Wally and Sue's Adventure Concludes

They did it! Aren't they fabulous! Yahoo, for Wally and Sue. Congratulations, break out the champagne ... o, oh, they already did that ... oh, well, they'll just have to celebrate all over again when they get back to Coffs. They write:

"The BIG ride is finished, we arrived in Carnarvon on Friday and were escorted into town by our son Adam on his scooter and the champagne was flowing that night. All up we covered 3,800km, I suggested we do another 200 but Wally wouldn't be in it - I don't know why. It's nice to be in a house with a bathroom after 2 months, don't have to dig a hole any more.

The best section was Darwin to Broome for scenery, from Broome to Carnarvon some parts of the Pilbara were awesome but a lot was fairly monotonous. We met a few other cyclists but not many. We were waved at and tooted by just about everyone that went by and the road trains were fantastic, always gave us plenty of room when they could. Except for some punctures caused by burrs the bikes had no problems and our legs and bums stood up well. The road surface out here is terrible, stones that are not laid very close together so harder to ride on.

We had a few gruelling days into strong headwinds but overall we were lucky with winds and weather. We are off to Exmouth for a week with Adam on Tuesday staying in comfortable accomodation.

Hope all is well in Coffs, cheers Sue and Wally."

Aren't they just magnificient? I'm over the moon for them both! Carolyn

Wally and Sue's Adventure #4 22 Jun 2009

Strange things happen when one gets emails from the twilight zone otherwise known as "the moon" - see the new email from Wally and Sue published below. I have had no end of trouble uploading these photos, even though I've blogged before.

Now, the font choices have disappeared! Grrr ... Why, oh, why? Is there a computer god (make that goddess) that I can pray to? A small offering perhaps? Tyre levers or fresh tubes left at a roadside altar?

The Australian geography lesson continues ..... Wally and Sue's email mentions camping on a quartz seam (doesn't that sound exotic?), so I google "quartz outcrop NT Australia", and up pops China Wall (named after ... you guessed it! ... the Great Wall of ... ) and Hall's Creek. There is even a Caroline Pool close by ... hope they got a picture for my wall ... okay ... so I'm Carolyn not "line", but just don't call me late for coffee ...

From Wally and Sue ...

"Have tried to send some photos, hope it comes out, have no idea what size they'll be - we won't send any more it's too frustrating as we don't really know what we're doing.

We're on schedule at Halls Creek, have done 1300km so far. Some days are hard,lots of uphill, reckon we must be on the moon by now but overall really enjoying it - scenery is fantastic.

Have camped in some funny places - dry river beds, behind trees and on a quartz seam. Meeting some great people, most of whom say good on you, a few reckon we're crazy - but we already know that. Having a rest day today then on to Fitzroy Crossing.

Happy cycling, from Wally and Sue."

Doesn't Sue look ravishing in her Moon Suit? (see below) Dressed as she is for the inhospitable but compelling environment, much like Armstrong on the Moon.



Could the title for the photo be "China Wall" or, "Picnic at Hanging Rock?" perhaps?



We await the return of our intrepid adventurers to find out ... (eek, did you notice that the underlining has mysteriously disappeared?)

I will sign out before I too disappear into cyberspace without explanation.

Carolyn.

(P.S. I tried to publish this 3 times before being successful. I kept getting messages from "HTML" (a minor deity perhaps?) and not being"allowed" ... so finally, like a temple monkey wanting bananas I pressed "delete" as demanded, and magically the highlighted part of the HTML code was deleted!

On the count of three, I was successful ... it's all getting too weird for me. ... I think it has something to do with the downloaded photos and code embedded in the email as sent from our friends in outerspace.

But, regardless, don't those quartz outcrops look marvelous? Hope Wally and Sue didn't climb them ... like some fictional schoolgirls some of us might remember from a 1970's film ... will we hear from them again?

