Travel Tips

We set out for our 7 day bike ride from the surfing town of Torquay on the 1 year aniversary of young Sam's passing. The sun was shining and the wind was quiet for our memorial ceremony at Torquay beach. From here we headed to Apollo Bay via the Great Ocean Road. It was a stunning ride and the road provided plenty of opportunities for the the traffic to overtake. I can highly recomend this ride for any recreational cyclist. It's a total of 90kms along fairly flat road. There were plenty of places to stop for lunch or coffee.

After a fantastic start to the tour, we were quickly reminded how difficult this ride might be. During the night there had been extreme winds and rain with thunder and lightning at times. The morning was a little brighter, and the clouds even cleared for the start of the ride. Unfortunately, this was the last time we saw the sun for that day.

The start of the ride was pleasant despite the wind and rain. We had coastal views before heading into the hills to tackle the largest climb of the tour. After approximately an hour or so of climbing we reached the summit and felt we had broken the back of this 168km stage. How wrong we were.

Following the latte and jubilant break at the top of the hills we quickly realised the rest of the stage was going to be much tougher. We were confronted by headwinds of upto 70km/hr and uninterupted rain for the next 6-7 hours. We had planned to arrive in Warrnambol at about 3pm, but did not arrive until 5:30pm.

We had our moments of doubt on this day, but on completing the ride we were thankful for the experience and the opportunity to persevere - as the word PERSEVERE is a focus word for the Neimanns pick association.

A local photographer attempted to take photo's of us on the road entering Warnnambol but with the late finish and poor conditions he missed us. Instead we met him at the finish line where we got to stand in the wind and rain for longer while our photos and names were taken. It was nice to be acknowledged for the ride, but more importantly it bought the purpose of the bike ride to the attention of many more people.

Thankfully Day 3 was a more pleasant day then then the previous. We still had to battle headwinds for the first 80 or so kms but we then made a right hand turn which pretty much gave us a tail breeze. As the photo demonstrates, we were able to make a reasonable speed line and knocked off the final 60kms in about 2 hours.
The ride was not as scenic as the first two, but there was plenty of road kill to keep us excited.

After each day the cylcist were able to get the soreness rubbed out of the legs. It was the rubs that enabled us to ride for 6 hours a day, day after day and a big thank you must go to the girls for their hard work and in particular to the Captain of the team, Richard, who rode the entire distance and then massaged legs for hours after on each day.

Day 7 was to be a 150km ride along the flat before heading into the Adelaide Hills and arriving at the Women's and Children's Hospital in the parklands of Adelaide. The sky was clear and everyone was in great spirits. We had come so far and now we were going to enjoy the moments while they lasted.
We were joined by more riders along the way and by the time we reached the hopsital our peloton had grown to about 30 or more riders.
It was great to ride through the Adelaide Hills as it was in these hills only 3 years earlier that Marty and I had begun our bike riding passion. We used to ride up to Norton Summit and back again as a form of fitness training and to take some time out from everyday life.
On arrival at the women's and Children's Hospital we presented a check for $50,000 to go towards the building of a new pallative care unit for children and their families. Since that day we have received another $30,000, taking the funds raised to over $80,000! Thanks must be given to everyone who has contributed to this great cause and to all those who have assisted along the way.