Zoo2Zoo Bike Ride
13th - 15th October 2006

Report

At 6am on Friday, 13th October 2006, 12 bike riders set out from Sydney's Taronga Zoo with the aim to ride 417km to Dubbo’s Western Plains Zoo in aid of the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA). After three days of harsh conditions, they succeeded in their attempt.

In June 2006, Andrew McKay mentioned to Arabella Hammon that riding a Bike to Dubbo would be a interesting challenge. Andrew also mentioned it to Matthew Colahan, Joe Jasser, Phil Godbee, Eric Clarke, Chris Anderson, Andrew Back and Jim Scollon. Jim mentioned it Tim Boys, who mentioned it to Angus Luffman. Arabella

roped in Toby Vidler and before we knew it we had 12 people willing to give this adventure a go.

After months of preparation the weekend of the 13th – 15th October was chosen for three reasons:

1) it was not the long weekend

2) it was not the Bathurst 1000 weekend

3) October generally has mild weather

We could not have been more wrong about the last - the 13th October turned out to be the 8th hottest October Day on record.

The lead up to the ride started with an appearance on the Channel Ten news on Thursday 12th October. We met Tim Bailey at Bradley’s Head at 5.30pm and appeared live on the weather segment just before 6pm – Andrew McKay will never live down his “Butt of Steel” shown live on TV.

We all then met at the gates of Taronga Zoo at 5.30am the next morning. After all the last minute checks, we set off at 6am, destination Lithgow, with 2 support cars (Ritchie McKay& David McKay in one and David Hammon & Alex Moline in the other). It was excellent having so many people at Taronga to farewell us. Lana Willetts from the Dubbo Tourism Centre did an amazing job organising the riding shirts for us – the “I Love Dubbo” on the back received many encouraging comments.

The team rode up Bradleys Head Rd, left into Spit Rd, left into Military, onto Falcon, right onto Pacific Highway, left into Epping Rd and onto the M2 and M7. The first break we had was the Light Horse Interchange – 55km into the ride. Here we refilled water and gatorade bottles. From there we cycled the 25km to Glenbrook for our first major stop. This stop was for 45 minutes and the support cars organised fresh bread, ham, pasta salads, bananas, oranges and ensured all our water bottles were full before the next stage.

The next stop was Wentworth Falls for lunch – this stage was 25km. We all had issues with Magpies, being nesting season, but Andrew McKay had the closest encounter. 300 metres out of Wentworth Falls a magpie (known now as Iron Mike) swooped and bit Andrew’s ear three times without missing once. Even though it was a small cut, blood was everywhere. The same magpie got him 3 weeks before on a training ride as well.

The lunch break was well deserved and once again the support crew was excellent. This stop lasted an hour until we jumped back on the bikes and headed for Medlow Bath, our next stop. This stage was 12km long and as it was very hot these additional breaks were essential.

Joe Jasser took off from Medlow Bath a bit before the rest of the group and was given directions: “when you get to Mount Victoria, turn right at the lights at the Pub – you can’t miss it”. Half and hour later Joe rings and says “I did what you said, but I am in the middle of a National Park and have got to a lookout – I don’t think this is the way to Lithgow”. It turned out Joe turned right at the pub in Blackheath and had to ride back up the 3km hill he had just ridden down.

After picking up support car 3 at Medlow Bath (Danielle Berger and Lakshan De Silva) we proceeded to Mount Victoria for another break and the proceeded to Lithgow via Bell. We arrived at Lithgow at 6pm – ready for a much needed break.\Just after we arrived at Lithgow, Tim Boys started feeling quite ill. After quick response from Angus Luffman and Eric Clarke an ambulance was called and Tim was taken to Lithgow Hospital. Later that evening he was transferred to Nepean Hospital by the Care Flight Helicopter, where he made a full recovery. Tim was so concerned

about the heat and dehydration that he actually took on too much water, which has the effect of flushing your system of essential salts.

Support Car 4 turned up at Lithgow (Harriet Forrest, Andy Gilder and Peter Kirtley). And at 6.30am on Saturday morning, after a Radio interview with 2CR the team headed to Molong. After stops at Mount Lambie, Bathurst and Orange we arrived at Molong at 4.30pm . The first 120km was quite hilly from Lithgow to Orange, but the

last 33km from Orange to Molong was a very enjoyable ride, especially in the cool of the afternoon.

The Telegraph Hotel in Molong made us all very welcome – a great beer garden was an appropriate venue to celebrate a great day’s riding. It is amazing that at 9pm everyone is completely tired and has to hit the hay. Luckily for us the accommodation was very comfortable and a great night’s rest was had by all.

One of the highlights of the ride was when a man and his son (8 years old) turned up to the Pub on their horses for a chat. The boy, after hearing of our bike ride and the Charity we were doing it for, donated his $5 weekly pocket money to the cause – a very humbling experience for us all.

We were fortunate to be joined by Matthew Colahan for the Molong – Dubbo stage. It was decided that those on hybrid bikes (Arabella, Andrew Back, Andrew McKay, Jim Scollon) and Matthew would set out at 5.45am, giving those on road bikes (Phil Godbee, Eric Clarke, Chris Anderson, Toby Vidler and Angus Luffman) a 45 minute sleep in, leaving at 6.30am. Little known to the front group, the “Pursuit” team made it their mission to catch us by  Wellington. They rode in a pursuit formation, with the front rider dropping to the end after 500m leading the group etc. They failed in their attempt by only 45 seconds, averaging 33km/h for the 65km from Molong to Wellington!

Again the support cars organised an excellent morning tea of the tried and tested Ham and Pasta Salad sandwiches. At 9.30am the group set off for the 50km ride into Dubbo – the plan to regroup at the “Welcome to Dubbo” sign. At 12.00pm we made it to the outskirts of Dubbo and proceeded to ride as a group down Cobra St to the encouragement of many locals who were following our progress on the local radio.

One of the many highlights of the weekend was when we were 3km from the Zoo and were met by 6 year old Kevin Perry and 3 year old Patrick Perry who were waiting for us at the end of Baird St, wearing their “I Love Dubbo” T-Shirts. They had their bikes and wanted to ride with us for the last 3km to the Zoo, but were unable to keep up – they are already in training for the last 3km of the 2007 Zoo-to-Zoo. They were with their Dad Charlie and Grandparents Kevin and Rose Marie Perry.

It just so happens that the McKay residence of 7 Shire Ave is on the way to the Zoo – we had to stop there for a couple minutes - quite a few photos were taken there. The bike path to the Zoo is very picturesque – as Eric quoted the “Champs Elysees of the Zoo2Zoo”. So at 12.30pm on Sunday 15th October after 437km we accomplished our aim of riding from Taronga Zoo to Western Plains Zoo in 3 days.

The welcome we received at the Zoo was amazing, Maureen McKay (Andrew’s Mum) organised a great BBQ. Councillor Greg Matthews presented each of with a Certificate of appreciation on behalf of the people of Dubbo – each one of us acknowledge we got more out of the weekend than we put into it, and we put in a great deal.

Thank you all for helping raise over $30,000 for the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia.

Riders: Arabella Hammon, Phil Godbee, Chris Anderson, Angus Luffman, Andrew Back, Tim Boys, Joe Jasser, Matthew Colahan, Eric Clarke, Toby Vidler, Jim Scollon and Andrew McKay.

Support: Ritchie McKay, Maureen McKay, David McKay, Lana Willett, David Hammon, Alex Moline, Lakshan De Silva, Danielle Berger, Peter Kirtley, Andrew Gilder and Harriet Forrest