Moving south

It feels like it took almost as long to leave Adelaide as it did for us to arrive there, but leave the City of Churches we did, but what an effort it took! With my left foot strapped up tight enough to make toes go blue I stepped onto Elsa for the first time in two weeks with Channel 7's news crew on hand to film things if all went pear-shaped. Luckily all was good, I did an interview and pushed off up the hills surrounding southern and eastern Adelaide. Steep steep steep, have had to deal with nothing like this since arriving in Australia, it was the ultimate test for my dodgy foot and the hills showed up my lack of fitness after spending two weeks on my bum. We stopped for lunch in the small but beautiful town of Stirling and then continued on, arriving in Strathalbyn with an hour to spare before the 6 o'Clock news. We all sat down to watch Channel 7, expecting a 20 second hook at the end of the programme. Unbelievably my ugly mug popped up as the third piece in the main news! A minute and a half later, having watched loads of Nullarbor footage Dim had given to the cameraman, viewing the BoardFree website on screen, seeing a cool little graphic showing a skateboard moving around Australia and hearing the reporter talk about our charities we all jumped out of our seats and whooped with joy! What a piece! Dim filmed it all, missing the beginning only through surprise at the early showing, and Si couldn't resist but yell out a loud YAAAAAAY when his footage appeared on the telly, but it was a great piece all the same. (It can be viewed on the TV page of www.boardfree.org.au Media Centre.)

This morning, suffering after losing an hour last night when the clocks went forward, was a bit more foot strapping and then back on the road. A headwind slowed us but plenty of people passed and donated, and the news that the TV piece had also shown on Channel 7's Sunrise show this morning was enough to push us into the picturesque Wellington by 1pm. I skated onto the car ferry that sends vehicles across the beautiful River Murray, and as Pelicans floated nearby I counted my blessings. Lucky lucky boy. A great couple of days, one amazing country. We've finally made it out of Adelaide. Should be in Victoria within a week.