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Pedal to the Pope
Embarking on a spiritual pilgrimage of a life time, Frank Callaghan and Brendan Quigley have set for themselves an ambitious goal of biking across the continent of Australia in preparation for World Youth Day 2008. In an experience that will likely prove to be life changing, the two set out on this journey full of passion and zeal for the faith, with a desire to strengthen their commitment to Christ and His Church.
Brendan is a 19 year old Trent University student majoring in Spanish and geography. He lives on a sheep farm just outside of Peterborough with his parents and his younger brother and sister. Brendan has a love of love being active and cycling has been a pass time for him ever since he started riding a bike.
Frank is 20 years old and this spring he completed a two year business diploma in adventure tourism from Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley. The course included two days every week of training in multiple outdoor adventure disciplines including cycling, proper gear selection procedures, and clothing choices. Frank also successfully obtained his Wilderness First Responder certification. In September, Frank plans to continue his education at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia where he will obtain his B.A. in Tourism Management.
The two first met at school sporting events, but only became friends after attending SONfest, the annual Diocesan Youth Festival. They are both members of the diocesan youth ministry team, CORC, where they assist at numerous Youth Office events while also assisting to facilitate school retreats. Brendan and Frank have been known to think outside the box and faithfully accomplish any and all goals they have set for themselves. This cross continental pilgrimage is one of those goals. They are ecstatic about the trip and are ever thankful to their families and friends who have supported or sponsored their trip in any manner.
Beginning as a school assignment for Frank’s Outdoor Adventure Program, which he studied at Algonquin College in the Ottawa Valley, the trip shortly grew into a 50 day pilgrimage when the trip did not meet the requirements for Frank’s assignment as it was too long. However, with both of their hearts already set on the trip the duo decided to make it a spiritual pilgrimage, biking from Perth to Sydney, Australia. In Sydney they will meet up with the rest of the pilgrims from the Peterborough Diocese for World Youth Day 2008.
Starting their adventure on May 12, Brendan and Frank left the VEYO Centre in Peterborough mid morning with their supplies and bikes in tow after receiving a final blessing from Fr. Norbert. Smiles beaming on their faces the two waved good bye as they set out to “Pedal to the Pope”.
Traveling through 9 Australian Dioceses, the duo will meet up with contacts in each of the communities they pass through who will provide them with lodging, road maps, and when possible a ride to the nearest Church for Holy Mass. While on their travels the two will have with them a rosary, Bible and Breviary as they plan to pray the Liturgy of the Hours each day. Sent forth with a blessing from Bishop De Angelis, Brendan and Frank hope that word of their travel will open up hearts and minds to the faith of young Catholics and their desire to spread the Gospel to all corners of the earth.
As active members of the diocesan youth ministry team CORC (Catholics on the Road for Christ), Brendan and Frank will take the meaning of this name to a whole new level venturing out on Australian roads. However, they do not go alone, as they will carry with them the prayers and support of their fellow CORCs, VEYO and the faith community.
Google map where the itinerary for this trip Click :: Here ::
Prior to their departure, Mr. Callaghan noted that he could not thank everyone enough for the kind support both Brendan and himself have received in preparing for this pilgrimage. Mr. Quigley mirrored this appreciation stating that, “Everyone has been very supportive. From my parents, family and friends to Fr. Norbert and the Bishop, it’s been great!”
To follow this dynamic duo as they make their way across their 4000km route check the VEYO website (www.veyopeterboro.org) often for pictures and letters from Brendan and Frank.
The two will also be making a presentation about their pilgrimage at SONfest ’08 in Lindsay this August, where they will share their personal witnesses of the trip, how it has impacted their faith, their friendship and their future.
Link to articles website :: Here ::
Day 1
May 14, 2008After a long and some-what tiring flight Brendan Quigley and Frank Callaghan, and all their gear, arrived safely in Perth, Australia. The two arrived at their accommodations, staying with friends of the Quigley family, midday and were just getting ready to eat dinner when they called Mrs. Quigley in Lakefield to update her on their status. She assures us the two are doing great and are excited to get their adventure underway.
On Sunday the dynamic duo will participate in a huge World Youth Day Mass being held in the Diocese of Perth, after being invited to the event by Diocesan WYD Coordinator Anita Parker. We look forward to hearing back from Brendan and Frank soon and wish them all the best as they begin their exhausting and demanding pilgrimage the morning of Monday May 19th.
Day 2 & 3
May 15-16, 2008
Hello Everyone!
If you have not already heard through the grapevine Brendan and I landed safe in Perth on the 14th of May with all our gear intact. Oddly enough, do to the international date line we never experience the 13th. We just completely missed it. That date does not exist in our lives!
Today is May the 16th. Yesterday Brendan and I assembled our bikes and cycling around Fremantle for the day. It rained on and off for the day but as we researched only in millimetres.
Right now the temperature drops to about 6C at night and gets up to around 20◦C during the day. Locals are quite cold and Brendan and I are sweating. We have enjoyed talking to locals about the temperatures differences of our countries. They cannot even comprehend our temperatures. They say it’s really cold here when it gets to 0◦C which rarely ever happens, so Brendan and I are laughing!
The next thing that has caught our attention is the road systems. For those of you who do not know they drive on the opposite side of the road then we do in Canada. Our brains are so programmed to go on the right side that we have to concentrate quite hard to make sure we don't start biking against traffic. Their have been a few times both of us have thought we were going to witness a bad accident between cars then we realize that they are actually driving correctly! It’s been rather funny for us. They also have round-abouts here, but they have yet to pose a problem for us.
Today is an absolutely beautiful day! Again up around 20◦C. The particular area we are in is wonderful for cycling! There are bike paths everywhere and they are quite nice! We are currently in the office of our contacts for Perth, the equivalent of VEYO here. Brendan is in the process of re-contacting all our other contacts along our route across the country which is going very well. So far we have tons of support and things are happening, which is terrific.
God's been looking after us for certain. Our first day in the country, yesterday, we stumbled upon a basilica that happened to be having adoration. So that was a lovely surprise for us on our first day!
Today our plan is to continue to contact the rest of our contacts along our route, cycle back home and play some Nintendo probably! Hopefully we will have numerous opportunities to update you on our progress.
God Bless you all!
Thank you for the prayers!
<>< FRANK and BRENDAN
Day 4 & 5
May 17-18, 2008
Another quick hello from the land down under! Brendan and I will be beginning our journey tomorrow morning. Thank you and all for the prayers. On Sunday we attended a World Youth Day Mass and Celebration for the Diocese of Perth. While there we received a blessing from Auxiliary Bishop Sproxton! We are anxious to get going and are quite excited for the morning.
We are not sure when we will be able to update you next as we will now be on the road, but please continue to keep us in your prayers.God Bless and we will see you soon!
<>< FRANK and BRENDAN
Day 6
May 19, 2008They are off! Brendan and Frank officially hit the road early this morning biking from Perth towards Northham.
Day 7
May 20, 2008Hello All!
Brendan and I have now just completed Day 3 of cycling! All is well.We are a half day behind schedule because of an unfortunate break down on the road. No worries though we built in plenty of "screw up" time so this does not create any problems.
We have already had some trials to endure. In our excitement to leave we left some important contact information in Fremantle only to discover our mistake after 3 hours of cycling. Brendan took a taxi to retrieve them. In the meantime, while I waited with the bikes, a local man, Stan, and myself had a chat about the bikes and our pilgrimage. He was kind enough to run home and bring us some fresh grown oranges. They were amazing! We have decided the delay was worth it for the oranges!
