Rain, rain go away, come again another day!

Well today was pretty tough, we woke up to rain and it stayed until the last few hours. I guess we need the rain and the smell of the wild flowers and wet Nullabor earth is wonderful!

But for me this meant 7 hours of being wet - thank goodness for the support crew as I had two changes of cloths to get me warm. Also pleased I made the impulse purchase of a waterproof. It seems everything I bought just in case is being used!

We crossed into South Australia at 1pm Perth/Singapore time and we are now 100km from Border Village and closer to Adelaide then we are to Perth. So another time zone change - very confusing!

A guy called Colin (driving a truck to Melbourne) stopped and asked "are you Gary?" - he had seen the article in the Audax mag! Colin if you got on the blog site - thanks for the words of encouragement I needed it and it was great to chat! The TV ad is also now on telly and was playing in the roadhouse we stayed in!

So today I discovered the impact of mixing road trains (a 36m truck with 2 or 3 trailers) and rain. If you want to understand what its like: do this in your front room.
You need - you plus partner and child, a bike, an octopus strap, a bucket of water and a fan.
Then :
- attach octopus strap to front forks and door - strap should be almost taut
- turn on fan with highest setting and aimed at riders head
- have partner stand 1 metre in front of bike slightly to ur right
- do a track stand
- emulate road train passing in opposite direction by on a count of 3 making a loud whooshing noise then partner throws a bucket of water in your face and the child simultaneously closes the door very quickly making the bike shake and feel like u will fall. Get the picture? - for truck passing from behind reverse partners position - when two road trains pass in opposite direction at same time lie on ground and have partner throw water over you!

Needed mores stops today to get warm and dry before going out in the wind and rain again! The thought of the Kids and the words of all my friends helped me get going and avoided the support crew having to kick me out. But the extra time in stops meant I finished in the pitch black ... Couldn't help thinking "Blair Witch" being miles from anywhere with just my flash lights, did I hear voices calling???.

So music today was rock and heavy during the rain .. Prodigy (music for the jilted generation) the Sex Pistols and ACDC (kick in the teeth was quite apt). And again Paul VD to finish the day and focus on turning the cranks in a big gear.

High - getting messages from special loved ones when I briefly got a mobile signal and an sms from my boss; not about work!

Low - getting 100 over emails when I briefly got a mobile signal.

Stats
250km (total since Freo 1560km)
S 31' 34.263
E 130' 02.012

Let's hope for blue skies tomorrow. See you!

Rain on the Nullabor and our last night in Western Australia

OK .. at last i have managed to find a place to get on the Internet .. there is no mobile coverage at all but found an Internet kiosk that works!
A good day today despite getting rained on - i thought there was a drought here!
The weather is still freezing - whole day in arm and leg warmers and today i needed a waterproof.

So today i rode the end of 90 mile road a continuous straight road across the Nullabor - i did 100km with only 17m of vertical accent!! And people say Singapore is flat! Then i passed into a new time zone ... 45min difference to Perth... like why bother? Make it an hour or 30mins but, 45 ...blur!? Anyway! Finished the day with 280km completed and only one night left in WA.

Got to see my first live Emus and Kangas today - seen lots of dead ones and now know the smell of road kill....nice ugh!

High - seeing the Madura Pass ...totally unexpected as the plain just drops 100m and the plain below stretches for as far as the eye can see! Amazingly beautiful.
Low - Telstra mobile coverage means not easy to keep in touch with loved ones!

Music ... ok this is strange coz i am in Australia but "Welcome to Africa" got played a lot today as did Paul Van Dyke, just great for the flat straight roads.

Ok - off to South Australia in the morning!

Stats
Distance 280km (total since Freo 1310), Calories = loads given up counting but replacing with chocy
S 31' 54.934
E 127'28.403

1030kms on from start line!

Another 280kms just completed. Same distance as yesterday but finished an hour earlier due to the great tailwind!!! With the wind behind me I was able to average 50kms/h! Even at that speed I could not get rid of the fly which sat on my shoulder for the last 3hrs! who said I was alone out here!

