On arrival in Brisbane I drove to Donat's place. Here I transferred my gear from Justin's diesel CX to the 'new' Familiale. Donat had left the car well protected from the weather and had disconnected the battery. Using the spanner he'd left I reconnected the leads and started the car.

It sprang into life and was quickly up off the ground. Leaving Justin's outside, on the quiet suburban street I took the Familiale and drove off looking for somewhere to have a shower and clean up.

Parked at the beach where I enjoyed a 'HOT' shower and a welcome change of clothes.

I had Kimmo's phone number and made contact via SMS as he'd suggested. We arranged to meet later in the afternoon. Around 14:00 I drove out to where Kimmo lived and grabbed some lunch. As I was parked by the road eating Kimmo and his family drove past as I had an SMS telling me they were heading home and had seen me at the side of the road.

I drove to Kimmo's where we looked at both my car and the collection Kimmo has gathered. Towards the end of the afternoon I left to find a perch for the night.

Kimmo had mentioned he was meeting up with Andy N on Sunday morning with a part for the GS he was preparing for Cit-in. On Sunday morning another SMS arranged a meeting point where Kimmo and I joined up and drove to Andy's. Kimmo and I swapped cars for the last kms of the drive.

At Andy's we once again looked at the assembled collection of CX's and the GS.

Andy's photograph of our cars that Sunday morning. The GS receiving attention is in the garage in the background.

When I picked up the Familiale I discovered the tailgate strut bracket was broken. Pictured is the solution Andy's wagon came with - now in my car!

As I had to deliver Justin's CX to a motor trimmer for some last minute, Cit-in preparation I had to hang around Brisbane to deliver his car to them. As I waited I had a mobile strut re-gas done. At the same time I purchased, for an extra $15, a ute lid strut and mounting bracket. Fitted this to replace the mangled original bracket. Left cracked LHS original in place as the re-gas bloke didn't have a matching pair of ute lid struts.

Have made it home without further drama with the struts.

Once I'd delivered Justin's car I took the Familiale to John (at DS Motors) where he told me it had just been serviced and didn't require any further attention - beside which, with Lance at the Targa in Tasmania he couldn't do anything for three weeks anyway.

As I had time to fill in I headed off to Nth Stradbroke Is for the remainder of the week. Justin's car would be ready Thursday and he and Carol Howatson arrived late that day.

At the Point Lookout camping site.

Thousands of bats hung in the trees and screeched all day long. At sunset they took off in seemingly endless lines looking for food.

The beach was less than fifty metres from my camp.

Returning on the ferry was a sunny affair compared to the Monday trip to the island when it was wet and very misty.