The bikes have needed small tune ups here and there as they get settled in. We have already blown a few tires. They are simple to fix though so they have not proved a problem. We have numerous spare tubes with us. Our large delay was that Brendan's whole tire blew a hole. We discovered the rubber on our tires is too soft and we are riding on asphalt, which is lovely for riding, but it is just rough enough to chew through the soft rubber. We were roughly 13kms from the nearest town at this point but, of course, we figured things out. A handful of VEYO stickers proved hearty enough to plug the whole. They finally blew out 2kms from the town. God kept us smiling with countless enthused honks from passers by as we rode that particular 13 kms. We walked in the last 2kms.
The town was quite small and didn't have much in the way of bike repairs. The hardware store was home to 2 tires, each of which was the wrong size. So we were out of luck. By God's grace we met two wonderful women who were working in the IGA. Together with them we devised a plan that would get us on our way. We phoned the last bike shop we passed in Northam, 52kms back, ordered what we needed, and the bike store graciously delivered the items too the school where the appropriate bus would deliver them to us with the local kids from Cunderdin, the town we were in. All worked out well and we were able to use a back room in the IGA as a bike shop for the evening. This process however is what delayed us the half day. We never reached our intended destination.
Regardless we set up camp in the park across the street. We have been going to bed around 6pm as soon as the sun goes down and then getting up with it at 6am. Its quite good actually.
This morning we planned on cycling longer to make up the extra distance but during morning prayer a woman drove up and was quite upset she didn't know we were in Cunderdin last night, because she would have put us up for the night. Regardless she had the contact for the priest in Merridin and assured us we would have accommodations there. We decided therefore, following Bishop DeAngelis' orders "be prudent" that we would only strive for Merridin today. Also noting this wonderful news of accommodations came during morning prayer.
This is exactly what we have done! I am now writing from Father Stan's computer in St. Mary's Parish in Merridin.
We have been feeling very strong riding, averaging somewhere around 16km/h. The mornings are nice for riding. From around 11am - 2pm it gets quite hot with the sun in the sky and little in the way of shade. We have lunch somewhere in this time, taking out the hottest part of the day. Other than that it’s not bad, keeping hydrated keeps us going.
It’s nice to see our progress on the map. This evening we were blessed to sit down to a hearty meal with Father Stan and Sister Elena. What a fantastic meal it was.
Tomorrow we are aiming for the town of Southern Cross. It will be our longest trek yet, but Father Stan has phoned ahead to the priest there and arranged accommodations for us which is fantastic. Again this is a half day behind our planned schedule but this seems to be the schedule the Lord wants us on so we will stick to it.
That's all for now. Thank you all for your prayers.
Again we cannot thank enough all those who sponsored us and are currently continuing to support us and all the WYD pilgrims with "Pedal to the Pope". God Bless you.
We will update you all again as soon as possible. Keep us in your prayers!
<>< FRANK and BRENDAN
Day 8
May 21, 2008Hello All!
Roo Count: 3 dead 0 alive
Hello once again from the Land Down Under! Brendan and I have now completed Day 4 of cycling! Last night Sister Elena housed us in a small building on the outskirts of town that all the churches in Merridin bought and care for. Passers by can stay for one night if needed. A great idea. It was a tiny little place but was as good as a palace for Brendan and I! It had four beds, a shower, toilet, sink, small kitchen area, a fridge that could be plugged in if needed and just enough room for the bikes. It couldn't have been more perfect. We each repacked our gear and switched a few things around to even up the loads, ate some chocolate Father Stan gave us, said night prayer and climbed into bed (yes after brushing our teeth!) We both certainly slept soundly last night with Sister Elena's fine cooking inside us.We rose at 6am, ate a quick breakfast, said morning prayer and then set out on the road just before 7am. Today was our longest day yet, 110kms so we wanted to get going early. We started to a light headwind which was slightly discouraging but we were keeping a fine pace, eventually the wind came from the side and actually sped us along nicely. It acted much like water under a canoe while ferrying across a river. By the early afternoon we found ourselves with a favourable tailwind. Too our surprise we completed our 110km journey and arrived in Southern Cross at just after one! A total of 5hrs and 20 mins of riding time! Boy we flew! The sun kept away from us today. By midday we were under cloud cover that was brought out from the sea with that awesome tailwind we made use of. By the time we stopped for lunch we only had 20 km left to ride! We were quite pleased. There were plenty of up and down hills today but they were very long and had shallow grades. Nothing too difficult. Both of us are still feeling strong. Yesterday Brendan took a fall on his bike as his front tire decided to follow a railroad track and he didn't. For those of you who don't know we have cycling shoes that clip into our pedals so that we can make the most of a pedal rotation. Regardless, removing your foot doesn't happen nearly as fast as you would like it to and it such situations you just resort to falling rather than catching yourself. During the fall he slightly strained his achilles tendon trying to free his foot. We watched it today and it hasn't got any worse which is wonderful. Should heal soon enough. It is okay for riding. I should be quick to point out before he reads this that I have fallen too and my helmet took a good hit for me. We are still getting used to the pedals. We'll be okay.
It actually did rain a while today. God was good enough to hold that out until after we reached Southern Cross. A quick fact, The Southern Cross is actually a constellation that, unless I am mistaken, can only be seen from Australia. It is on their flag if you are curious as to what it looks like.
Anyway, we are now staying with Father Nishan at St. Joseph's Parish. Again we find ourselves with beds and a shower and food! I am happy to announce this is the first time in my entire life that I have not seen Brendan finish his entire plate of food! It should be marked on a calendar! Father Nishan is from Sri Lanka and made us some Sri Lanken food. Not too spicy though. I still found it hot. It was very, very good but definitely filling considering Brendan couldn't finish.
Earlier in the day after arriving in Southern Cross and meeting Father Nishan we actually went over too the Catholic school and went into the grades 4-7 classroom and visited and chatted awhile. In true retreat style, Brendan took over the classroom and had all the students involved. I'm sure by the look on the teachers face she was not expecting that! The kids were quite excited about our trip and asked plenty of questions. We left VEYO stickers for all!
Another interesting thing to know, it is crazy dry here. Much of Australia has been in a drought for a few years. The land out here is very dusty brown and there is not a lot in the way of vegetation. There are still many trees lining the fields but no underbrush at all. The bark on all the trees is being eaten by ants as far as we can tell, because the ants are numerous and the bark is laking. In most fields the farmers have bulldozed large pond like holes to catch what rain does make it this far from the sea.
The entire country is actually quite dry. It has been for hundreds and hundreds of years. Its landscape is much like Canada's expect unlike Canada, Australia does not have glacier rivers flowing from the Rockies to provide water to the prairies and such. So without rivers running through the country you get the Australian Outback, a vast dessert that covers a great portion of the country. Australia though is home to a number of gold mines. They are found more in this region. We are actually headed towards two of the larger gold mining towns. They are Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. Obviously a large mining town cannot sustain itself without water. Originally water was traded to the miners but sold at ridiculous prices which eventually resulted in a large riot in Coolgardie. A man named Charles O'Conner came up with the idea to pump water all the way to Kalgoorlie from the ocean, 355m above sea level and 600kms away. He was thought to be crazy but in 1898 construction for the project began. The upgraded pipeline still carries water to Kalgoorlie now. It follows the Great Eastern Hwy. The highway we are presently cycling. The pipes are somewhere around 3-4 feet in diameter. Its really quite impressive.
That's enough random info for now. I'll try and dig up some more stuff for the next update. This evening Father Stan phoned from Merridin and has already contacted the priest in Coolgardie. Father Nishan has also been talking to him. Brendan and I plan on being in Coolgardie in 2 days. The priest there will get us accommodations and we will, come hell or high water, make it to evening mass at 6pm.
