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Monday, October 13, 2008 – 10.14 am

What a wonderful group of people that attended the Ride Celebration Dinner on Saturday night – you could feel the love!

Their generosity to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Australia was fantastic and greatly appreciated.  The best example of this was that a $200 gift voucher was auctioned off…….and sold for $400!

Jack presents David White (Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Australia)
with a ride caricature

Right back at ya!
David White presents Jack with a specially commissioned trophy

Harry & Laura spend some time with their brother Jack

More to come soon!

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Friday, October 10, 2008 – Midday

Jack has ridden his bike into Surfers Paradise to finish his epic across Australia bike ride – cycling 4,500 kms in just 30 days to raise funds and awareness of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Australia.

It was easy with the bike storage and then we went off to celebrate this great bike ride.

Thanks so much for your support and interest.

More to come!

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Friday, October 10, 2008 – 7 am

Jack’s very excited this morning as we’re about to head out from Murwillumbah and head for Surfers and the completion of our 4,500 journey.

We’re meeting some mates at Currumbin Alley at 10.30 am and then will be heading for Surfers Paradise, finishing under the Surfers Paradise sign at the end of Cavill Mall at midday.

Thanks everyone for your fantastic support.  We appreciate it greatly as we’ve travelled along and hope to see you soon.

Brendon & Jack

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Thursday, October 9, 2008

A relatively easy day today except for the Kyogle Ranges.  David, Chris and Harry took a rest day, whilst Jack and I tackled the ranges.

Straight out of the beautiful town of Kyogle into a 1 hour climb, then down into the beautiful valley.  We’ve done this ride before so are starting to feel like we’re close to home.

Jack & Brendon setting out from Kyogle

Jack climbs the Kyogle ranges

Old man Brendon climbs the same hill

After a nice breakfast at the Sphinx Rock Cafe, it was an easy roll down into Murwillumbah where we are to stay for the night.

With just 65 kms tomorrow, we’re can smell the salt air.

We completed a few radio interviews as well as organised some media for the finish tomorrow under the Surefrs Paradise sign at midday.

Cheers

Brendon

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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

A solid 130 kms today as we headed out of Grafton towards Kyogle.  Plenty of sunscreen today as another blue, cloudless sky showed.

The first 50 kms was a lumpy ride up and down, up and down.  Our support team were to be at the 50 km mark, but hadn’t arrived – luckily there was a tiny village at the 50 km mark and a round of toasted sandwichs and milkshakes kept up fueled up!

The boys spent some time looking for a bargain on board…………or alternative methods of transport!  Unfortunately we only found horses for sale, so remounted and rode on.

Jack, Chris & David look for transport

We headed out towards Casino for the 2nd 50 kms – Harry joined us for this bit and enjoyed it.

Jack has slowed a little up the hills, but after 4,300 kms we’ll forgive him!

Into Casino For Lunch

Into Casino and we found a shop for some chicken salad sandwichs and cold drinks.  We rested up here for an hour or so and started the 30 km ride into the beautiful country town of Kyogle.

It was a flat 30 kms and the lads – Jack and I, David (did it again Jill!), Chris and Harry – stayed together for a solid clip.

Tomorrow is an 70 km ride into Murwillumbah – we have the ranges to come over which are rather large, but we keep turning the pedals and keep arriving where we need to get.  It will be a slow ride, but a good challenge.

Jack’s feeling good and getting more excited about getting home.

Cheers

Brendon

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On Friday October 10, Jack will be finishing his ride across Australia.

We’d love it if you could join him for the final push into Surfers Paradise.

Where We’ll Be

We’ll be leaving Murwillumbah on Friday morning at about 7.30 am.

We’re then meeting up with some friends to join the ride at the Currumbin Alley car park at 10.30 am.

From there we take a quick detour to Elanora Primary School at 10.45 am.

Then up to Surfers – we’ll be passing by Piccolo Cafe (on the Esplanade at Miami) at about 11.30 am.

If you’d like to ride with Jack please just leave a comment below or give Mel a call on 0404 692 327.

We’ll be going nice and slow so there’s no pressure about keeping up with anyone fast!

Once we finish we’ll be having a drink and a sausage or 2 by the beach.  Hope you can come along.

Cheers

Brendon

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Tuesday, October 27, 2008

The day started with a trip to Ebor Falls – a chilly look at 6 am but well worth it.

Jack & Harry by Ebor Falls

Perfect conditions for riding today as we set out into a fairly cool morning, with not a cloud in the sky.

The elevation profile today showed a drop from 1.4 kms above sea level (from Ebor) to sea level.  We had some lovely long downhill sections that seemed to stretch on forever.

Cows, Kangaroos, Horses & Magpies

We rode through some beautiful country, with cows running across the road in front of us, kangaroos hopping by, horses running alongside us and magpies swooping us.

Harry and the horse side by side

Moooooooove over!

The uphills were a bit of a challenge for Jack and I as our legs are pretty much empty and we couldn’t hold the momentum to go up and over much of the time.

Terrific Support From The Lads

David (I got the message Jill!) Summers and Chris van Hoof rode with us again today, along with Harry.  Harry rode the entire day – 124 kms – which was the biggest ride of his life.

A group hug – kind of!

They’re great to have along and provide terrific support…….and they worry about our hydration, insisting we stop in at a local establishment for some liquid refreshment.

David, Chris, Jack & Harry enjoy a break

The “Totally Wild” segment was on yesterday and we’ve heard it was great, so looking forward to seeing that when we reach the Gold Coast.

The Plan From Here

We’re a day ahead at the moment, with 3 days to go.

From here we’ll ride to Kyogle tomorrow (Wednesday), then Thurday ride from Kyogle to Murwillumbah and on Friday ride from Murwillumbah to the Gold Coast to finish in Surfers Paradise at midday.

Thanks to all for your comments and support – they provide a real boost.

Cheers

Brendon

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• Check out Totally Wild today at 4 (Channel 10) for a segment on the ride
• Jack is one of 3 finalists for the Queensland Pride of Australia Medal (winner gets announced on October 24)
• We’d love to have you along to the Ride Celebration Dinner – call Fiona on 0422 754 340
• Just popped some more video below

Cheers!

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Monday, October 6, 2008

A soaking wet day today as we headed towards Armidale and beyond.

A storm hit about 1/2 hour before we left and didn’t look like going away, so we started riding.

Coming into Armidale the rain became torrential and the rain actually hurt (yep, we have to harden up!).

Visibility was down to about 20 metres, so we took refuge in Armidale for 15 minutes for the rain to ease before setting off again.

The day was a constant of ups and downs, with a decent 40 km climb to finish off at Ebor – NSW’s 4th highest point.

Churned Out The Last Tough 30 km

With climbs like this it’s often best to do them on your own, so I left Jack to battle alone with about 30 kms to go.  He grafted it out over a couple of hours to finish off a tough 101 kms (luckily I managed to beat him in by a couple of minutes!).

Dave and Chris rode the whole day (a long way ahead) and think it was the hardest ride they’re done in the 9 or so days they’ve ridden.

We’re staying in the Ebor Hotel Motel tonight, the 2nd night out of the tents for the whole trip.

We’re a bit ahead of schedule, so have a couple of very easy days coming up before gettin into Surfers Paradise on Friday.

Cheers

Brendon

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