Shipping your bed, kitchen and the rest of your wife usually means that you have to make alternative living arrangements in her absence. This inevitably means living a restricted existence out of a small rucksack.

Fortunately, Australia's west coast port of Fremantle is a short breeze from Perth, the home of Martin and Tory - Martin being a mate from home. By a stroke of luck, Martin's folks were also in Perth at the same time.

This meant that what was going to be a period of prolonged pain without the truck, turned out being the exact opposite. The month was spent enjoying the fermented fruits of Western Australia's vineyards amongst familiar and friendly faces.

Just don't anybody tell the wife that I've been having a good time in her absence.

Next stop: Dubai. See you there.

Two 101's. Gordon Beer's and the wife. Recognise anything new on the wife?

Perth has been the birthplace of a completely new set of galvanised wheel rims with a larger offset, and "eyebrows" on the front bodywork to accommodate the wider track.

A couple of the original rims cracked a few thousand kilometres back, so Gordon did a pile of homework, getting new ones knocked up, and folding aluminium sheeting to keep things legal at the front.

The widened track improves stability, while the "eyebrows" greatly improve the aerodynamics. Honest.

Arriving at Perth was like a Formula-1 pit-stop. Pull in, a completely new set of wheels, some modified body panels, and then drive off again. There's something to be said for having a good pitcrew manager - I'll pass your name on to the McLaren F1 team, Gordon, with my full recommendation.

Thanks heaps.