. Bethany played piano, violin and sang. Libby played Viola (three strings only), clarinet and piano. Joshua played guitar, drums and sang.

A great way to round off our visit to Chinchilla.  Tomorrow we head off to Brisbane where we will go our separate ways.  Colin to Bob and Barbara Shaw’s house to return the DR 650 to its home and then fly to Melbourne on Wednesday and I will stay with my niece Louise and make my way back to Sydney in time for my 70th birthday on the 4h Sept.  We will split off on the M2 outside of Brisbane and that will be the end of 6 1/2 weeks and 10,000 kms of riding across the centre and north of Australia.

This will be the last blog on the road, but we will add our thoughts in a postscript when we get back home.