There is no real town between here and Coolgardie within our regular cycling distance so tomorrow Brendan and I will cycle until we get tired and camp wherever we find ourselves. The day after, Saturday, we will reach Coolgardie. From there we begin our journey south to Norseman and prepare to embark across the Nullabor!
Of note: When Brendan gets a chance he will be updating our Google Map so that it reflects the spots we have actually stayed thus far.
That's all for now! Likely we will be able to update everyone again in Coolgardie. Until then, be sure to keep us in your prayers and all the pilgrims. They too are undertaking a real spiritual pilgrimage. Something not to be taken lightly! We all need all the prayers and support possible. The World Youth Day Cross and Icon arrived in Perth last Tuesday and will travel across the country to Sydney for World Youth Day. Brendan and I plan to race them there!
Goodnight for now, Good morning for you! God Bless!
<>< BRENDAN and FRANK
Day 9
May 22, 2008Today Brendan and Frank will begin their 2 day journey from Southern Cross to Coolgardie, a distance of nearly 190 km.
Day 10, 11, 12, 13
May 23-26, 2008
Hello All!
Roo Count 15 dead 0 alive.
G'day everyone. I am sure you are all as displeased with the roo count as we are. We have seen that many dead ones and countless other skeletal remains of things we presume to be kangaroos but have decided not to include in the roo count. Locals are quite shocked we have not come across any kangaroos so hopefully we will see some soon enough.So let's catch up. Brendan and I are now in Norseman. We cycled out of Merridin from Father Nishan's at 7 am. Cycling wasn't too bad. We were nearly always on a hill, but they were long and very shallow. We would take 10 minutes to slowly ride up the shallow grade and then ride them out for another 10 or so. It didn't prove to be too bad. The landscape was actually quite bare. Bush fires had blown threw during their summer and killed most of the vegetation. We could see for miles in most directions for the majority of the day. We basically rode until we felt like stopping that day. It ended up being about 65km from Coolgardie. We just saw a nice spot off the roadside, wheeled the bikes in and set up camp. We fired up my stove for the first time. Worked wonderfully. Its quite satisfying to know you can set up a little home for yourself so quickly. All went very well at camp.
In the morning we packed up camp, said morning prayer, ate breakfast and headed to Coolgardie. Brendan and I are continually impressed to see our entire camp pack up in a few minutes and somehow fit on our bikes. Its a very rewarding feeling.
We arrived in Coolgardie at 11am. It is a small mining town. It was extremely large in the early 1900's during the gold rush. It just had one main street with a few other streets running off it. The main street was extremely wide so that, way back when, they could turn camel trains around in it. Brendan and I wished we had a camel train to try with! We ate breakfast at a local cafe and contacted the priest. Father Joseph was the priest we were given the contact of but we did not manage to get a hold of him. The local priests actually live in Kalgoorlie, which is north of Coolgardie and their mission parishes are in Coolgardie and Norseman. Throughout our phone calls we did not reach a priest but got directed to a woman, Patsi, who ran the local grocery store. We went there. Father Joseph had contacted her, but through miscommunication she was under the impression we were out of money and in desperate need of help. She was pleased to find this was not the case. She gave us the keys to the church, St. Mary's, and graciously paid for our groceries.
St. Mary's is a beautiful, old church. Unfortunately it is slowly falling into disrepair. A shame really. Mass is held Saturday night at 6pm. On average 3 parishioners show up. The church had two pedal organs in working order and the craftsmanship of the building was basic but incredibly beautiful.One of the parishioners, Kay, worked at the information building. Patsi gave us directions to her. We went and visited with her for some time during the morning hours. While there, we met the local police officer, Daniel. Daniel is in the process of training to become a officer who works with dogs. Part of his test is an obstacle course, which Brendan and I were quite interested in. We wish him the best in his career.
Most of the afternoon we spent in the church. It was just us and Christ in there. We tuned up the bikes and chatted. At 6 Kay arrived and set things up for Father and 4 other parishioners arrived. Father Nelson was the priest who came. He and Father Joseph take care of the parishes in the area. Father Nelson is from the Philippians and actually just retuned from a visit there. We attended a wonderful Holy Mass in the church. Brendan and I did the readings and sung the parts of the Mass. Father and the parishioners were quite pleased. Father allowed us to stay in the church for the night. Before bed we hardboiled some eggs and restocked our water and said Night Prayer.
Sunday morning we cycled out of Coolgardie, getting off the Great Eastern Hwy and began heading south on the Esperance Hwy towards Norseman. In the morning we met up with another cyclist, Mike, heading the opposite way. He was training for a road race coming up. He turned around and cycled with us until his turn off, about 20km or so. He was on a slick road bike, sure made us wish we had one, the ease with which he could just take off. Mike works with one of the nickel mines near Wigimooltha. He has contact with numerous truckers that work in cooperation with the mine so he informed us if we ever need any parts if we run into trouble on the Nullabor he can have them sent out with a trucker to us. That is fantastic! Thank you Mike!
We reached Wigimooltha before lunch, ate at the road stop there but decided we would push on further. We figured in would only make today's ride shorter anyway. So we cycled for a few more hours and then found ourselves another nice spot off the road. So that is where we spent last night.
This morning we got of to a slow start, more or less just because we could. During the ride into Norseman Brendan's front tire finally decided to go. We presumed it would at some point, so it wasn't a surprise. Conveniently Brendan noticed before it popped so we were able to salvage the tube and use it again. With some speed we got the bike in working order and were off again. We were quite pleased.We arrived in Norseman just after 11am. Father Nelson has allowed us the use of the priest's house here beside the church. No one lives there seeing as this is a mission parish, but it suites Brendan and I just perfect. Father gave us the contact of a woman here, Lourds, who works in one of the local schools. She got us access to the house and church. Tomorrow morning Brendan and are going back to the school to do some presentations for the senior grades.
We are currently in the home of some local parishioners who have wonderfully allowed us to wash our clothes and use the internet and phone and what not.
Brendan and I will be taking the day off tomorrow, aside from visiting the school, allowing our legs to rest. The rest of today is designated for rest also, and preparing for the Nullabor. We are headed to pick up groceries shortly and we will do whatever other preparing necessary back at the house.
So far absolutely everyone has thought that both Brendan and I are from Ireland. It's quite funny. But really everyone seems to thinks so.So, Wednesday, Australia time, we set out across the Nullabor. The name's latin roots mean "no trees" so it shall be interesting. It is 1200km from here to Ceduna. Ceduna is the next "town". We have priests waiting for us there. We are excited. Between now and then, there are only truck stops. The stops will have a small store and camping grounds and fuel, not much else. We will be staying at these places and likely we will be camping some nights as well. Unfortunately we do not foresee any internet so it is likely you may not here from us for a few weeks. We will of course update you every chance we get.
We have completed, in terms of distance, our hardest week yet. The weeks now become shorter distance wise, but we have interesting terrain ahead of us. Two more exciting challenges! The Nullabor for the next few weeks, and then the few days before Sydney we will have to cross the Blue Mountains, but what great adventure doesn't include every landscape imaginable.
Again, thanks to all. Keep us in your prayers. Next time you hear from us we will be approaching the halfway point of this continent and hopefully our Roo Count will have improved. We'll see.
God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 14
May 27, 2008Today Brendan and Frank are taking a cycling “Day-off”. They will head back to the school to do some presentations for the senior grades and then spend the rest of the day resting and getting supplies ready for their trek across the Nullabor.
Day 15
May 28, 2008Today Brendan and Frank began their cycling trip across the Nullabor desert, the world’s largest single piece of limestone. Travelling approximately 1200 km, on their average of 100km a day, we hope to hear back from the dynamic duo in just over two weeks. Until then we will continue to pray for Brendan and Frank, and all WYD pilgrims as they prepare to see Pope Benedict XVI in
48 days!
