HELP AND NURTURE DEVELOPING

We met at John and Ally Verheyens house on a rather chilly morning. Our riders Gary, Rae, Geoff, Tim, Phil and Kay were very excited and looking forward to starting the ride. Judy Appelkamp met us at the house as she came from Meningie and volunteered as support crew along with her son jack and Natalie. David and Sue Neumann was our other support crew and they caught up with us at Tailem bend. Ally cooked us a hot breakfast, much to the delight of Phil Hind who just loves to eat. We left about 9am with lots of enthusiasm, well wishes and a good strong tail Wind. We had morning tea at Langhorne Creek and stopped for lunch at Wellington were we caught up with Jack. It started to get colder and we had a few little showers. Judy and I organised our first lunch as support crew and I knew we would work well together. We rode along the river to Tailem bend were we crossed over on the ferry. We arrived early at Tailem Bend and after Judy made a few phone calls we finally caught up with Liz from the local Community Centre which was to be our accommodation for the night. We had lovely hot showers at the local Caravan Park and then it was the start of eight days of unpacking and repacking the HANDS trailer.with our clothes bedding. Liz organised her team of volunteers, which included her mother, husband and little boy, and we had a delicious BBQ tea. They were a small group but very friendly and helpful and we appreciated their hospitality. I did a presentation and was joined later in the evening by David and Sue. We set up our beds and had a good night of laughter and talking, Did I say talking? Something we’ve become very good at, particularly if Kay is riding!!

It rained overnight and was still raining when we woke up .After a good night sleep we had a cold wet start to the day. We said our goodbye to our hosts and set off to Pinnaroo. The riders made a really good pace considering we had rain squalls from both the front & back. We were very lucky not to get drowned! There were plenty of mice and one very fat fox which ran alongside the cyclist for about 100 metres before crossing the road. We stopped for lunch at Lameroo and had arrived safely at Pinnaroo late in the afternoon. We had hot tea and coffee and cake at the church Steve Maas is the Pastor of the Lutheran Church and his lovely wife Marni were our hosts and helped organise our billets. Dan Rooney came and took Phil & Kay home so we were down to four full time riders. Our billets arrived and took us back to their homes were we showered and changed and then brought back to the church for a shared tea and presentation. Our billets were once again very gracious and generous and everyone had an enjoyable night.

Pinaroo is famous for its vanilla slices so Gary and I got an early start and picked up 8 freshly baked slices for morning tea. Yum!! We said goodbye to our billets and although the morning was a very crisp morning we had a good tail wind I think Jack got tired of mine and Judy’s intelligent conversation so he decided to join the riders on Phil’s bike. He rode with flat pedals but did a great job and kept up with the other riders. We had morning tea at Murrayville and were photographed for a story by the local Newspaper. We had our vanilla slices for morning tea at Cowangie and then stopped for lunch at Underbool. The riders got drowned about an hour before arriving into Ouyen. Gee, it’s a tough job being support crew when it’s raining! Having to make decisions about how hot the temperature should be in the car can be extremely stressful. Jack broke his chain on the hill going into Ouyen but we managed to get him onto Gary’s spare bike and he rode into town with the other. Before we arrived into town we had a stop at the bakery and once again bought more delicious vanilla Slices which we had for supper. It’s very important that both riders and Cyclists need to keep up their carbs, especially the road crew!! Our host was Pastor Helen Chick from the Uniting Church Hall. We gave a presentation in hall after we had a delicious meal cooked by a wonderful band of elderly volunteers who always refuse our help in the kitchen when it comes time to clean up. We did our washing hung our wet clothes on washing line attached to a cupboard door handle. Poor David, the washing got too heavy and pulled the cupboard down which landed on David’s hand, which was sore for few days. Ouch!! .

Pastor Chick said a prayer before we left on a rather foggy morning were vision was restricted to 30metres. The fog cleared by mid-morning and it was enjoyable riding on an undulating road with a wide shoulder. We stopped at a quaint roadhouse at Hatta for morning tea. With full stomachs and beautiful countryside the kilometres quickly passed. During this time, we had a stop and Judy and I taped Geoffrey’s right arm to his body to restrict his ‘traffic control influence’. We were interviewed and photographed by reporters from the Sunraysia times before we arrived in Mildura. It seemed to take forever to reach the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church and we had fish and chips and burgers for a late lunch. A local bike shop donated some bike parts which we greatly appreciated. Our billets picked us up from the church and we went back later for a shared tea and presentation in the Hall. It was another eventful day with good fellowship and warm hospitality.

