Ready, Set, Pedal!
I am very happy to share that Tara and I have made it to Perth and are finally (very nearly) on our way! It has been an apprehensive couple of months not knowing if we’d be able to make it here or if we’d have to quarantine. To our relief and surprise the domestic borders remained open and we made it without having to quarantine. Huge result!
PROGRESS
It’s been a busy month or so since my last update.
On 6th February I completed my enduro-challenge: a double marathon on the stationary bike, a single marathon on the ski erg and single marathon on the rower. All up, with a couple of breaks, it took 13 hours and was followed by the consumption of my body weight in ice cream as a reward!
On the day people came along and did some kms with me and donated money while others helped out remotely. A big thank you to everyone who got involved. So many people being there made for agreat distraction from the task in hand. It was a good confidence boost too to see how much my endurance and stamina has built up.
Then there has been the standard expedition prepping with things like looking at the route and resupply points. One of the biggest challenges (outside of the physical challenge of cycling 5,000km!) is ensuring we have enough water with us, balanced with not carrying excessive amounts. With one litre of water equalling one kilogram, the weight quickly adds up when you need 5-6 litres per day each and at times having to go three days between water sources.
Thanks to trusty Google Maps the route is sorted along with how far between access to water, fuel for the stove, food shops and bike shops. Plus the directions, list of towns to aim for and anticipated elevation change. This has been printed and laminated. Then the route has been plugged into the GPS and highlighted on a paper map. So theoretically we shouldn’t get lost…let’s see!
TRIAL TRIP
Later in February Tara and I went on an invaluable two day ride to see what it was like riding the bikes close to fully loaded, trying out new camping equipment and seeing what pace we went at. There were a lot of takeaways, such as:
Hills are a totally different ball game when you’re loaded. Probably not that surprising but we got to see the kind of inclines we can cycle up and those we need to push up. There was a lot of walking, pushing and huffing involved and I was grateful to BeFit Physio for all the sled push work they had me doing!
My bike has not a fan of her chain, choosing to shed it randomly when it felt constrictive and annoying
Tara’s bike got very creaky on day two and hers had a knack of shedding the front panniers. Not ideal!
We’re hoping that the bike service we’ve just had done will eliminate these last two issues. The hills – well we’re just going to have to deal with those! This trial trip definitely served as a reality check and was invaluable preparation for departure.
NEXT STEPS
We have had 48 hours in Perth to put our bikes back together, purchase supplies and do the final prep. Big thanks to Tara’s old school friend Amy for putting us up.
Tonight we make our way to Steep Point (our starting point). This is the western most point of Australia and just getting here is something of a mission. It’s almost 900km north of Perth and involves taking an overnight bus to a remote truck stop called Hamelin, riding 40km to a turn off to meet a lovely local lady called Bec, who has agreed to drive us (in a robust 4-wheel drive) along the very sandy 140km of track out to Steep Point. We will be dropping water along the way (and hoping it stays there till we pick it up), as we physically can’t take all we are likely to need.
We aim to starting pedalling (or pushing!) on Friday 12th March with a very tricky few days of sand dunes and corrugated trail that’s not very bike friendly. But it’ll be great to have this out of the way early on in the trip.
The risk profile for this trip is different from my previous water based adventures. Cycling on the roads you’ve got the traffic. And being in Australia, it’s bigger and badder with the monster road trains to contend with. These are lorries towing up to three semi-trailers that create a vortex as they pass. As mentioned before, having enough water with us is another challenge. And then poor old Tara, her challenge is having to deal with grouchy me when I’m tired, hungry and in pain. Not my best side!
FUNDRAISING
As mentioned before we’re raising money for two charities close to our hearts: MoodActive and Lifeline. We feel that between these two charities we are addressing mental health at different points along the spectrum through from prevention to support. Our fundraising is well under way. Our targets are $20k for Lifeline and $10k for Mood Active. Please do share this link to donate www.cyclingoz.com/donate
OUR SUPPORTERS AND SPONSORS
We are incredibly grateful to our sponsors and supporters who have made this trip possible:
Regional Australia Bank
Breen Resources
Breen Foundation
Panthers Cycles
BeFit physiotherapy
Fortem Australia
StandBy Support After Suicide.
FOLLOW OUR PROGRESS LIVE
You can follow our progress through our live tracking, which is ready to go on our website www.cyclingoz.com on the ‘Route and Progress’ page. Our goal is to ride 100km’s day (once we hit bitumen), but the weather, wind and incline will exert their influence over that.
We’ll, that’s it for now. May the pedalling begin!
Sarah x x