October 23, 2008

Day four Canberra to Gundagai 165kms
















We started out really early. We had to get some miles under our belts because we had a whole bunch of media appointments in Canberra at 10.00am
I met up with a friend called ED who I met in Tasmania earlier this year at the Penny Farthing Nationals. He turned up with his Penny and gave Craig and myself a Guided tour of Canberra. We rode to the National museum , Technology park , Old Parliament house , New Parliament house , the glass works and all around lake Burleigh Griffin. Canberra is really well built and the roads are fantastic.
At 10.oo we met the the Senator of Health and Ageing , the honorable Jan Mclucas. I had to hand over some official paperwork from the National Asthma Summit and talk to her about the direction in which the Asthma foundation is heading. The senator is a great woman.She even took a photo of a family and the family had no idea that they had asked the senator to take the pic. We had Prime and Win interviewing us handing over the letter and we had to pose for some pics for the Canberra news paper.
We finally got into the rest of the huge 165km ride. It was huge , long , drawn out , hot , massive hills , plenty of road works , but......... Beautiful scenery . The country side is fantastic to look at at 20km per hour. One thing that was going our way finally was the wind. It was a fair temp and was finally coming from behind.
We rode today for twelve hours.... It will be much easier for me to tell you what is not sore than to fill you in on all of the finer details. My Achilles tendons are fatigued and giving me heaps of pain and Amanda thinks that the skin on my bot is about to break through . We are applying Paw Paw cream to it to help which may be losing an uphill battle.
As the sun was dropping quickly and we had another 20km to go we stopped at the Coolan pub where we received a very warm reception from the locals. We raised some much needed funds and got some great pics and even got a free six pack for later. ( thank you ).


We finally arrived at Gundagai at 730pm Just before the sun went down and settled in for some great pasta from Sarah and some good stories of the days events.


Today was very very hard. It was mind numbing and painful . I reached so many low points ,and experienced so much pain that i was beginning to wonder if I am at all Human??? Who would subject themselves to such torture?? I even had a few few tears to my self at the top of a Humongous hill thinking about how much i miss the kids and how i desperately i wanted be at home to help Hannah celebrate her eighth birthday today. But what got me through that rough section was thinking that her baby sister Ruby and her older sister Jasmine were there to make her day special , along with her grandmother and poppy.


Its really late now and i feel like i have been hit by the a380 airbus , captured by the enemy and tortured by them for critical information .


I would like to say a big hello to 1L at Bonells bay Primary and Mrs Newmans class at Morisset High. Its so comforting to know that you are all looking out for us and wishing us well.


Your wishes lift my spirits and make me feel like it is all worth it

3 comments:

Mum C said...

Hi Mike & Amanda...... Been thinking of you heaps. I had a tear for you as well when I read how hard it was today. It's turning out to be a HELL of a big challenge. Hope Craig is holding up ok. We are very proud of what you're doing and we wish we could be there with you for support. keep your chin up. At least the the biggest hills are behind and you are over half way. Stay safe.
Love Mum

Unknown said...

youre in my country now mick,be careful,very strange people out there,great to see you are all holding out due to the conditions,kids say hi,look after yourself.The gardener.Darren,Jody nd Boys.

Killen Family said...

Hi Mick, Amanda & Team
Your do'in great! We've been keeping updated by your blog each day, thanks for taking the time to do it every night after you have obviously had such a long & tiring day.Great reading material!! By the way we will take Amanda's word for it about the state of your butt (i think i speak for everyone when i say that)! Lots of wishes & encouragement Chief, Nicole, Jessica, Matthew, Zeke & Fletcher xxoo