Today was the first day we needed to use the Satellite phones as there is asolutely no reception across the Nullarbor!! Thanks Satellite Phone hire for your support!

Lots more road kill, its amazing, so many kangaroos.

The biggest distaser of the day: my ipod ran out of batteries!!!

Tomorrow i finish the 90 mile road, the longest straight stretch in Australia, it feels like it never ends!!!

S32' 26.4
E124' 38.4

Nighty night

Today I turned right and then left!

Ok so to most people turning is no big deal but essentially all the roads here are dead straight. I joke that it is pretty much a straight road to Sydney where we then turn right to Melbourne ha ha. But today our turn right at Coolgardie signalled the end of the Great Eastern Highway and for me the end of headwinds (for a while at least). As I turned South I felt a wind on my back and my speeds pick up so I decided to go for a bigger day and take advantage of the conditions.
170km later I got to turn left and I saw my first road sign for Adelaide ..... OMG 1986km from Norseman. Rather than stop at the sign I did another 10km to finish the day at 280km. We know have a straight road to South Australia ahead of us!
No magpie attacks today but I wore a different colour helmet ie no black which may have helped. Lots of big dry bones along the roadside here - think they must be from the camels that live around here.
Most amazing sight - riding across Lake Cowan (a dry salt lake) at sun down with the warm red glow making shadows of me on the bush.
So onward to the Nullabor - bring it on!
Stats:
280 km, 9829 cals (does anyone know how accurate the Garmin is on this
measure?)
End point
S 32' 07.194
E 121' 51.504

Equipment Update

I have used both bikes the Scott Addict and the Litespeed Vortex. Both are going well but the titanium is more forgiving on the rough tarmac.
For the first two days I rode on Zipp 303s - the more I ride this wheel the more I love it, it makes light work of bumps and holes without compromising speed and I think will become my wheel of choice for kulai. Yesterday I was lucky riding the aero set up litespeed with 404s as when I started south I got a tail wind - never done a 180km time trial before!
A few thoughts on the rest of equipment
- Sunnies - the sun is so strong u need a good pair, my Uvex are great at the end of each my eyes are not tired and they perform well in the low dusk lighting :) A great gift - thanks twins!
- least needed item (so far) Skins Ice tops designed to keep u cool... Yeah right with 4 degree mornings I don't want to keep cool!
- best impulse purchase - a pair of Descente thermal booties I got from Colin. Ha ha u thought I wouldn't need them Colin but used every day so far it is so cold!
- best motivational accessory - ipod nano, playlists from by fave people and the shuffle function!
Otherwise (fingers crossed) equipment is performing well although I wish I taken more cold weather gear with me!

nearly 500km from the start

Ok day 2 completed. 250km today making it 470km from the start and a little under 10% of the total target, so still a long way to go.

Despite headwinds for 75% of the day it was a good day. Especially after yesterday where I got bitten by a rail-track snake (a close relative of the snow snake that skiers hate! But this burns when he bites). The headwinds made progress slow and they only abated when the sun was going down!

High of the day - actually I have two (is that allowed?)!
1. Getting a letter from the mother of a child on the Learning for Life program when I had finished my day (shed a tear!). Makes me even more determined to do what I am doing.
2. having a break just at the right time to watch the 6 mins of the Grand Final when scores were level !

Low - when a Magpie attacked my helmet while riding.

Song of the day - "I like the way you move" as it helped me through the headwinds and kept me focused. But "Let go" paul van dyke, pulled me home at the end of the day - man! Love that rhythm, reckon I could do anything to that track!

Distance 250km (470 total BTCC) , Calories 8000.
End S 31' 13.788
E 120' 10.265.

Ok time to rest.

crossing the rabbit proof fence!

I learnt two things about WA today
- firstly it isn't that flat. After 100km of riding out of Freo I had already clocked up 1200m of vertical.
- secondly I had no idea how green and beautiful the Perth Hills were.

So It was a great start to the day meeting the Smith Family kids and being able to ride with them (pix will follow). There was a lovely moment at the start when I was riding with them and one of the little girls said to me "this is so cool riding on the road", these kids had been doing cycling training to get ready for the ride.

