Day 8 Cowra to bathurst 116kms

Day 8 was meant to be easy but it was far from it.
I woke at 5.30am to cuddles and kisses from Amanda wishing me a happy birthday. I unwrapped my present and read a letter my wife had written the night before . I will extract some bits for you..........
To the most amazing man in my life. I am so very proud of your mammoth effort. You are so very strong as i watch you power up those huge hills and i could not imagine anyone else having the will power or strength to do it. You will make it to the end and i will be right there with a big smile on my face wiping off the tears. Your family and friends are also so proud and concerned and thank god there not here to see the pain and anguish you are going through. I want to tell you how much i love you, how amazing you are and how much you are doing for so many people. You are truly inspiring and you have a great story to tell your future grand children.
You are amazing and a little crazy and i love you 100 % . As you push hard each and every moment of your 10 plus hours a day on the penny, remember all of the sacrifices , training , preparation and fund raising you have done to make it here today. And remember one thing , it is all worth it.
Keep it up ...... You are my boulder ..... you are bigger than a rock........

Well at that point i lost it .... man ,does she know how to make a grown man cry on his birthday. I must remind her that behind every good man there is a better woman.....
I love her so much.

Well Today was my birthday and i felt pretty special. The best part of the day was going to Cowra public School. The reception was fantastic. Not only did the kids give me a cake and make a massive card and sing happy birthday , they also donated some money. There were a bunch of kids from the school circus who rode around me on unicycles . Talk about impressive. These kids were so talented . It was a beautiful school with extremely well behaved students who should be very proud of themselves. Thank you to every one from Cowra public school from making us feel welcome.

We finally got on the road and would you believe it , we were in to a 30 mile per hour head wind. Oh no ...... Not again..... i was devastated..... i hit my all time low.....! At times my speed was so low that Mal and Amanda thought i was just balancing. At one stage i came to a stop and due to the amount of fatigue i just fell off the bike and rolled on the gravel ! I thought i was on my mountain bike and just stepped off. What was i thinking ?????

Craig and i pushed on for 8 more hours. Everything was going ok until Sarah heard a major noise in her vehicle. It is now sitting at Nissan in Bathurst awaiting a prognosis. We have had to hire another car. We finally made it into Bathurst totally wrecked once again . Only 62kms to go and we are there.

After a nice shower and a thorough soaking in the tub of ice we headed out to a pasta place for dinner. It was just going to be a quiet night to celebrate my birthday when i got the biggest and best surprise i have had in a long time. Three of my best mates turned up and just walked in the door. I took two looks in disbelief and thought i was so tired i was seeing things. Steve Simmonds, Brad Sewell and Brendan Yell just walked in as if they had been with us for a week. They have also grabbed their bikes and going to ride the last day with us. It was a great feeling to have some good mates along with my crew to help celebrate my birthday. My spirits were lifted once again and i know tomorrow is going to be great.

Mal has just finished spoking the bike , Amanda has made the bed, Sarah is getting the food ready for the finish , Reg is finishing his last beer and Craig and i have just wrung out the washing.

Only 62kms to go . That does not seem like much ? But when you feel like we do and have done close to 1000kms in eight days, every extra km fells like your climbing mount Everest with one lung.

I would like to give a special thank you to Craig and Michelle Constable from Cowra Van Park. Their park is beautiful , the service was exceptional and they even made a generous donation. I would also like to thank a lovely lady called Hannah who out of the blue gave a generous donation to us as we called through Lyndorin.

Tomorrow is not just another day ....... It is the day.......goodnight until then _____