2008 Tour de Youth Ride Report
Ride report by Paul Edwards, Ride Leader
Our ride this year travelled through some of the most beautiful countryside of our state. We left on an overcast Sunday morning from Australind and headed off for Busselton. We had a few new leaders on the ride, Colin and Jenny Spencer from Bunbury. Jenny’s first task was to man the bus and trailer to travel behind the team and warn them of traffic. A bit of a baptism of fire but she did such a great job, we kept her there for most of the ride. Husband Colin rode for most of the week, thoroughly enjoying the interaction with the kids and other leaders. One of our leaders had a minor spill from his bike on the road into Capel, witnessed by three of the locals to make it just the more humbling. This was the only incident on the ride.
After a lunch stopover in Capel, we reached Busselton, where we were hosted by the Church of Christ.
Monday morning saw us heading off again in drizzling rain to make a stopover at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory for lunch. One of the features of the Tour de Youth is the healthy, yummy meals along the way. Food Bank were able to provide some Magnum icecreams and, along with the chocolate from the factory, the riders were fuelled all the way to the Deer farm on Caves road where we spent the night. The venue was great with a pool and table tennis table and heaps of room to spread around.
The rain just pelted down during the night, a little noisy in a tin shed. Our morning ride took us to Margaret River main break beach at Prevelly Park and on to Giants Cave for lunch. The ride to Karridale took us through the Boranup forest; an amazing part of God’s creation, our ride making use of a very hilly gravel road through the middle.
The folk at Augusta Anglican Church provided the venue for Tuesday night and our evening meal. We all appreciated this great example of country hospitality. Wednesday morning the wind was from the west and blowing strong. Road speeds were high and as the rain was steady the distance through to Nannup was covered very quickly. Riding through the most beautiful bush land with all the wild flowers had Colin, an environmental scientist and budding botanist in raptures.
Wednesday night was spent at the Goose Hut at the Loose Goose property, 6km out of Nannup. Our hosts Grant and Larraine are great supporters of our team and donated the cost of our stay to the Bible Society.
Our last day’s ride was from Nannup back to Busselton. Most of the team jumped into the water at Busselton, I’m not sure exactly why, it sure looked cold to me. The ladies at the Seventh Day Adventist church set up a lovely meal for us, presenting us with medals and a card each congratulating us on our efforts for God’s kingdom.
We returned to Bunbury on Friday morning after a cooked breakfast again by the SDA ladies and ran our car and caravan through the car wash before everyone headed back for home. Our team raised over $5,000 for their efforts and all the participants left planning for the next Tour de Youth ride with great enthusiasm.
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