Fellow Travellers

When we arrived in Balladonia we came across someone else on a major cycling excursion. This makes ours appear nothing. A German woman Dorothee Fleck is essentially travelling around the world with all her possessions on her bike. It was a hybrid bike with custom frames added to support the required paniers. Looked real heavy to us. She had started the Australian leg in Darwin and gone anticlockwise from there. Including the European and Asian legs she has done about 40,000km so far!!! This appears to be the second such trip she's done and when I asked if she was going to South America she said "Another time".

While the going was flat and the wind behind us we followed each other for a couple of days and she stopped in at our morning tea break a couple of times. We parted company after about Border Village. You can find her blog at http://d-tours2.blogspot.com

We've also sen a couple of solo riders using a mountgain bike and a one wheel trailer. Seen these blokes stops, but never actually saw them on the road.

Back on Air

We've been out of wireless broadband coverage since leaving Norseman across the Nullarbor. Now that we are back into civilisation in Ceduna, coverage should be right from now on. After travelling down to Streaky Bay tomorow, we have a rest day, so I should be able to cattch up on some of what's been missed.

One good thing about being away from civilisation is that, since there are no church halls, school halls, recreation centres etc for us to stay in, we have had to stay in motel units and therefore had a proper bed to sleep in. Now its back to the air mattresses etc.

More soon.

Day 6

Today is the first rest day. Most people have pottered about doing things like re-lubing bike chains (definitely needed after riding in the rain yesterday), cleaning bikes, doing laundry and other housekeeping tasks. (Laundry is done at a local caravan park using their laundry facilities.)

As for myself I've been fighting off a cold for the last couple of days, so as soon as we dropped into Norseman yesterday I went looking for a pharmacy to get some cold symptom relief. There is no pharmacy in Norseman! Got some bits and pieces from the supermarket, but not particularly useful. This morning I wasn't feeling crash hot - not helped by getting really cold yesterday morning. On checking with the Information Centre they confirmed that there is and never has been a pharmacy in Norseman. Seems odd, but there it is. What you do is you go to the newsagent! (Actually it is called Norseman News and Health) They have a basic selection of pharmacy items and I got what I want. Apparently if someone here wants a prescription filled they take it to the newsagent and it gets shipped off somewhere else (Coolgardie? Esperance?) to be made up and sent back. You get it back two days later. Don't know what happens for more urgent matters. By the way I feel much better this afternoon, so should be ready to roll on the first of our almost 200km days. On one or other of those long days many of us think we might overshoot for a few kilometres and return so as to make the 200km mark

This rest day dawned with a clear sky (and crisp temperatures). It didn't take long for cloud cover to appear. No rain around though. More significantly a good westerly has been blowing all day, so there is hope that we'll get the same tomorrow.

Day 5

Day 5 saw us leave the Great Eastern Highway and head south on the Coolgardie-Esperance Highway for about 170km to Norseman. It rained a lot the night before and in the morning the sky was completely gray and it was drizzling. O and it was 9 degrees which was cold when taken along with the rain.

We started out in the drizzle and started to make reasonable speed, but after a while for some reason the speed "died" and the average ke4pt creeping lower and lower getting below 23 at one stage. Although the terrain didn't seem uphill, we suspect it was gradually creeping up. By the time we stopped for morning tea most of us were freezing. I had certainly under estimated the clothing I needed and piled some more on at the break. The temperature had managed 10 by this stage. Some time later we pulled in at a small roadhouse/pub for a toilet break and Jim offered us all coffee or hot chocolate out of ride food expenses. Great psychological boost.

The rain stopped at around 12:30 and the clouds cleared at around 2pm. After the moring tea stop our average speed started to creep up and continued to do so for the rest of the day - in the end respectable.

This day we had expected to be the worst for traffic issues. The road rarely had any shoulder so we had to be riding to the right of the edge white line all the time, and there was nowhere to get off should a road train pass (mostly ore carriers along this route). However the truck drivers were all extremely cooperative and we had no issues. Our road support vehicles were able to talk to the truckies as well as to the riders (three of whom carry lapel CB radios), so truckies knew exactly what was going on, when it was safe to pass, and so on. nA number of trucks let us know that they had passed us more than once over the last five days as the went about their business. One even told us he had acted as a roadie for a Bike for Bibles ride 10 years ago.