Day 18
May 31, 2008We received an email at the VEYO Centre from a couple who met up with Brendan and Frank while on their travels as well as some pictures. Here is what they had to say:
Greetings from Western Australia!!
We had the joy of meeting Frank and Brendan at the Fraser Range camping ground about 100km east of Norseman on the evening of Wednesday 28 May 2008. They were looking in good shape and in enjoying their journey. It was as we watched the sun setting with an ochre glow in the west that we met them on a hill overlooking the camping ground. Pat recognised the red Canadian maple leaf on their shirts and struck up a conversation. We were at the camping ground because we were returning to our home near the south coast of Western Australia having been to an Apostolic Church Australia national leader’s conference in Sydney earlier this month. So we were aware of the World Youth Day as it had been in the press in Sydney, and we had seen it advertised in Christian literature. . It was exciting to hear of their pilgrimage and we were able to chat about the road ahead for them though we were travelling in more luxury with a 4WD and 16ft caravan.
The boys came over to our caravan later that evening and gave us the internet details so we could follow their journey. It was great chatting with them and sharing stories. Their involvement with music was a particular interest to us. We promised to pray for them and share about their journey with our congregation. Tomorrow (Sunday) we will ask our church to pray for them also, and for the success of the World Youth Day.
We rose early the next morning (Thursday 29May) to get some photos before they pedalled off about 7am. We will include some with this message and send the full set to you via a CD.
We admire what they are doing, why they are making the journey, and assured them that God will have some special appointments for them along the way. It was a God-appointed privilege to meet Brendan and Frank and share a tiny part of their lives. We are looking forward to reading news of their travels as we know the route quite well. Hope this message gives you all joy, especially the Callaghan and Quigley families.
May God bless you all with His peace, love and hope.
We share the love of Jesus Christ with youDavid and Pat
Day 26
June 8, 2008Hello All!
Roo Count dead: uncountable live: 87
Camel Count dead: 1 live: 0
Emu Count dead: 1 live: 1
Wombat Count dead: 0 live: 0
Drive by pictures: 15 (will explain in email)
Where to start!First of all, we are doing extremely well. It was awesome to see that David and Pat gave you an update. I will start this email just before we met them.
On our day off Brendan and I visited the local Public School and went around to four classes and gave presentations on our trip. We just gave the students a brief idea of what we were doing and then let their questions direct the rest of the presentation. We really enjoyed our time spent with them. The school was kind enough to allow us to have our families phone there to talk to us before we set out on our Nullabor trek. The rest of our day of was spent preparing meals for the upcoming journey.
Brendan and I have been continuously confused as to why people were so worried about our Nullabor trek. It was as though you had to say Nullabor only in a whisper or else everyone was staring at you as though you were insane. In total there was roughly 25 kms of "treeless plain". As mentioned in an earlier email the real Nullabor is to the north and only a small portion reaches to the ocean. Regardless Brendan and I agree our Nullabor trek was without a doubt the most beautiful terrain we have witnessed thus far. All of it was awesomely striking in its own right. Often trees were few and far between but typically there were shrubs of some kind and the landscape would slowly roll away from the road gently and rise again. The vastness of the sky was humbling. What an awesome place. Now don't get us wrong, the Nullabor is not somewhere you would want to find yourself if you were not prepared. There are no natural water supplies at all. We were just surprised at what we found given the image we had each created in our minds as a result of the worrisome accounts of the land we were given on our approach. Anyway, here is how it went.
We set out from Norseman through a rolling terrain surrounded by forested area. At our lunch stop we met Wayne, a caravaner, in the midst of touring Australia for the next four years, just getting to see his home country. We finalized our day after about 110kms at Fraser Range. We cycled in a bumpy lane about 1km to the range. It was a wonderful stay. While paying for our site a young lad by the name of Ben approached us and asked us about our trip. We thoroughly enjoyed his company. He assured us we would enjoy the Nullabor. We most certainly did. We met Ben's family as well. We set up camp off to the side of the camping ground on some woodchips by a large tree. David sent a picture above of the spot as we were packing up. After setting up camp we grabbed a few groceries and walked the site. The range is set inside a small valley 3/4 of it surrounded by hills. We eventually found ourselves at the top of one of the hills just as the sun was setting over a vast forest to the west. The bowl-like location was awesome for viewing the stars. At top the hill we met David and Pat, and enjoyed a good visit with them on our decent back to the caravan park. While visiting them later in the evening Pat gave us some tremendous fruit cake which we enjoyed thoroughly over the next few days, trying to ration it as long as possible. We then said goodnight to them as well as Ben's family around a community camp fire.
In the morning we woke, ate, and then had a great send off from Ben as well as David. The pictures you can see above. We were now headed for Balladonia. Balladonia is kind of considered the start of the Nullabor trek. The ride that day was great, no troubles whatsoever. We arrived at Balladonia in good time. It was here in the caravan park we met our first kangaroo! While I walked to our tent-site I was shocked to see a LIVE kangaroo out of the corner of my eye! I had double and triple check to convince myself that I was not being deceived. The roo was standing in front of a large caravan and a man was petting it! I quickened my pace to our site and called to Brendan "Brendan, there's a live kangaroo over there" He couldn't believe it either. "Right in front of the bus!" I told him. So we quickly walked over and the roo caught sight of us and bounded right over! We were astounded. Not one live roo yet and the first one we see comes right too us! Obviously the roo had been around the site before and was quite comfortable for humans and really only looking for a snack but we were happy with the encounter. We pet it and took pictures with our arm around it as though it was our best friend. It was awesome! So that was our first roo encounter, and obviously from the Roo Count, not our last. Over the rest of the Nullabor trip we sighted many roos off in the fields hiding amongst the shrubbery. At Balladonia we met Hamish and Cristy. They come from Scotland but have been working in Perth the last few years and had just toured out to see the Great Australian Bight. They were kind enough to give us quite a load of food. Thank you Hamish and Cristy. They gave us a tube of honey which found itself empty sooner than we would have liked. We are searching desperately for another!
Unfortunately along the Eyre Hwy there is a carcass or skeleton of some poor roo, eagle or other creature about every 30m so we discontinued the count for dead roos.
The following day we cycled a couple hours and arrived at the longest straight sealed road in the world. We were upset with our guide book because it showed the elevation ever so slightly descending over the stretch of 142kms. We both agree the road angled upward pretty much the entire time. We were also surprised with a wicked headwind for the entire of the day. The wind at this time of year typically comes from the southwest and would have aided wonderfully in our relative flat journey across the Nullabor. Two high pressure systems back to back sprung up in the far east and slammed us with ridiculous headwinds on our entire Nullabor journey with one slight lull day in between the two systems. This first day was not to my liking at all. Not much we could do though. We met another cyclists along the 90mile stretch. Ross was his name. He was middle aged man solo cycling the same route we were taking more or less from the East to West. He has taken 3 months this far continuing as he pleases. He was enjoying the east wind and likely it has aided him for a number of days now in his cross continent trip. That was the 30th.
The 31st did not prove any better. The headwind the day before forced us to camp halfway across the 90mile, putting us behind a day. The headwind continued the following day. Brendan was unimpressed by this. In following days we both accepted the fact we weren't going to get the tailwinds we had expected. During the 31st we saw a dingo just beyond the road and it merely watched us ride by not concerned with our presence. We reached Caiguna that night. There we met Mike and Carol who were generous enough to also give us groceries which have also been devoured since. They were also kind enough to re-supply us all our water no charge. They also informed us the Yalata Roadhouse is no longer in operation which helped us to plan better. A huge thank you to them!
