25th Anniversary Ride Report
Over at Grahame Keast’s blog is a ride report for the recent 25th Anniversary of Bike for Bibles ride. The ride was from the 6-13th of December from Sydney to Melbourne.
BIKE FOR BIBLES 25th ANNIVERSARY
From 6 – 13 December I was a roadie for the 25th Anniversary ride of BIKE FOR BIBLES. Fancy that! 25 years ago Bob Forest, (see photo) his son and a friend rode from Sydney to Melbourne. They raised about $2,000 for the purchase of Bibles through the Bible Society. This ride expects to raise up to $60,000 to support Wontulp-Bi-Buyu indigenous college at Cairns in Northern Queensland. The rides over the past 25 years have raised in excess of ten million dollars for literacy development throughout the world. While there are rides in other countries (eg Canada and India) most rides have taken place in Australia.
“It was great to have Bob Forest (one of the original riders) have a cameo role by riding on day 1 and day 7. Bob is over 70. There was a tribute given to Bob and his wife Betty at the end of the ride.”
Bike for Bibles Canada Style
A 5 minute trailer from the British Columbia District of Bike for Bibles in Canada. (Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxrGT0-EULw)
There is a great gallery of shots on flickr from a ride organised by Vancouver BFB.
Also check out the Bike for Bibles Canada web site.
Perth to Albany Day 3, Narrogin to Wagin
Officially only 55km on the map we managed to stretch it to around 75km for the day. After 2 days of heat and hills it was actually nice to have a more sedate day. We left Narrogin via the Agricultural College and headed towards Wagin on Tarwonga Rd and Piesseville Rd.
Narrogin Baptist our stop for Tuesday night.
Here are some action shots of our riders.
Wagin Baptist, our stop for Wednesday night.
The obligatory shot of the Giant Ram at Wagin.
David had his birthday today on the ride.
Perth to Albany Day 2, Brookton to Narrogin
Still feeling the heat today. The 96km was hilly and did I say warm ? The wind was really quite kind today and helped push us towards Narrogin. We sure would have had to work harder if that wind was in our face.
Just for some variety, we turned off at Pingelly and took the road via Pumphrey and Dryandra. We had planned to stop for lunch at Dryandra Village, but we found it was at the end of a 3.2km of gravel road. None of us fancied 6km of pea gravel on skinny tyres so we used the side of the road instead.
Geff by the sign at Pumphreys.
The back road via Pingelly was pretty, full of fields of barley, oats, wheat and canola. The farmers in the group gave us city slickers an education in how to recognise a crop – and even more how to recognise a good crop.
Having a shorter day today meant that we had some spare time after we arrived in town, so we went to the Narrogin Recreation Centre and had a swim and a quick rest. This is a bit of luxury we could all get used to, a swim after a hard day in the saddle.
For dinner Mark and Jo are looking after us, we are sitting here smelling the barbecue sizzling. It is such a buzz to have someone cook for you. Thanks heaps for feeding us hungry mob Mark & Jo.
Jo’s chocolate cake with soft prune centre was worth riding 200km for.
Tonight we are bedding down at the Narrogin Baptist Church hall. The Narrogin Baptist Church celebrated it’s Centenary in 2000. Just as anside, my maternal great-grandfather DJ Morris was a pastor here 1915-1920.
The Centenary Mural at Narrogin Baptist Church.
Perth to Albany Day 1, Armadale to Brookton
Perth turned on a stinker of a day as we prepared to leave from Armadale. It was a hot 35C in Perth and we sure felt it out on the road. The wind was strong and hot and swirling around but thankfully mostly in our favour.
So we opened our register with 113km. Personally, I had forgotten how hard it is to put in that many kilometres over a hilly course. The temperature sure makes you work hard for your distance.
Not much to remark on the road kill front except for a delicious looking long legged frog and a beautiful fluffy fox cub.
Brookton Highway was pretty quiet and the drivers were very polite so all we had to worry about was just how many more hills there were and how long before we could fill our drink bottles again.