During the first half of the run there was significant evidence of wildflower season getting under way. Apart from lots of wattle, there were many other flowering shrubs - difficult to work out
what through rain blurred goggles.

Didn't take any pictures today as I didn't want a camera getting wet in my back pocket.

Day 4

Today we really got stuck into it. In a way the first three days have been a sort of introduction - 2 shorter days and a longer day but with strong tail winds. Today is the firstof the long days and there are many more to come. 169km from Southern Cross to Coolgardie.

A MUCH better day than yesterday. On the bikes at 7am to clear blue skies. It soon clouded over and was overcast all day. Threatened to rain on and off, but did not do so. Also a good strong tail wind all day. Averaged 28.2 kph and rolled into Coolgardie at 3:35pm.

Only two punctures and some maintenance work on a noisy crank.

Saw a big flock of red tailed black cockatoos trhis morning, as we had also the previous morning.

Had to get off the road at one point for a couple of monster trucks being transported. One shown in attached picture. The other picture is a bunch of amateur mechanics working on the noisy crank.

Day 3

After a brilliant day yesterday, things were not so great today. It rained quite a bit during the night and by morning there was still drizzle around and the sky was completely overcast. By the time we started out at about 7:40am things were looking a little brighter, but not much. On the road for a while it looked like clearing from the west, but not faster than we were travelling, so clearish skies stayed just behind us. After morning tea the sky clouded right over and a steady light misty drizzle set in. This left plenty of wet on the road so we were riding into the "rooster tail" from the bike in front most of the time. Dried up during the last half hour.

Something like 5 stops for punctures and related matters.

However it was not weather or punctures which made this not a great day. Just before morning tea Edna, who was riding in front, hit an unexpected pile of fine loose gravel and came a gutser. A severely grazed and bruised backside and a good shakeup were the result. The recumbent bike came out of it with a slightly bent handle bar stem, but fortunately we were able to straighten it enough to be serviceable and Edna continued riding although with considerable discomfort. No photo of a ripped backside in the shorts taken, so nothing to publish - not that I would.

Overall quite a slow day. Good job it was only 109km.

Day three is reputed as the day when the sore seats and other aches and pains show up. So I think I'm fortunate that my legs and knees are good and that my backside seems to be setting in OK to the new seat that I bought for the trip and only "ran in" for about 500km before hand.

Three days down - that's one tenth of the riding days, though not one tenth of the distance.

Day 2

The good and the bad of cycling. One picture shows a puncture being attended nto in the middle of nowhere. The other is lunch set up ready to be attacked by hungry cyclists.

Today was a run of about 165km, so yesterday was just a warmup. We got on the road at about 7:30am and after a modest climb out of Northam we had rolling country with no serious climbs all the way. (So its not really worth putting an altitude profile up here.) Around 8am a good stiff North Westerly came up and we were able to fly along all day. At times we were rolling along the flat at 35kph and simply rolling the pedals over. We averaged over 27kph for the day. That is a really good speed for the recumbents as Roger says they'd never under any conditions exceeded 25kph on a run before.

The morning was practically cloudless, but about lunch time a small front passed over from the west and sprinkled very lightly at that time. Later in the day a few heavy showers could be seen ahead of us, and Eric in tghe support vehicle who had run on ahead to contact the newspaper in Merredin reported raining cats and dogs where he was. Fortunately by the time we got there the system had moved on and we got no rain at all.

The support vehicles (and a few of the riders) are in contact with each other and the truckies via CB radios. At one point along the way a local farmer in his office popped up and said he'd been listening to us for a couple of hours and was able to give us a few bits of useful info about the locality. He offered us a spot sheltered from the wind for lunch, but we'd already had it.

The local newspaper photographer photographed us on the road a few km out of Merredin and then again when we stopped at our accommodation at the local high school.