The next day we slept in intentionally because we only had a 66kms ride to Cocklebiddy. So after leaving late we cycling about 1km down the road to find the time zone change sign which lost us another 45mins. We had a good laugh. There are two odd time changes across the Nullabor that change 45 mins back each, because of communications years ago. A few kms after the time switch Brendan discovered a spoke in his front tire had broke off. So there was another delay for our "easy day" We have extra spokes and actually got the bike in working order in no time at all. 10kms after we heard a "twang" and Brendan laughed and said "That's the same sound I heard when the spoke broke" Sure enough another had broken. Sure enough a spoke on his rear wheel had snapped. Thankfully it was not on the cluster side and we were rolling again within no time. Just to ease your minds, our bikes have given us no trouble at all since then. We arrived in Cocklebiddy just after 12 which was actually perfect because the day became wildy hot and we were very happy to be able to spend it inside the roadhouse.
The next day we road on to Madura. A bit of a headwind, but not unbearable. The landscape was striking, absolutely amazing. We have both been awed by the variety of landscapes along the Eyre Hwy. Just before arriving in Madura we dropped about 100m from to a lower level of land. The one we were riding on and the lower both had been pushed up from the sea floor 1000s of years ago just at different times. At the top of the escarpment we stopped and just stared. You could see for miles! It was so flat! It was majestic standing on top and overseeing all the land around. It was incredible. We both agreed it was worth riding all that way just to see that. It was great.
The following day we found ourselves with a lull in the headwinds and only a slight wind from the side. We cycled 117kms along very flat terrain to Mundrabilla. It was during this days ride that the road would go so far in front of us without winding or changing elevation that it seemed to become a dot. Again we were both awed by the landscape. In Mundrabilla we met caravaners, Dick and Gloria touring with Rick and Joy. Another two motorists, Sue and Heather asked us all about our trip and were kind enough to give us a contact for Wagga Wagga, an area at the latter end of the trip that we actually did not have a contact for yet. The Lord will provide!
We also met Damian and Mel. There story is a neat one. Each of them just finishing up in the Navy sold virtually all their belongings buying a wicked vessel, a large sail boat and will sail around Australia over the next two years and then begin to circumnavigate the world! Wow!
Dick and Gloria were kind enough to treat us to breakfast the next morning! We had porridge, then bacon and eggs as well, then plenty of toast, and our first tast of vegemite. We have both decided we like peanut butter! HAHA! The morning was actually extremely foggy so we didn't start our ride until a little later than planned. That was okay because we only had a 70km ride that day. We then realized how ridiculous it is that we now get excited when we have a 70km ride! We think it’s short! Its not! We had a good send of though from Dick, Gloria, Rick and Joy with lots of photos.
Speaking of photos I will explain the odd "count" allocated with the roo, camel, emu, and wombat counts. Thus far we have noticed 15 motorists filming us with picture cameras or video cameras as they fly by in their cars. Its pretty funny. We noted how one woman stuck her camera out the window but had not taken the lens cap of her camera, we tried to shout to her, without success. Regardless we included her in the count. E for Effort.
The ride from Mundrabilla to Eucala was "short" but we were ambushed with a strong headwind again. We were exhausted upon reaching our destination. That night as I was watching the television the weather lady said there was another high pressure system coming and the east winds would be DOMINATING the weather system for the next few days. Unfortunately for us she was not kidding. By this time we were quite used to headwinds and although we do not enjoy them we tend to do a lot of thinking as we pedal along ever so slowly or make a great effort to chat with each other for the entire day as to not notice the slow pace. Brendan eventually noted he couldn't remember what no wind felt like. haha. That night we camped on the roadside in a parking lot. There we met caravaners Frank and Peg and had a good chat with them.
The following day we awoke to strong headwinds as expected. By around midday we got the chance to see the Great Australian Bight. We thought we might have passed all the lookouts the previous day, but a few 100m off the road we were able to check it out. They were awesome cliffs rising high above the ocean. Unfortunately the cliffs are made of a rather weak rock that has been eroded by wind leaving weak overhangs, so we could not go right to the end for safety reasons. It was also extremely windy so it worked out for the best. Brendan got some great pictures.
Just after leaving the Bight we came upon our greatest surprise yet. It poured. (Remember we are in a desert!) It rained SO hard and for hours. We waterproofed what we could but we got drenched as well as most of our stuff. The process of getting wet was not enjoyable but once we were soaked there wasn't much to be worried about. We were wet, and that was that. It is mighty intense when a road train passes by and you get showered by the water walled up from the tires. I just got to the point where I would give the truckers a thumbs up and a smile just before they drove by. You could see them laugh. It was all good in the end. By the middle of the afternoon the clouds cleared and things began to dry out. We reached the Nullabor Roadhouse which was the start to the approx. 25km of treeless plain. We rigged up a clothes line and got most of our gear dry.
The following day we continued on from the Nullabor Roadhouse. The wind was right against us once again and we both just let it have its way. We rode slow and just kept talking, realizing we weren't going to get as far as we wanted. We would just ride till we felt like stopping. We averaged somewhere around 10kms an hour. By midday we were out of the plains and flatness. We found ourselves back in gentle hills and forested areas. The hills gave us a bit of help, breaking up the wind a bit. We ended up cycling about 75kms arriving at a nice large parking lot with a picnic table. We set up camp and made an awesome clothesline and continued to dry out or damp gear. So that was last night. We ate a wicked dinner, though not nearly large enough for Brendan, we make it again sometime and more of it. Groceries are hard to come by out here. Roadhouses are expensive and don't have a grocery store with them so we buy some of their supplies, usually just enough to get us to the next roadhouse.
Last night it gently rained all night but managed to get in the tent and get some of our stuff wet. Not cool! It’s a tiny tent. Just enough room to fit the two of us. The vestibule just fits our gear. It’s tight. We are going to rig up a tarp as a fly in the future to combat the rain. Hopefully it works. So this morning we woke to the light rain, packed in the rain and started our ride in the rain. Rain is bearable and can be dealt with but it’s a real pain. It rained on and off all day. The wind had died down considerably though, and we were riding back above 20kms/h for the majority of the day. It was nice to be flying along again, even with the bit of rain. By the afternoon the rained stopped and we were up around 30km/h coming into Nundroo! And here we are! We did not expect to find the internet here but so we have. We are happy to update you of our journey’s. Here we have actually got a backpackers room to stay rather than a campsite. It’s a huge room but we have covered it in all our gear getting it all dried out! We are still amazed with the amount of stuff we pack in those tiny panniers.
We will be sitting down to supper soon as you all back home are just starting to get up. It’s neat to realize we are looking at the same sun here setting as you can watch it rise. Incredible. We have also noted we started our pilgrimage in Fremantle with a full moon and have watched it completely wane and we are now beginning to watch it wax again.
Anyway that's enough for now. We'll likely be able to update you again in Ceduna. We will be there in two days. Until then, thank you for your prayers and patience.
God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 28
June 10, 2008Hello All
All the counts remain the same other than 3 wobmat road kill.Brendan and I are now safe in Ceduna. Yesterday we cycled from Nundroo to Penong. It wasn't a super long ride. We weren't in much of a rush. The wind was off and on, aiding us at times so we were making fairly decent time. The countryside was beautiful. Starting to see the odd farm again and different buildings and windmills. Rain seems to reach this portion of the country, fields are turning green again. It’s a nice sight to see.
