On the 4th of May we left on this challenging ride across the country in support of BeyondBlue and Plan which respectively work to fight depression and child poverty.

If you would like to do something in aid of child poverty yourself you can make a donation. You'd be surprised by what $5 can buy in a developing country!

11 July 2008, Derby, WA

 

It's been a tough few weeks, but nowhere near as tough as we expected it to be. The natural beauty was astounding in what they call the Last Frontier - an amazing spectacle of bird-life and geological formations.

 

The first problems came before we even made it to the start of the dirt road. Dad discovered his rear rim was cracking and the hooks on my panniers began breaking off. We had some forced relaxation, but El Questro station was very kind and with their assistance we were back on the road only a couple of days behind schedule.

 

The first few days on "The Gibb" were quite fun. The eastern section is quite rocky and has many (mostly dry) floodways, that made me feel like a hardcore mountain biker, racing down, dodging rocks and doing the occasional jump. The middle section was not so much fun with a lot of quite flat days, some with many kilometres of sand and/or corrugations shaking us about, wearing us down and wreaking havoc with Dad's scholiosis.

 

Walking, swimming and climbing around the gorges gave us a bit of rest from the saddles and the strength to carry on, with the last of the road in relatively good shape. Dad's doesn't think he'll be back so he wanted to be sure to see the best of everything. Personally I'd had enough of the gorges, bumps and dust so on Wednesday I left him to make his way to the last of the sites and headed into Derby, giving a cry of joy when my tyres once again met bitumen.

 

I'm spending the extra time on web and media stuff and preparing for our welcome in Broome which will be as follows:

 

When: 6:30pm, Wednesday 16th of July, 2008

Where: Matso's Broome Brewery, 60 Hamersley St, Broome

What: Speech about the trip on their weekly Jazz Night

 

Thanks to everyone for all your support so far, the fund-raising is certainly going in the right direction. If you've been meaning to donate, but haven't got around to it yet it's not too late. Every bit counts!