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A Lap of Australia | 2026
After our planned retirement in 2021, Audrey and I had planned to spend a year riding around New Zealand and Australia. Of course that all changed in 2020 when Audrey passed away, just eight months shy of retirement. Now it is time to make that trip a reality. In 2025 I had purchased (and sold) a bike in New Zealand so that was the most logical choice for Australia as well. I guess logical never came up in my mind. At the end of 2025 I rode my R1200GSA from Munich to Dakar and then the same bike from Cape Town to Uganda and back to Cape Town. The "logical" thing to do then was to ship that bike to Australia. I mean it was half way there already. I had a look at the Australian climate and based on the temperatures I decided that starting in Brisbane at the end of August (winter) and then heading to the hottest parts of Australia (Alice Springs and Darwin) made sense. After a lap I would then end up in the coldest part of Australia (Tazmania) at the end of spring and then finish the lap back in Brisbane in December.
Chapter 1: Arrival in Brisbane