Too many stories about old girlfriends. 
For something different: the month in the desert mentioned in the above post was my first (but not last) desert bike tour.
At the time, I had a fifteen year old Suzuki GS450E that I’d bought second-hand for $1,500. It was a cheap commuter bike to begin with, and it was thoroughly worn out when I bought it.
The flat-out top speed was about 130km/h, the tyres were skinny, the brakes were crap, the suspension was knackered and the top-end was so in need of a rebuild that you had to add a litre of oil per day if you were travelling at highway speeds.
But it carried me around, safe and sound. I sold it years ago, but I still love that bike. 
At the time of the trip, I was recovering from a back injury. Because of this, I couldn’t spend more than an hour on the bike at a time; the pain would start to build at around the half hour mark, and gradually increase until it became unbearable.
Fortunately, all it took was a quick five-minute walk around to reset the clock and allow me to continue. So, for the entire trip, I stopped for a photo every hour:
(edited highlights, click through for album)
The trip was around 8,000km, and I took about a month to do it. I started in Sydney, visited some friends in Canberra, then did the same in Melbourne. After that, across the Coorong and up the Stuart Highway to Uluru/Kata Tjuta, then north again to visit my brother in Tennant Creek. Over the Barkley Tablelands back to the coast, visit a few more friends on the Queensland border, then back south again and home.
And for the entire month, I had this song on permanent loop in my head:
I didn’t mind; I love that song anyway, and it was ridiculously appropriate for the circumstances.