God blessed us with beautiful weather to start the day which we were all very grateful for. Traffic conditions were a bit difficult at times during this leg as it is a major truck route. We had lunch at a roadside stop and a break at Yamba before entering South Australia. We arrived late at the St John’s-Trinity Lutheran Church to be told by Pastor Strelan that the cyclists had another 8kms to ride to get to the Renmark North Primary school. We had to hurry as the light was fading and the riders did really well to muster up the energy to get there before dark. They rode 165 km that day and were exhausted but relieved to get to our accommodation. Judy, Jack and I did some shopping and bought chicken and salads for tea. We didn’t have a presentation that night and were very happy to bunk down in the school Gym after our showers. We received a call from Ally who sent well wishes from John who was in Timor. It was a very long day but we all had a good nights sleep.

Today was our shortest day; it was a 28km ride to Berri and a well-earned rest for the riders. Gary broke a spoke coming up the hill out of Renmark but he continued on. We arrived at the Zion Lutheran Church about 10am, changed our clothes and went into the main street to cook a BBQ to promote the work of HANDS and the bike ride. We had an awesome day and met a lot of generous people and were interviewed for a story by the local paper. We sold all the sausages and had a great feeling of achievement. We went back to the church where we were picked up by our billets. We came back in the evening all refreshed and once again had a shared tea with our billets and did a presentation. We all had a terrific day.

We said goodbye to Berri and headed off to Waikerie with some of the roughest roads the cyclists had to ride. We had 6 punctures and bits falling off bikes and riders all the way there. We arrived early and managed to have our showers at the local caravan park before sitting down to afternoon tea of scones, jam and cream. We managed to polish off the lot and were very grateful to Gladys and her assistant chefs. Gary did a lot of bike repairs and became quite the expert. We were greeted by Richard Fox and unloaded the trailer and set up our beds in the social Centre. Kate let us use her washing machine so we could all be nice and clean again!! We were joined by Jarrod, Phil, Michael & Rob early in the evening. We had BBQ tea and were joined by a large gathering of the Waikerie and Ramco congregation. We did a presentation and some of the crew drove down to the local pub to watch the footy and recharge the batteries.

We had a Perfect day for riding and had a good run into Blanchetown. We had a rest before we tackled Accommodation Hill and everyone managed to reach the top without stopping. Everyone especially admired Rae and Jack who showed a guts and determination by conquering this taxing hill. We had a sprint to Truro where we had lunch. We arrived in good spirits to Tanunda where we stayed at Faith College and were joined by Kay and Alice. We had a meal in town were we collected donations and promoted the good work of HANDS in Timor. People were very generous and interested in our work in Timor. This was our last night before getting home and I believe our full time riders had a sense of both amazing achievement and relief.

Our last day and everyone was eager. It was a very undulating ride and everyone kept up a good pace. We stopped at the bakery at Gawler to refuel before our final journey home to Salisbury Lutheran Church. We were a very happy bunch of riders and support crew. We had a good welcome by a small but enthusiastic bunch of family and friends. Lunch was a BBQ and we were already talking about riding again next year. I want to personally thank our riders and support crew for their dedication and great team work. Geoff is an exceptional rider and very supportive of his team mates. Rae is gutsy and determined and I’m very proud of her. Gary just keeps going and going and helps wherever he can and is an expert on punctures. We made Tim ‘Executive Officer of everything, especially vanilla slices’. He’s an amazing rider and a really nice bloke. Jack’s a good lad and he tried really hard and he thought it was easier riding than listening to his mum and me talking all the time. I know Judy was very proud of him. David ‘I’ll never get lost’ Neumann’s knowledge of distances and meal stops is unsurpassed. He is real asset to the team. Sue was a great support and a ‘quiet achiever’ and we always appreciated her and David going ahead and ‘putting on the kettle’ Judy was great to work with, I enjoyed her friendship and easy going nature. Nothing was too difficult for her to do. Did I mention we talked a lot? Thankyou also to the day riders for participating in the ride and supporting HANDS, it is sincerely appreciated. As for me, it was hard at times to not be able to ride but I enjoyed myself as support crew. I hope to ride next year but that is all in God’s plan. We all look forward to 2012 and thank God for keeping us safe and well.