Wallly and Sue's Excllnt Advent #3 cont

Wally and Sue say good-bye, farewell, adios amigos, so long and thanks for all the fish? (nah ... I added that last one) to Darwin and their friends. Tomorrow, their excellent adventure begins in earnest ... (comment: Carolyn)

Wallly and Sue's Excellent Adventure #3

Last Post from Darwin (Email #4 Friday, 29th May, 2009)

Hi. Hope this works,we are at Jan & Craig's place and will try and attach some photos????

Craig used to live in Grafton and organised bike rides for the BUG's in Grafton.

We leave tomorrow morning and cycle to Adelaide River first stop - 114km, a bit nervous but will be right when we hit the road. Hope your all well and no-one else has fallen off their bike, Wally and Sue.

From Ground Control at Coffs BUG ...

Hope springs eternal - it did work for Wally and Sue! Their photos successfully attached, were emailed then saved by me to file and safely uploaded to blog.

Wow! Who said I was a technophobe? ...... now, where did I put that stylus and clay tablet? .....Carolyn.

Sue and Wally use team work to push their babies around. (comment from Carolyn)

So, now for that geography lesson ... could this be overlooking Fannie Bay, Darwin? ... if it is, it's too good to be true ... glory be to the map makers for with a sense of humour like that they shall inherit the earth. (comment: Carolyn)

Imagine what this scene might have looked like 67 years ago ... (C)

"The (Northern) Territory played a pivotal role in the defence of Australia during the 1930s and 40s with over 250,000 allied defence personnel stationed in the Top End.

"Darwin was first bombed by Japanese fighter planes on 19 February 1942."

"The full extent of the destruction and loss of life was not revealed to the rest of the nation for fear it would undermine public moral."

(from a Media Release Ref: http://www.tourismnt.com.au/nt/nttc/news/media_releases/mr/2006/mr_Mar07_bombing.html)

Sue looks deep in thought - now, which way up does this go? (C)

Wallly and Sue's Excellent Adventure #2

Balmy Darwin (Email #2, Thursday 28th May, 2009)

We had a good start to the holiday by having to be towed out of our driveway by our neighbour as Wally bogged the car in the driveway!

Coffs Coast Advocate (local paper) did a story on us, Jan and Henry have it.

When we got to the airport we were slugged $400 for excess baggage, we will be wiser next time. Then, when we got to Darwin airport, there was no maxi taxi so had to get two taxis - $60 later. We have a week in Darwin now before we start the big ride. It's a lovely 30 degrees Celsius and no humidity. Early photos to follow next mail, Sue and Wally.

Computer Problems at the Library (Email #3, later that same Thursday 28th May, 2009)

Hi. We're not having much luck with these library computers getting pictures out. None of them have picasa and their internal system won't let me download it ....they will only send one picture at a time at full size scheezzz!!!!!

We are leaving Darwin Saturday morning for Adelaide River 100 km south.

So far all is good, it hasn't taken long to get used to the BEAUT WARM DRY CLIMATE!!!!!!!!

Will try and work out something with the photos later.

Regards, Wally & Sue.

Wallly and Sue's Excellent Adventure #1

Our cycling friends, Wally and Sue left for their adventure up North over a month ago. As promised, they have been in contact. I received their first email on the 5th of May.

Wally and Sue are cycling from Darwin To Broome (and then some) in an effort to improve the points score of their Trivia Team in the "Australian History and Geography" category. No, just kidding, but, I am sure they'll learn lots anyhow - they're just that kind of people.

They have two bicycles, trailers for each of their bicycles, a small tent and the bare necessities of life and camping. They take with them lots of skills, much thoughtful preparation and more than a modicum of experience between them. As their first email suggests they both have a fine sense of humour, an absolute must when undertaking such a fine adventure. All these quality ingredients are sure to make the best holiday damper ever. So, good luck, Wally and Sue from Coffs BUG. May the heat from your campfire be just right.

As the darling buds of May have now blossomed and fallen into decay I thought it was time that I left the comfort of my Luddite Zone and learned how to turn their emails into blogs as requested. So here goes ... for Wally and Sue ...

.... and very belatedly entered onto the Coffs BUG Blog by Carolyn ...

Hazardous Bike Path for Wally - Email #1

Something for us to think about as we proceed across the Kimberley?????