A really good day despite the four puncture stops.

Day 1 Ride Profile

For those interested here is the altitude profile for Day 1's ride courtesy of Eric's GPS wizardry.

Day 1

The day looked very dodgy at about 5:30am when it was still bucketing down! While we were packing up and having breakfast it was still drizzling. When the photographer from the community newspaper had finished with us and we got under way it was not raining but the road was still wet. We never got more than a few spots of rain from then on and as we climbed out of Perth the weather got better and better and we ended up with a beautiful day with good temperatures and a gentle following breeze most of the time.

For me there was some apprehension starting out on the first day, and I suspect I was not alone. How would we go? The first thing out of Perth was a 6km climb, 350m of altitude. That was easier than I expected and the rest of the day was rolling countryside. We finished around 12:30.

The St Johns Anglican church that we are staying in at Northam provided afternoon tea for us and will also provide dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow.

During our morning tea stop Eric was interviewed by the Christian radio station Sunshine FM. I think this resulted in at least one good donation.

Day 0 afternoon

Riding from Perth to Sydney it seemed logical to try and ride from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. So it was the intention this afternoon to ride from our digs to Cottesloe beach and dip lour toes in the water. Circumstances conspired against us, however, and we didn't quite make it. It was going to be a 3.5 hour trip and by the time the church service finished and we got ourselves organised for lunch it was getting too late. Further there were still showers passing through, some quite heavy, and we would likely have our gear soaked before the ride proper started tomorrow. Therefore instead we hopped in the bus again and went down to the beach for some photos.

So the time has come! We should be off at about 7:30am on day 1.

Day 0 morning

First up today all those already here piled into Richard's bus and headed to Lesmurdie Baptist Church for their service. Two of our riders come from that church (there are three from WA all up). A couple of our number spoke (see photo) and there was a brief commissioning included in the service.

Day -1

Today seemed to be mostly occupied with getting things ready. It takes a lot of supplies to feed and look after 22 people for 5 weeks, especially when some of that time is in places where you can't easily restock. It took nearly three hours in the supermarket and, I believe, well over $2000 in initial supplies. (The photo attached today shows some of thosen supplies being sorted ready for packing into the trailers.)

People are starting to arrive at the Ascot Kayak Club where we are staying in Perth. A dozen of us piled into Richard's bus to head to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. The rest will roll up tomorrow.

Day -2

Arrived in Perth today at about noon. The weather in Perth this afternoon is pretty foul. Squalls coming through frequently and a howling westerly blowing. It's got two days to clear up!

Driving across the Nullarbor we had great weather and nice westerlies blowing all the time. We hope that keeps up.

Roger's car really chewed the petrol with the head wind plus a weighty trailer with 5 bikes on top. We mostly needed to top up every 150km because we couldn't be sure of making 300km.

This was my first trip across towards the west and I have to say the trip was a great deal more interesting than I expected. Scenery was continuously changing and never got boring. Definitely have to come through again with time for sightseeing.

Having spent 4.5 days on the crossing most days were long, with the 3rd and 4th days being almost 1000k.

Caught up with Eric and Richard driving the bus at Merredin last night. They had started on Saturday, so we gained two days on them.

The attached photo shows gthe two cars travelling together at Nullarbor Roadhouse, showing the Nullarbor in the background.

Are we there yet?

We've overnighted in Mildura, Kimbla and Madura Pass and will spend tonight in Merredin - a mere 260km short of Perth.

Roger's 3 wireless broadband has had no connection since Canberra, and this post is coming via a 9600 baud mobile phone modem. SLOW!!! Hence no pictures today.

We've had a good trip, but not much time to stop and smell the flowers. More tomorrow when we get a decent Internet connection.

On the Road

Day -6. We finally hit the road this morning. I guess despite all the months of preparation, it all seems real now. So I guess its a case of "Coming ready or not."

We made Mildura today. One ofthe notable things about the trip from Canberra was that it seemed green the whole way. Then as we approached Mildura we went through some strange weather that rained mud! The cars are filthy.

The picture shows Roger finishing the trailer hookup this morning.

