What a Weekend! Sydney in Style...

Regrettably little time recently to blog, so I'm going to zoom through the last week and paint a picture of the next week as quickly as I can.

The Great Dividing Range took it's toll on my feet. And shoes. If only I could get a foot sponsor. After a 78km day from Orbost to Cann River my right foot looked like a tennish ball. No choice but to call a halt to skating and start the Sydney fundraising break early. Heart-breakingly, stopping two days early meant that I was 60km shy of the New South Wales border and 110km short of the east coast. I sat up front as the hills whizzed by so much quicker than they usually do and felt like crying when I crossed into New South Wales for the first time. Not, as hoped, on Elsa. But in a van. Horrible. The drive up the NSW south coast is not easy, hill after hill, bend after bend. As the hours went by (and in total it took over ten of them to reach Sydney) I became more and more depressed. There is nothing worse than driving a road I have to skate later - and not even in Scotland did I face roads like this. Forget the Great Dividing Range, my biggest challenge yet was to follow the fundraising weekend.

Spirits were lifted though by the hospitality shown to us by Sailability clubs at Illawarra, Kogarah Bay and Rushcutters Bay. Each holding an event on consecutive days between the 1st and the 3rd meant that Sailability ended up well over $8500 better off by the end of the weekend. Another one of our charities, the Lowe Syndrome Trust, had a presence in the form of the Brady and Gardiner families and as young Connor ran around scaring the crap out of everyone by testing microphones and making full use of Elsa as a transportation device he served as a timely reminder that although Sailability is obviously a focus of this journey, finding a cure for Lowe Syndrome is still very much at the forefront of BoardFree Australia’s aims.

The next day was the final break most of the team were to have for a while. Spread around Sydney in various accommodations half of them sat back in the afternoon and tuned into Triple J radio, probably the biggest national station in Australia and defined by many as ‘cool’! They tuned in for a reason – finally, after five or six telephone interviews with good old Robbie Buck for the afternoon show I’d made it to Sydney and could visit the studio. A fair few people listen to the show – the closest equivalent in the UK would be Radio 1’s Colin and Edith or Chris Moyles (don’t even know if there shows are still on it’s been so long!) so it was a privilege and a coup to visit the Triple J hideaway, tucked away in the ABC somewhere in Sydney central.

And then the drive back south. I lay in the back of George, sleeping for most of Tuesday as Cann River drew ever closer, stretching my body out and resting up in preparation for the biggest test it would ever have to face. Sure, Elsa and I have rolled 4200km from Perth so far, but the next 600km are the closest thing a skateboarder gets to hell. BoardFree Australia is heating up…