Just before lunch we ran into bike problems. Three spokes broke on my rear wheel, cluster side, broke; meaning: not good. It was super odd that three broke, I only heard one and only noticed just it but by the time we pulled to a safe spot to repair it two others had snapped as well. Thankfully we were not in a rush and the weather was astounding so we were in good spirits. For those who aren't familiar with bikes the cluster is the rear set of gears. They have to be removed in order to access the correct area to fix this particular problem. The opposite side of the tire would not have required anything to be taken off so is much much easier. The front wheel also needs no alterations to repair spokes. Earlier on the Nullabor you may recall Brendan broke two spokes. His broke in more "convenient" spots and were simple to fix. All mine broke on the cluster side. This isn't such a big deal when you have all the appropriate tools. We, did not. We DID have one specific, very important piece that is needed to remove the cluster but not the wrench to provide us with enough torque to use it with any effectiveness. Brendan and I, being in good spirits, were up to the challenge. First we ate lunch and spent plenty of time doing it, then we set to building ourselves a makeshift wrench. After fiddling a while with odd parts we had, we ended up combining what we created to come up with a working wrench. We were quite pleased. The particular screw like piece that had to be removed was pretty tight and we couldn't seem to get the wheel secure enough to not move itself when we used the wrench. So even with our awesome wrench we weren't getting anywhere.
Caravaners had stopped nearby for lunch we retrieved a monster wrench from them and ended up being able to secure the wheel with me holding it attached to our bike chain. A good slow pull with the wrench and Brendan was able to release the piece. We realized after we should have used our awesome wrench, we are convinced it was up to the task we just used the real wrench because we had it. Regardless the cluster was removed and we could access what we needed. Brendan miraculously had exactly three spokes left. We were in working order soon enough.
Upon arriving in Penong I bought myself the appropriate wrench should we run into that problem again. The situation makes for a great story though.
By this time it had slipped our mind that it was holiday Monday! Just about everything was closed. We went to the caravan park and ended up renting a permanent caravan for the night. It wasn't much more than a campsite so we figured it would be more comfortable than a tent. It was.
This morning we were able to sleep in a bit because the General Store did not open until 8 and we wanted to make sure we had a least some food for the day. After shopping and breakfast we set out. The wind was very strong blowing hard on our sides. It slowed us down considerably but we were still cycling strong. After an hour and a bit the road made a significant direction change which put the wind at our backs. We flew! We arrived in Ceduna, 72kms after just 3.5 hours. We were up in the 30km/h range with the wind at our backs. It was glorious!
Once arriving at the Catholic Church we met a man by the name of Mick. After waiting for a spare key we got in the house. The priest is not here. We have actually not met him yet. He has allowed us the use of his home though. Brendan has since talked with him on the phone so he knows we are here.
First on the list was laundry. We have basically been camping for two week prior today so we needed to do that bad. While the clothes were on the line it began to rain slightly so we ended up constructing a clothesline on the porch which actually created a good wind tunnel and has dried our clothes quite efficiently.
Mick and his wife, Shirley, kindly invited us to tea. Tea became supper and a wonderful one it was! Mick also took us grocery shopping so we got the supplies we need to last us a while. We have just come back to the house now after visiting with Shirley and Mick. Brendan has been busy contacting the appropriate people further along on the route, all of which seem to be eager to help which is wonderful! We have pre cooked our meat and got our clothes off the line.
Tomorrow is our first day off since Norseman. We are going to continue to contact those who need to be contacted and are going to thoroughly tune up our bikes. We have now cycled 2000 kms! Its amazing really. It still blows us away. It’s so rewarding to unfold the maps and see our progress.
Now a quick note on the beginning of our trip! We have decided we have not given the Fays the thanks they deserve! The Fays are the family we stayed with for the four days prior to setting out. Tom and Val are the parents, their children: Mark and Eamer. Tom owns and runs a tile business in Fremantle. This is where we first got dropped off from the airport. Mark drove us to the house from there where we met Val and Eamer. The family supplied us with numerous amazing meals and the ability to get things rolling with contacts in Australia. Their house provided a wonderful HQ for seeing the local sites.
Tom's business produces and sells their own particular type of pizza oven which we did have a few awesome pizza's from. Very cool. Mark had recently undergone a little bit of surgery, we hope and pray he is feeling well again. Brendan would like to note that Mark does hold the Mario Smash Bros record between the two of them. The two were competing neck and neck in the particular game. Brendan gives Mark his respect, but I'm sure would be up for a rematch. A huge thanks to the Fay family for getting us rid of our jet leg and being so hospitable to us upon arrival.
To all the pilgrims coming down to take part in World Youth Day with us we would like to improve your packing list. We just want to let you know although the weather is fantastic down here, it still does get chilly at night sometimes only a few degrees above zero. As you all know we will be spending a night outside before the final mass. Prolonged exposure to such temperatures can really affect your body and certainly we don't want to see anyone become sick, fatigued or hypothermic because of lack of preparation. We don't want anyone to be worried, just prepared. Brendan and I have been sleeping in +10 sleeping bags with fleece liners inside. This has worked perfectly for us often being too warm. On cooler nights we wear long underwear and even wool socks. We strongly urge you to pack wisely. Obviously you do not want to be carting around bulky stuff. Bring an appropriate sleeping bag. Definitely bring long underwear and one pair of wool socks. Also bring a small winter hat and gloves just in case. Fleece, Wool, and Polypro are good materials to use. Cotton is not so great. Pack whatever you like, but please do bring one pair of warmer clothes in case you need it. Also, it may very well rain. Bring light rain gear. Trust me, you will be miserable if you are wet and the temperature is only just above 0. Tents are NOT allowed that night we sleep out as they take up too much space and block view. If you have a bivvy sack that would work perfectly. If not, a small tarp would do the trick. Again nothing to get concerned about, just want you to be prepared.
We are pleased to hear fundraising efforts are paying off back home with "Pedal to the Pope". We thank all those pilgrims who are taking part and are full of gratitude to all those of you who have helped us and the other World Youth Day pilgrims make this tremendous pilgrimage possible. Please continue to spread the word about our efforts.
Thank you again to all, your support has been truly wonderful!
God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 29
June 11, 2008Hello All
Just a quick update from Ceduna again, during our day off. Last night Brendan and I stayed up extremely late with our approaching day off and slept in this morning. It was fantastic.Brendan made breakfast, and afterwards we set out to town. It has been a beautiful day. We cycled around to a few stores trying to scrape up what extra parts we need to stock up on and got some lube and grease to tune up the bikes. We also went to the bakery and got some wicked bread for lunch.
Once back at the house we ate and then set about tuning up our bikes. Cleaning them right up, the chain and derailer, basically everything that moves. I took my entire steering column apart and re greased all the bearings and such. They are both in good working order now. Hopefully it is a little while before any problems arise with them. We'll keep on top of them as best we can. Shirley stopped by after work to say goodbye to us. So we chatted with her for a few minutes as we cleaned our bikes. That has pretty much been the extent of our day.
Tomorrow we may, depending on the wind, try to go the farthest yet. A possible 140 kms may be undertaken. We'll see how that goes. As you know we are 3 days behind schedule, which isn't a problem, we would still arrive in Sydney in plenty of time, but we would like to get back on track. We'll keep you updated.
For those of you looking for gear for World Youth Day. Adventure Outfitters in Lakefield was a huge support to us. We really appreciate their help. You will be able to find helpful things there.