Geff, David, Wes, David and Alec ready to leave from Armadale Kelmscott Baptist Church.
David demonstrating the luxury of his inflatable bed.
Some delightful soul dumped a load of asbestos fencing in the road side parking.
We arrived in Brookton at 4PM to discover that Carolyn had prepared a feast for us to enjoy at our leisure. We bunk down tonight at the W.B. Eva Pavillion.
Yours truly, your blogger for this ride.
Premier day for Hobart track ride
Ride report by Tim Wherrett and Mark Polonsky.
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TON OF ENERGY: Charlotte Hanemaayer, 10, and Kaisorn De Hoog, 7, were two of the younger riders. Charlotte rode 110 laps and Kaisorn did 78 laps. What an amazing effort! |
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RIPE FOR RENOVATION: Doug Bonnitcha, Bible Society Southern Action Group chairman, and Pat Flanagan, of the Central Men’s Shed, check out the donated bikes. |
What could be better than spending the morning of AFL Grand Final day riding around a suburban bike track to raise money for Bible Society literacy projects?
For 48 Hobartians, and their many sponsors, there was nothing better.
Blessed with a superb day and an enthusiastic group of riders, some powered around like pros and others ambled along like… well, they just weren’t in a hurry at all.
Tim, Derek and the team from Wellspring did a great job co-ordinating the ride, ably supported by volunteers from churches around Hobart.
Next year, Tim’s planning a road ride in conjunction with the track ride, because with the increase in riders over the past two years the New Town oval track has at times been a bit congested.
In a new development, the Central Men’s Shed collected around 20 old bikes that people donated to be renovated and given to refugees and other needy people in the community.
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.
A bit of nostalgia: some old ride reports
Reading a ride report is one way to get a glimpse of what happens on a Bike for Bibles ride. Actually joining a ride is the best way of course 
Here are some links to some ride reports from a few years ago, as archived on the old web site. Enjoy !
| Michelle Smoker | Perth to Hobart 2003 |
| Helen Watson | Perth to Hobart 2003 |
| Bruce Anstie | Perth to Hobart 2003 |
| David Andretske | Perth to Hobart 2003 |
| Graeme Best | Perth to Hobart 2003 |
| David Pascoe | Perth to Hobart 2003 |
| Graeme Perry | Tasmania 2005 |
| David Kingston | Perth to Geraldton 2005 |
| Mid West Mail | Perth to Geraldton 2005 |
I would love to see more ride reports on this web site. If you go on a BFB ride, please send me a report to put up on the web site (pascoedj@gmail.com )
Ride Report: Dubbo Coffee Shop Easy Ride
Ride Report from Grahame Keast.
8-13 Sept 2008 – Dubbo, N.S.W.
Nine riders, two support personnel and two little nips aged two and zero. That was the team that did the Dubbo Coffee Shop Easy Ride. I rode 342 km with an average of 57 per day. It was a very pleasant week of riding. People came from Sydney, Macksville, Armidale, Central Coast and Dubbo. We were joined by some Dubbo veteran cyclists early in the week and then two teenagers joined us on our last day.
The daily rides went out one direction and then came back or else did a loop ride returning to Dubbo. Amongst other places we visited Eumungerie (our biggest day), Old Dubbo Road, Wambangalang, Rawsonville and Minore. There was a considerable range in ability amongst the riders with a number of the less experienced ones posting personal bests and then beating that the following days. We made it to different coffee shops each day upon our return to Dubbo - hence the name of the ride. Weather could not have been better. Thanks Lord.
My daughter Deb rode most days with her 2 year old in the trailer behind her bike. I tried it one day and I decided it is definitely best suited to a younger or stronger rider! I personally raised $1817 towards the Wontulp-Bi-Buya college near Cairns. This college equips Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to reach out to their communities with God’s word using local forms of communication and language
Read more from Keasty’s Gra Nomads.
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