checkpoint . Anticipation was building . There was lots of activity with police cars and flashing lights . Some vehicles were being pulled over for random checks .
My intrepid co-pilot held up the printed A4 border passes from the sidecar . The copper gave us the intense law enforcement eyeball stare , looking for any signs of nervousness or attitude and then waved us through . We didn ’ t have to stop .
We had previously been in COVID lockdown for a while . As we crossed the border , I was singing to myself , AC-DC … “ Gunna make a jail break ” … “ All in the name of liberty . Got to be free !”
We had made it across the first border ! We still needed to get through the QLD - NT border that was still closed . There was another 2,400km to travel to get to the NT border .
It was different to be in QLD after the more restrictive COVID restrictions of NSW . Cafes and bars were just starting to reopen , with strict social distancing in place . While we stayed in the city of Brisbane , there were people taking selfies in front of the unique Russian sidecar , under the Poinciana 2 trees on the fashionable Racecourse Road .
The vegetation was becoming even more colourful and luxuriant after we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn , near Bundaberg . We stayed at the coastal village of Yeppoon and soaked up the view of the southern islands of the Great Barrier Reef in the Pacific Ocean . Our next ocean view would be looking north towards Indonesia over the Timor Sea from Darwin . There were many arid areas to traverse between these ocean views .
We headed across western QLD towards a rest day stop at Longreach . What a joy , the feeling of leaving the big cities behind . Heading for the outback . Flying with the wind on our backs .
Longreach provided an opportunity to visit the “ Australian Stockman ’ s Hall of Fame ” as well as
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