10 Days to go...

I'm counting down the days now will I board a plane and set off to Perth to start cycling back to Adelaide. It still feels like I have a lot of preparation to finalise so it will be a very busy 10 days...busy, and exciting!

Donations to Cure Cancer Australia have been steadily flowing in thanks to generosity of friends and coworkers...I'm hoping to pay back this kindness by getting those pedals turning ASAP! So a bit about this cause: I chose this charity because of the work they do to fund research from emerging researches who find it difficult to get financial support to pursue their brilliant ideas. They look at all kinds of cancer and you can have a peek at some of their fine minds here.

I still have a fair a way to go on my fundraising target, but this should pick up once I get riding...

Training

A few people have asked me how much training I'm doing. Well, I'm relying largely on my 68 km round trip commute to work, which has been good for getting through distance on top of a busy job. Most weekends I've topped that up with other riding, so all in all I've ridden 3700km in training since the start of the year, with the longest riding being 165 km.

March was a bit more like it

I had a good test ride a weekend back, a return trip down the Great Ocean Road to Lorne to try out the bike with close to a full load, including 15kgs of water. Such great scenery along there, especially good at the crack of dawn as I had the road pretty much all too myself.

Training on the GOR

It went well in terms of a gear test. I camped out and rode back the next day...but found it so much harder with the weight and was burning way more energy than normal for 2x 130km days. I've got to be disciplined on the nutrition front for the trip itself as I wasn't eating well enough that day...lessons learned.

Weather

I mentioned the season of Djeran in my last post and it really seems accurate right now in Melbourne. Right on cue in April the wind has dropped a lot, its colder at night and with brilliant still mornings...perfect for eating up serious miles so I hope this holds for a while longer!

Early mornings in West Melbourne

That's it for now, but just a huge thank you to everyone who has read this drivel and still been willing to support Cure Cancer Australia! You all officially rock...

Why Cycle Across The Nullarbor?

Perth to Adelaide....3500km of remote wilderness...not much water, lots of wind...and not much of anything else...the "Nullarboring" so they say?

photo credit: SA Tourism

I'm not so sure. Frankly the world is a small place...and our time on it, is short! There is something quite appealing about pushing oneself deeply...and stripping back life to the basics. We fill our lives with the noise and chaos of the day to day, and forget what living really is.

This is no mid-life crisis for me, I've felt the need to do this kind of adventure for a very long time...

Maybe out in the expanse of outback Australia I'll get a reminder of how small and insignificant we are, how we need to make the most of our time here? Hell, I may even inspire others to do the same?

And on that note I have another, slightly less selfish, reason why I am doing this trip. Sometimes we are reminded of ,the fragility of life when we see others stuck down by the immense misfortune of illness. My wife, who works in the medical industry, must see this every day, and has had to develop deep professional fortitude to handle it. Her and her colleagues, are all hero's in my mind!

Most of us are not up close to such pain most of time, and when we see people suffer, it hurts. Rather than wallow in this I'd prefer try and do something more proactive about the situation: and that is hopefully raise some money for a very good cause.

So that is why I'm riding for Cure Cancer Australia...maybe that money will save someones life?

Anything you can do to help this cause would be fantastic, you can donate here if you feel like it...

About My Route

The Nullarbor itself is only one section of this whole journey. Starting in Perth, I plan to ease into things with some shorter days while I head south through Margaret River and down to Cape Leeuwin. After that there are some hills and spectacular forests to negotiate, before joining up with the southern coast and the first really remote section out to the oasis-like town of Esperance. 

If the weather is good, and the bike and I are in OK condition, I'll consider a very remote route up a 4WD track through Cape Arid, but more likely: I'll take the more well beaten path north up the highway to Norseman which is the last chance for decent supplies before the scarily long and remote Eyre highway cuts across the plains towards the Nullarbor itself. There are roadhouses about every 200 km here and I'll need to carry enough water to get between them no matter what the conditions. Food is equally a problem as there is only "trucker" type food available at these outposts and I'll be burning huge calories each day.

But of all the concerns, its the wind I'm most worried about. The theory goes, the area experiences a prevailing westerly wind...but it can seriously blow, and from any direction in reality. Look at the last 2 weeks for example:

Source: http://wind.willyweather.com.au

Not many Westerlies! But I should hit at the area at the calmest possible time of year on average, so that at least improves my odds. Indigenous Australians in South West Australia have ‘season’ for this short period of relatively calm weather in April and May, it’s called “Djeran.”

Should I make it through all that, the route ends after turning south from Port Augusta, and I'll probably head through the Clare Valley to finish up in Adelaide...3500 km later.

Perth to Adelaide this Autumn

Its been quite some time now since I had a good tour...way too long! I hope the legs can remember what to to do...and of course that means some training now to at least get a reasonable fitness base ready.

The plan this time is to fly out to Perth, head south through Margaret River and Cape Leeuwin, then veer east through Albany, Denmark to Esperance and then across the Nullabor Plain to Augusta, before turning south and heading through the Clare Valley down to Adelaide.

It's about 3500 km all up, and I have a 5 week time limit. I'll also be fundraising for a charity so a little more on that later...so many details to plan now but it's just very exciting to have a big goal again...more to follow...Game On!