Current weather: 21/11°C, sunny
Total distance travelled: 1796km (+408km)

Leaving even later this morning at 10am, still continuing our trek northbound on the A39. Since crossing the QLD border, it underwent a name change: now the Gore Hwy, but considerably poorer in condition. Watching the bikes bounce around in the mirrors was mildly disconcerting.

An area now ironically called Cypress Gardens had obviously felt the wrath of the 2020 east coast fires - nothing but black matchsticks rising above a sea of fresh green growth now remain.

The A39 finally finished outside Toowoomba, merging into a freshly constructed duplicated highway that ironically had a lower speed limit than the preceding highway, where vehicles would pass each other at 110km/h with barely a metre of air separating them.

Another quick stop for fuel before taking the scenic route through Gatten, Elk and Kilcoy - a beautiful area, quintessentially Australian with rolling hills of dry grass, cattle and scattered eucalypt.

With the Glasshouse Mountains dominating the horizon, we knew we were finally closing-in on our destination. We finally arrived at Doug & Kristi's in Beerwah just after 3pm!

Our excited hosts patiently waited while we parked the van and unhitched, then proceeded to make us feel right at home.

If the numberplates on our car didn't make it obvious, the fact our kids were soon swimming in Doug & Kristi's unheated pool in late June surely betrayed our Melbourne roots!

A lovely slow-cooked beef stew for dinner, and a post-dinner gecko hunt was the perfect way to cap off the first stanza of our 'lap'.