Sydney to Brisbane - Day 1 - Across Sydney

Time to get started! I wanted to begin this tour at the exact spot my last ride in to Sydney ended, at the train station Gymea. This may seem like a weird place to start or end a tour, but I had a breakdown at the time and was walking a broken bike. By starting this trip at the exact spot, I gave myself the option later on of completing a round Australia circumnavigation. I'm not certain I actually want to do this...but its all about having options!

For this trip I will be riding bike packing style and travelling light, but sleeping indoors. Goals for this trip are:

1. Complete the Great Cycle Challenge by riding 2000 km in the month of October and raise some money for https://www.cmri.org.au/
2. Ride from Sydney to Brisbane, unsupported

This is the bike setup:

So after getting the bike out of her box and putting her together amidst many staring tourists at Sydney airport....I got the train down to Gymea and then started cycling back north!  It was a stinking hot day in the mid 30s with a very strong westerly gale blowing, and not much fun navigating the industrial area around the airport especially...but at least I got this done.

By the time I rolled in to the Youth Hostel at Bondi, I was feeling sick and probably had a bit of heat stroke. I'd also broken my bike pump, so fixing these starting off pains was top priority for the 'real' start of the ride tomorrow.

As always on day 1, I have plenty of self doubts. Am I fit enough for this? What about all this traffic....and so it goes on...