After that it was a journey through the burbs until we found the Great Eastern Highway. I had one rider with me until the hills started when he left - sorry we didn't have a chance to say good bye and thanks for the pulls at the front! . After that I was on my own!

Because of the late start today and my desire to complete stage one a day early I arrived in Kellerberrin in the dark!

Distance 221km, 7400 cals.
End point today/start tmr
S 31' 38.045
E117'43.281

Need to sleep now :)

The Start

Phew! I made it to the start line, thanks to the help of so many people....

Belinda ......my guardian angel/devil!

The Smith Family kids for my motivation to do this

Family for support and encouragement - Imogen and Alison

My boss Neil and my team in Asia for their support and the wonderful send off they gave me.

Sponsors/Supporters for their generosity - Skoda, Skody, AXA, Red Dot, QANTAS, Zipp, Uvex, Treknology

Advisers for their tips and help - David "Tiny" Bellette, Chris McLeod, Mike DeNoma

Fitness First friends and instructors for getting me fit enough and pushing/motivating me - Ches, Yu-Lynn, Jacky, Tommy, Jennifer, Kee Leong, Andrew, Kelvin, Fernie, Fei, Anna (HK), George (HK)

Bikes - Colin and the guys @ Bikehaus

Cycling buddies especially those Kulai riders - JF, Thomas, Marcus, Bo, Steffen, Mark(x2), Tim(x2), Nick, 3 people called Chris! etc etc

People who have, or will, donate hard cash!

..... now i have to do my bit!

If i left anyone out ..sorry!

Twas the night before .......

OK everything that can be done has been done. Including the support cars that we got just before midnight!

I start tomorrow leaving at 10.00 from

King Square

William Street

Fremantle

after i have dipped my wheels in the ocean!

Arrived in Perth!! Two sleeps left!

A good day - despite the huge amount of luggage (120kgs) the journey to Perth was great.

Bikes put together, now time for dinner and then a spin along the river in the morning.

Fund raising going well, got a donation from the driver that picked us up at the airport when he heard what i was about to do, after he told me i was crazy of course! Thanks Gerry!

Special thanks to all my sponsors who are spreading the word. Oh yes! The jerseys are here, keep your eyes peeled for the shocking pink!

Selemat Hari Raya

Selemat Hari Raya to all my Muslim friends.

For me it gave me an extra day to train before my ride starts in Fremantle this week.

I can't believe just how much stuff we need ..."just in case" for the trip.

Most of my spare time last week was spent getting things ready (a lot of time pottering in bike shops ha ha!) and packing - bikes packed with the help of Colin from Bikehaus and thanks to help from QANTAS i think we should be with in the luggage limits.

In between i managed a good week of training and my last Malaysia ride yesterday of 200km through JB and the beautiful palm plantations!

Tomorrow we fly to Perth and have to unpack everything ...sigh!

12 more sleeps ......

Chilling out after a good week of training ....>900km and back to back 250's saturday n sunday. Off to deep tissue massage soon to relax !!! ha ha
Seriously it was good to emulate what the ride is going to be like with consecutive long rides - i discovered how different bodys parts will feel, today my legs feel OK but my right hand has no strength left in my fingers from gear changing (was challenged last night with using chopsticks!!).
The fund raising target is getting very close to 50k. Big thank-yous to all have donated. Please continue to tell your friends so we can really make a difference. Hope to see this closer to 100k before i start.
Lastly now facing the frenzy of packing and listing all the stuff .....like the new 404s and 303s sitting in the bike room ......mmmm nice!
of to another week of training :-)

my first blog post!

So with only a few more weekends of training before the big ride I joined a charity ride from Singapore to Mersing this weekend, about 160km each way!It was a good chance to test back to back long rides. It was a great weekend meeting new people, enjoying the stress free life of a supported ride and getting kms in the legs. So now the countdown for the big 5500km ride begins, as does the focus on the fund raising target. Don't forget to donate at http://aroundthebayfundraising.com.au/?GaryHarvey

gary