As for our personal spiritual pilgrimages I am confident when I speak for both Brendan and I that this has been a faith strengthening journey. There have been days with bad whether or difficult times that we have to struggle through, but that is all an important part of a pilgrimage. It wouldn't be much of one without struggles. Thankfully one of us has always seemed to be in a good mood when the other wasn't. We have both needed reminding that this is a pilgrimage and such things will have to be offered to Christ.Brendan and I disagree from time to time on things. Things like where to camp, how far to go, when and where to eat. Both our opinions are just as good as the other usually and we have both had to practice selflessness. Although the weather may be rough or decisions need to be made Christ will never task us with something we are not able to endure with His strength. He has always and will continue without fail to aid us with what we need. We are happy with our pilgrimage thus far and are extremely excited to see what God has in store for us in the upcoming days and kilometres. We both have our own Bibles which we read respectively on our own when we so choose. We have been saying Morning and Night prayers with Brendan's breviary together daily. That has been fantastic. Prayer is amazing!
We would ask you all to keep us in your prayers. Much thanks!
We're headed to bed here now, enjoy the rest of your Wednesday! It’s a fantastic one I assure you. God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 34
June 16, 2008Hello All!
The animal count has gone up some. We saw numerous Emu today, Brendan actually scared the daylights out of two resting under a tree near the road that did not hear him coming until he was right by them, I think they startled him a bit too. It was pretty funny.I've also been asked to explain what a Wombat is. Well... a wombat is only found in Australia. They are a marsupial. They are aprox. 1 meter in length and can weigh up to 77 pounds! They are quite huge. They are herbivore. They look sort of like a pig. They can be brown, grey or black. They borrow in the ground, making considerable sized holes, like ones you make in a snow pile in the winter for a fort. Kids could easily climb down a wombat hole. Pretty intense. We have yet to see a live one as they are typically nocturnal. They are interesting animals.
Anyway now to update you on our status. Last we wrote you was our day off in Ceduna. Well, we are a ways from there now. We currently reside in Port Augusta, which is one the other side of the large peninsula you can see on the map. We have been battered by decent headwinds each day, save one, but the weather itself has been nice for riding in, ie. no rain! Upon leaving Ceduna we had an awesome tailwind. Boy did we fly. Around lunch time we discovered all our tuning efforts of the bikes did not prove perfect. Brendan's entire rear axle came apart! Sometime while tuning up we must have accidently mess around with it or it just took 2000 + kms to come apart. Anyway that was a surprise. Brendan managed to notice before the whole thing blew apart, so we still had all the parts and bearings, etc. At the time, neither of us quite new the problem or how to fix it, but through trial and error Brendan figured it out. It took about an hour in total but he did managed to get everything in working order and it has been working perfectly since. Not 5kms after the fix a spoke blew on my rear cluster side yet again. Not cool! There was a town not far ahead where we stopped for lunch, and having much prior practice at fixing the spokes by now, I had that fixed fast enough. We were on our way again. They sky started to cloud over and get pretty dark, we thought we were in for it, but other than the odd drop here or there we didn't get the rain. Not too long before dark we chanced upon a roadside camp spot and pulled in for the night. Brendan set up the tent as I started cooking supper. By the time we went to bed it was still super windy out and made quite a racket around us, it eventually died over night.
The following morning after a light breakfast we cycled on. Within 20kms we came upon Poochra, a small town. We stopped in at the Roadhouse to grab some meat pies we have taken a craving to. The woman tending the cash was Julie Gill. As we walked in she asked, "Are you the two guys cycling to World Youth Day". That was pretty exciting. She had heard of us through the church. She kindly paid for our pies and gave us some fruit for the ride. Our thanks to go out to Julie.
By lunch we found ourselves in Minnipa. Minnipa is where we were originally going to stay but by trying to catch up on our schedule we were going to go farther. We stopped in at the church regardless, only to find notes everywhere welcoming us and telling us where to find different things. Father John is the parish priest there and he was out of town when we were suppose to arrive but because we were behind schedule he was back. He found us anyway, and treated us to lunch at the Roadhouse, our thanks to him as well. We then set out for Wudinna. It was hard going with the wind and we arrived just at dusk. We met a woman by the name of Mary there who showed us to the house we would be staying. Again we got a nice house to ourselves and food provided. We sure have been taken care of. Father John drove in and took us for supper at the local hotel. Again, our thanks to him. I took the time that evening to clean our camp stove thoroughly. It had been acting up a bit so we got that all fixed up.
The next morning we had another nasty headwind and we had to ride 100kms to Kimba. We made it just as the sun was setting. It was a long, hard day. After stopping at the Roadhouse for a few more meat pies we got directions to the church. Upon arriving we went into the house to find yet another amazing meal set and ready for us. A number of parishioners were coming for "tea" supper. What a wonderful meal it was. We had a good long visit with numerous different people. It was a wonderful sense of community. The following morning was Sunday, we attended Mass celebrated by Father Kevin. Afterwards we had lunch with him, and two other parishioners. A wonderful lunch it was. As we were leaving Father took us around and got some pictures of us at local sites. He may have actually got the opportunity to send them to VEYO. I'm not positive.
The next stop was here, Port Augusta, but we certainly couldn't have made that in one day and we had to start after lunch if we were to make Mass in the morning, so we cycled until dark and once again came upon a roadside parking area with a picnic table. Good enough for us! We didn't set the tent up right away and just got straight to making supper. While eating a man pulled up in a truck and said he own the sheep station just across the road and invited us to stay the night there. Apparently it was suppose to get rather chilly. He was Brian Gill. Turns out Julie Gill from Poochra is his cousins wife. It was neat to find the connection. So we did stay with him. He fed us another supper which was great, we were able to shower and we slept on matresses in the living room beside the wood fire. Much better than the tent that's for sure. He also had a guitar which was disabled with only three strings. We haven't played a guitar in over 2000kms so it still did the trick. So this morning we set out after breakfast. A huge thanks to Brian, aka Goey. We had a great stay.
Today was packed with headwinds again, we had around 90kms to Port Augusta. We did make it, in fairly good time actually. Turns out we did not have a contact for here, news to me, nor did we ask Father Kevin to call ahead, so we were just going to go to the church and see what we could find. 5kms from town our phone rang. Father Paul from here was on the other end offering us a place to stay. Perfect! So we arrived at the church where we are staying tonight. We had a shower and then attended an evening Mass. After Mass Father made us supper. After supper we did manage to find ourselves a guitar! A 12 string actually. It was good to play. Its fairly late now, we are just heading to sleep.
Oh, by getting to Kimba when we did, we have now caught up a day and are only two behind. We were originally going to take a day off here but have decided to cycle on to Port Pririe tomorrow. Another Father Paul is there who has some things arranged for us so we will go there and take our day off then. We have also come to realize that we only have three more weeks until we are in Sydney! Wow. I suppose that is a while, but considering we've been cycling for 4 weeks now, its pretty cool.
Other than that, we have unfortunately missed the wedding celebration of a good friend of both of ours back home, Margaret Bereshford. Our congratulations go out to her and her husband Greg!
Also the Eucharist Congress is now being held in Quebec and many of our fellow Veyo members are taking part in that. We are keeping them in our prayers and pray the entire event us a huge success.That's all for tonight, thank you all again for your prayers and support! God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK!
Day 35
June 17, 2008Hello All!
We are now in Port Pirie. It's fantastic. I'll just update you a little more on some previous stuff. I had forgot to mention, but we met another cyclist! Steve is his name, we met him while riding to Kimba. Like most cyclist he was doing it solo. He had already done some touring in previous years in other areas of Australia. He was very inspiring. A disability has rendered some of his left side weak or unuseable. He was set up much like ourselves, same sort of gear and whatnot. We wish him well on his travels.Anyway here we are in Port Pirie. This morning Father Paul Burke, provided us with breakfast which was awesome and then gave us lunch meat, a loaf of bread, cheese, musli bars. We were set. Awesomely the wind held its course from yesterday, from the North. We are now headed pretty much straight south so it was amazing!
