Distance Travelled 584 kms
Distance to date 17,153 kms
Bob and Barbara provided breakfast at Jenny's house from their mobile larder in the Land Cruiser. 
It was a cool morning and we put on all our riding clothes: for Alan thermal underwear, long sleeved shirt, jacket liner and riding jacket: for Colin Tee shirt, jumper, leather suit, outer waistcoat and goretex jacket. The winter gloves were also used. Mabel gave us a more direct route through Toowoomba than the night before and soon we were on the road to Goondawindi: it was going to be a big day of riding.
It was a cool morning and we put on all our riding clothes: for Alan thermal underwear, long sleeved shirt, jacket liner and riding jacket: for Colin Tee shirt, jumper, leather suit, outer waistcoat and goretex jacket. The winter gloves were also used. Mabel gave us a more direct route through Toowoomba than the night before and soon we were on the road to Goondawindi: it was going to be a big day of riding.
We were back on the unloved Darling Downs but we could see a mountain range in the distance to give us hope. There was a nasty cold crosswind to add to our discomfort. It was 200kms to Goondawindi so we got there at lunchtime. It was a pleasant looking town and we had bangers and mash for lunch. Colin stocked up on his cash at the CBA ATM. 
The border with NSW was just south of the town and we stopped for a photo. Only one more border crossing for Colin to complete the full set. It was a nice sunny day but the temp didn't get over 18 degrees so all our layers stayed on.We rode on to Moree and Narrabri through more interesting country with hills and forests. We stopped for a coffee in Narrabri before the last 120kms to Coonabarabran. This section of the road was through the Pillago forest which is an ancient feature of the area. The trees were getting bigger now but there were some large cactus trees interspersed amongst the gums - very strange. It was getting dark as the trees threw a shadow across the road. We were getting worried that the roos would come out, but in the end none appeared.
We booked into a motel and were glad we didn't attempt to camp with the very cold nights. We found out that there was a place nearby that held stargazing nights and as it was a very clear night we decided to go there before eating. It was run by an ex-ANU scientist who used to work at the Siding Springs observatory. He has four telescopes outside trained on different objects in the sky and one inside a small dome trained on Saturn. He gave an interesting talk about the solar system and the milky way. 
He had an amazing laser pointer with which he could point into the sky at a star or other feature. After the show he took people with Digital SLR's into the dome and fitted our cameras to his big scope and took pictures of the stars and the moon for us. It was really interesting show.
He had an amazing laser pointer with which he could point into the sky at a star or other feature. After the show he took people with Digital SLR's into the dome and fitted our cameras to his big scope and took pictures of the stars and the moon for us. It was really interesting show.Riding back to Coonabarabran the temperature had dropped to 4 degrees and it was really cold on the bikes. Alan of course used his heated grips and Colin had to reach down and thaw out his hands on the radiators. We had take-away Chinese and watched the International Rugby. England beat the Aussies by one point after Mat Gitteau missed a penalty kick in front of the posts. Colin said they should check his bank account as Australia were favourites to win.
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