We had a lovely catch up last night with the Princess. She just reminded us how special and life changing these trips can really be. Our last trip from Broome to Perth was pretty amazing with some great friendships forged and some spectacular scenery and some just down right wonderful moments of "I am so glad I'm alive and witnessing this". I could be exaggerating just a little bit but it depends on who you talk to and their attitude to the whole 'journey'. There will always be moments and some that I may just contribute to but on the whole it was fantastic. Thanks Princess for your enlightenment.
Looking forward in catching up with Princess' side kick next month and I hope we can go out drinking and get in some dancing while she's here. Princess will be joining us and hopefully maybe some of the other past riders in Melbourne can catch up with us as well. This lady helped save my sanity a couple of times last ride, so I owe her alot.
Training ride in January is all organised and we have booked our accommodation, so hopefully all riders have booked theirs as well. The itinerary has changed slightly due to accommodation costs and availability but we don't actually change the route. The boy from Shep is riding up and over on his own and hoping to catch us on our way over from Bairnesdale to Omeo and then ride with us to Bright.
Collis and one of our newly recruited riders did a ride last weekend up to Mt Dandenong and back to test her skills and his as well. Collis will be riding the training ride as this is one route he has always wanted to do. I will be providing the morning tea and back up on my own for this so I also had a test run with driving the truck around sharp corners, watching out for riders along the way and providing morning tea and lunch. I was pleased that I had plenty of left overs after the trial run but of course I was feeding only 2 people. I will have to learn to use the generator before the training ride too. All these new skills!!:))) By the way our new rider impressed Collis, we will call her Miss Determination. This is one lady that is in her 60's, had not ridden a bike for many years, did not own a bike before she signed up to do the whole round trip and is now comfortably riding up mountains and doing 100kms+ rides. Proud of you Miss D.
Haven't found anymore roadhouses, pubs or caravan parks that we are planning on staying in to have closed down. Thank God for that as it increases the workload and organisation time 10 fold trying to locate another in the vicinity of where we had originally planned to stay. So far 2 bush camps have been added to the trip as there just wasn't anywhere else to stay in the area we needed. No problems really as the bush camps are always enjoyable except for those who really don't like tent living.
Better go and get the next edition of the newsletter ready for editing.
