The Long Road Pre-Tour.

Over the last three to four months Garry and I have discussed our bike ride with many different people, we have had allot of fantastic feedback and interesting suggestions thrown our way, however one particular idea stood out to us as something we should seriously consider.
This was to split up our tour into a selection of shorter rides, or setting up additional lead-up rides to build up to the main event.

While both suggestions were good in their own way we did not want to split our tour up as this would defeat the purpose of what we are trying to achieve in the first place, so we decided to add an additional ride a few months prior to the main tour start date.

So what is the point of doing a lead-up ride rather than just jumping in head first to our main tour? Well there are a number of reasons behind our decision, first and foremost we believe it will be a great opportunity to further promote of our main tour and generate additional awareness for our two worthy causes.

Secondly was to get a better idea of where we are at in our preparations, providing us with valuable time in the saddle getting used to our new bikes which will both be custom made for us for the tour, as well as working out the best ways to manage our gear when we are fully loaded.


Adelaide to Melbourne.

We wanted a route that would lead-in to our main tour nicely without doubling up on destinations, riding toward our main tour start point seemed like a logical step. So Adelaide to Melbourne and in late January it was.

Of cause there was another reason for choosing Adelaide in January as our start point, The “Tour Down Under”. Being a bike racing fan I couldn’t help myself, we could go and watch the tour and then kick of our ride the day after the final stage, couldn’t think of a better way to start.

We have also been busy re-working our main tour route and in the coming weeks will be posting up a selection of new maps together with a blog about our reasons behind our destinations. For now here is an overall world map of the route.

We would like to announce Baum Cycles as the official bicycle frame supplier for The Long Road Tour.


Based in Geelong Australia, Baum Cycles are makers of some of the finest handcrafted titanium and steel bicycles in the world.


We will post up more details soon, but in the mean time head on over to the Baum Cycles web site at  http://www.baumcycles.com/ and check out their Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/baumcycles/

Quick Update

It's been some time now between posts and many of you must be wondering what's been happening now that it's early May.

After much thought and discussion, we have decided to postpone The Long Road Tour until April 2012. We are both disappointed that we have to wait a little longer before our Tour can begin but know that it is the best thing for us to do, for a few reasons.

Unfortunately earlier in the year Jason suffered sprained ligaments in his ankle, an injury which put restrictions on preparations and training for the task ahead, and the risk of further injury during the ride was far to high if it hadn't been left to heal properly.

Also the extra time allows us to get more businesses involved in supporting us and more time to raise extra money for our chosen charities. Putting a 10,000+ km ride together takes a large amount of preparation so with the extra time now available to us, we have decided make our tour bigger and better than originally planned, with some major changes in the works.

These include a slightly longer and modified tour route and itinerary that hope will help to reach a greater audience to which we can promote our worthy causes. Some exciting news regarding sponsorship: We have been in discussions with a major Australian business who is interested in sponsoring our journey, pushing the tour back to 2012 has enabled greater opportunities to obtain further support from this organisation. So really our disappointing decision has a silver lining. Unfortunately at this present time we are unable to publicly release many more details but stay tuned.

While we were at it we also decided to add a pre-tour ride to our new itinerary. A short tour from Adelaide to Melbourne here in Australia, which we have started to plan and aim for early 2012. The intention of this additional ride is to help promote the main ride and push the message further. It is also a fantastic opportunity for us to gauge where we are at with our preparation, as well as test the gear we will be using while on the main tour.

So to our followers and fans we would like to thank you for your support to date, don't lose heart, we are pushing ahead with our plans and hope to make the journey even better than what we originally thought.

Time to say goodbye

On the 2nd of April 2011, Melva Florence Derham, grandmother to Garry, lost her battle with cancer after a courages fight. A fight that went on for over 6 years and at one stage was looking to be won.

Below is a tribute by Garry for his Grandmother:

Melva (Nan), was born in 1924 at Murrumburrah, NSW and was the 4th child out of seven. In 1938, Nan and her family moved to Cootamundra after my Great Grandfather was transferred. It was here that Nan would remain for the rest of her life, working as a nurse during the war, meeting my grandfather Stan (pop) not long after war was declared, marrying, having 5 children, 11 grand children, and 16 great grand children (with one on the way to make it 17).

I don't have many memories of Nan and Pop before Pop passed away, as i was only very young, apart from Nan's "no non-sense" face, her voice and cooking snails out the front of the farm on the outskirts of Coota(mundra). That voice didn't change even after she sold the farm and moved into Coota. I commented to many people that even while she was sick and becoming frail, if you spoke to her on the phone you could hear the same voice. It was that voice that made me forget what she was going through and remember Nan as she was before. Sitting on the veranda out the back of Thompson St, Coota, knitting needles in hand, working on something. She always had her knitting needles. Even when her knuckles where riddled with arthritis, Nan's hands would still be a blur as she made a jumper for someone in record time. Introducing my young family to Nan and the relatives, and the family Christmas parties at one of my Uncles/Aunties place are also memories I will have with me forever.

As a lot of people would say, growing up during the World War period was tough and made you tough. Nan was no exception. She lived by herself (not alone, as Nan had many family and friends nearby) since she lost her mate in 1982, she travelled, mostly by herself, but more importantly she fought. Fought the disease that wanted nothing more than to stop her. I can still remember Nan a couple of months before she past away saying to me, as she did many others, "... they are going to find a cure for me". It was this spirit to fight, to never give up till the last breath that inspired the journey I'm going to take.

See ya Nan. Going to miss you lots. Say hello to Pop for me.