Send Off

Day –7 (Sunday 9th Aug)

An “At Home” was organised this afternoon to send us off on our way as we hit the road driving to Perth tomorrow morning.  Great turn out, over 20 folk gathered, and a good time had by all.

Detailed Ride Schedule

Date	From	To	Km	Total
17/08/2009	Perth	Northam	97	97
18/08/2009	Northam	Merredin	162	259
19/08/2009	Merredin	Southern Cross	109	368
20/08/2009	Southern Cross	Coolgardie	186	554
21/08/2009	Coolgardie	Norseman	167	721
22/08/2009			0	721
23/08/2009	Norseman	Balladonia	192	913
24/08/2009	Balladonia	Caiguna	182	1095
25/08/2009	Caiguna	Madura Pass	158	1253
26/08/2009	Madura Pass	Border Village	192	1445
27/08/2009	Border Village	Nullarbor Roadhouse	182	1627
28/08/2009	Nullarbor Roadhouse	Nundroo Roadhouse	148	1775
29/08/2009	Nundroo Roadhouse	Ceduna	151	1926
30/08/2009	Ceduna	Streaky Bay	109	2035
31/08/2009			0	2035
1/09/2009	Streaky Bay	Wudinna	131	2166
2/09/2009	Wudinna	Kimba	101	2267
3/09/2009	Kimba	Port Augusta	156	2423
4/09/2009	Port Augusta	Port Pirie	90	2513
5/09/2009	Port Pirie	Burra	120	2633
6/09/2009			0	2633
7/09/2009	Burra	Waikerie	123	2756
8/09/2009	Waikerie	Paringa	81	2837
9/09/2009	Paringa	Gol Gol	145	2982
10/09/2009	Gol Gol	Balranald	154	3136
11/09/2009	Balranald	Hay	132	3268
12/09/2009			0	3268
13/09/2009	Hay	Leeton	163	3431
14/09/2009	Leeton	Temora	131	3562
15/09/2009	Temora	Young	81	3643
16/09/2009	Young	Yass	102	3745
17/09/2009	Yass	Goulburn	90	3835
18/09/2009	Goulburn	Picton	122	3957
19/09/2009	Picton	Cronulla Uniting Church	96	4053

Some Ride Details

There are four people from Kippax Uniting Church involved directly in this ride. Trevor Lawrence, Edna Kauffman and Roger Kauffman are cycling the full distance, while Eric Mobbs will be one of the roadies.

I don't have the full details of how many will be on the ride, but I expect it to be somewhere of the order of 20 riders and there will be at least 3 support vehicles (these are the vehicles that I know directly about).


This ride is a big challenge for Roger, Edna, Trevor and Eric. On August 17th we will be heading out from Perth on our bikes and for the next five weeks will share the trials, tribulations, pain and joys of life on the road as we ride to Sydney arriving on September 19th in our longest marathon yet undertaken.
We will have distances of up to 200 km to do in a day with average daily distances of 172.5 km for the 7 day period it will take to cross the Nullarbor.

The route is shown roughly on the map above.

I'll post the full schedule as soon as I beat this blog post editor into accepting the table I want to put in!

Why Ride Perth to Sydney

Bike for Bibles rides were born in Australia in December 1984 when Bob Forrest, his son Dave and Dave’s friend Wayne rode from Sydney to Melbourne. They raised $2000.00. Since then many thousands of cyclists, road support crew, supporters and volunteers have raised well over ten million dollars to support a huge number of Bible Society mission projects.

Bike for Bibles rides are now also happening in a number of other countries around the world. We are very proud to be involved in Bob Forrest’s original vision of distributing Bibles to millions of people around the world. Bob’s vision was to proclaim God’s love and grace and the salvation message of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ to the world.

Blog Creation

This blog has been created as a vehicle for posting information to friends and relatives on the progress of the Perth to Sydney cycle ride with "Bike for Bibles" to raise funds for the NSW Bible Society.

The ride starts on 17-Aug-2009, so today is day -11. Over the next day or so I'll publish some data on the ride.