The Alcoa Great Australian Cycle Expedition
As Red Lines go this one is a monster. 25,000km through the whole Australian continent. That's twice as long as the Trans-Siberian in 1993, and the weird thing is that Kate Leeming, who endured the Russian experience, is the brains behind this trip and got back in the saddle on May 10th 2004 knowing that for the next 10 months her life would consist of pushing the pedals and coping with some of the harshest conditions anywhere on the planet. Mind you, she is Australian so she's got no excuse for not knowing all this before setting off. The equally daft thing is that I went along as well. Mind you, I 'only' covered the first five months from Canberra in the south-east to Wiluna, in the middle of Western Australia, then had five months back in the UK before returning to Australia to complete the last stage with Kate from Melbourne to Canberra. My part of the expedition came to 8000 miles.
There was a lot more to this journey than simply wishing to explore one of the World's most amazing countries. 2005 - 2014 was the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and our journey was an official event on the UN's programme.
Read my impressions of Australia following this expedition.
Watch the video of riding the desert sections of Northern Territory and Western Australia here.
'Linking Communities through Sustainability Education'
Map key:
Kate's book about the trip, called 'Out There and Back', has now been published (July 2007). Go to www.gracexpedition.org to visit the expedition website, review the book and order a copy. With 300 colour photos from the journey it gives a fantastic feel of what it's like to undertake such an adventure.
______ Greg and Kate, May 10th to Sept. 21st 2004.
______ Kate riding solo, Sept. 22nd '04 to 28th Feb 05. 2005. (Greg joined Kate again for the last section from Melbourne to Canberra, through the Snowy Mountains).