The Flinders Ranges we on our left and the sea far off on the right spaced our by farmland inbetween. It was beautiful. The mountain range is very rounded off and then slopes are very eroded, but very smooth looking. Brendan noted how the range looked like people laying down hidden under a blanket. It was very neat.
At one point coming down a long gradual hill with the tailwind we reached 46.8 kms/h! It was so cool. And because the hill was so long we held that speed for a considerable time. We cycled about 90kms today and did it in 4 hours. It was awesome! We stopped at a roadside stop for lunch and polished off what Fr. Paul gave us.
After cycling around Port Pirie for a bit we found the Cathedral and met up with another Fr. Paul. Fr. Paul has been coordinating tremendous stuff for World Youth Day and for us. He is quite responsible for our being taken care of in this Diocese. We arrived and got some nurishment. I took off to get a hair cut, cuz I needed one bad. We met Kathleen, who is a youth from here going to WYD.
Fr. Paul drove us to Cristalbrook (sp?) where he celebrated Holy Mass. Brendan and I did the readings. It was very nice. There we met Matt and Cameron, husband and wife, and their baby son, Liam. Matt and Cameron both have done NET Ministries, and at some point or another both did NET Canada. They know many good friends of ours from back home. It was so cool! Took us back there. Its a small world. They are both working in Ireland with NET. Matt was kind enough to lend us his guitar for the evening.
After Mass we all went to a parishioners for a BBQ! It was awesome. I certainly cannot remember everyones name, I wish I could, but we met numerous lovely people there. All of which we thank immensly for their prayers and support.
Tomorrow we have a busy day. There is Holy Mass in the morning, or Matt and Cameron are giving a talk on chastity at the local high school. After that Brendan and I are being interviewed by the radio. ABC, the equivalent to CBC back home! So that's pretty awesome! After that we go back to the highschool and give our own talk and at some point in there, there will be the local news as well, so we've got quite the day off. I'm excited to update you about it already. After all that we are actually going to cycle the 20-30kms to Crystalbrook, where we will say there the night before heading on towards Adelaide. What a teriffic pilgrimage this has been so far. Everything is going fantastically. God has provided, that is for sure.
That's about all for now. We are just headed to bed. We wish you all well, hope your summer is going wonderfully. To all those students who have upcoming exams are prayers are with you.
God Bless everyone,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 36
June 18, 2008Hello All once again
Brendan and I are now in Crystal Brook. Today was an awesomely busy day. We woke had a quick breakfast and then went to the local school, St. Marks. Matt and Cameron Fradd were given a talk on chastity to the grade 9's and we thought we'd go along to listen. The talk was extremely good. Matt and Cameron are a very young enthusiastic couple who both have done NET and really know how to appeal to youth. I think the class got the message. Carla, a friend of theirs whom we met also have a very heartfelt witness which was great. Brendan and I actually gave our own little bit as well. I think the students took to it very well. They were listening very intently and we great to talk to.Immediately after the talk Brendan and I had to rush to the ABC radio broadcasting station. ABC is the equivalent to CBC back home so that was pretty new and exciting for us. So we were live on the air, it was great. We spoke for about 10-15 minutes on our pilgrimage and World Youth Day. Our host was great, we really thanked him for his questions. Often when it comes to faith related issues media seems to try and snare you with controversial questions, but he was fantastic and we got to have a good talk. It was great.
After that we headed back to the church house and had a quick snack then headed back to the school to give our own talk to the grade 10's. It was a good one as well. We gave our own little bits and then opened it to questions. While we were there the local news paper talked to us for just a few minutes and the local news station got us as well. So we were briefly on the news tonight as it close, just some clips of us speaking to the class and riding our bikes. It was really good actually. We've recorded it on a DVD here at the house where we are staying, and we will try and have that sent back to VEYO and maybe they can get it on the site. We'll see how it works out.
Once all of that was done we headed back for an awesome lunch with the priests and sisters. It was great. We then took advantage of the last chances we would have to play Matt's guitar and then cycled to Crystal Brook. It was about a 25km ride so not too bad, once again we had a headwind, but we made it. We are staying Mick's house. Mick hosted the BBQ we attended last night with a number of the parishioners. Mick gave us a quick tour of Crystal Brook before it got dark, then we went to his sisters house with her family for supper. It was a wonderful supper, and a great visit with all of them.
We've just come back to Mick's now and Brendan is tuning up his bike as a write you.
Our plan for tomorrow is to ride to Port Wakefield. It is around 100kms. Again the forecast reveals headwinds so it will be slow going, but we'll be alright. Not too worried at all. It will be two days before we are in Adelaide. Likely that will be the next chance I get to email everyone.
Father Paul also took a number of pictures which he'll send to VEYO. That's all for now. A fairly short update, but we are having a blast, have been well taken care off, have had the most wonderful company along the way. Its been a great journey thus far. It has been wonderful to be back in communities, even if they are small. Its good to see the Catholic communities about their work, and we've met a handful of youth who will be coming to World Youth Day.
All the best for now, you are all in our prayers. Thank you for supporting us and all the pilgrims from our Diocese.
God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 39
June 21, 2008
Hello All!
We are now in Adelaide. First, I will get you caught up. So we did ride to Port Wakefield. Boy was it tough. One of the worse headwinds yet! It battered against us the entire day. We left Crystal Brook a little late but not too bad, we rode to where Mick worked and said goodbye to him. Then we set out. Again, the weather was awesome, sunny and bright but the headwind had us struggling. At one point when we had stopped for a break Brendan noted how the grass was practically horizontal! It was wild. Slowly but surely we got the kilometres done. Then sun was setting fast though, we really had to give it our all to pull in the last 30kms, although we haven't ridden over 2500kms not to be able to give 'er at the end of a day. We did arrive in Port Wakefield, right at sundown.We located the church. It was a very beautiful church, very small and old but it terrific shape. By arriving in Port Wakefield we exited the Port Pirie diocese and entered the Adelaide diocese. Unfortunately much of our communication failed with the Port Augusta diocese so most of the parish priests have no idea who we are or what we are doing. We phoned Fr. Jack, the parish priest for Port Wakefield. He did not reside there though and he hadn't heard of us. He was kind enough to allow us to stay on the church lawn. As we were setting up camp and parishioner arrived. Esme was here name. Fr. Jack had contacted her after we had called him and had her come and see that we were taken care off. We then were able to sleep inside the church and use the washroom. We thank Fr. Jack and Esme greatly for their aid. It was good because it did rain that night. Handy to be inside.
Esme arrived in the morning and brought us back to her house where she gave us breakfast and we had a good visit with her. We then set off. It was raining slightly. It continued to do so for the majority of the day. On and off. By midday it had mostly cleared. There was a headwind but only a slight one, we managed just fine. It was a long way to Adelaide, roughly 100kms, we arrived in good time though. Navigating the city proved more difficult. Adelaide is the first real city we have been in since Perth, over a month ago.
The parish we were aiming for was located in an area called Glenelg. Glenelg was at the opposite end of the city. After asking directions from a couple places we met up with Scott, a man cycling home from work. He was kind enough to go out of his way to navigate us through the less used streets across town to a bike path that took us to Glenelg. Our thanks go out to Scott. We had a great visit with him as we rode. We appreciate the time he took out of his evening for us.
We again reached Glenelg just at sundown. We found a bike shop where we bought Brendan a new seat. Somewhere along our journey his seat decided to break, he can't figure out how or when, but it wasn't doing the trick for him and causing some discomfort, so we bought a new seat. He'll have to get used to that now, but its better than a broken one. After that we located the Parish, St. Mary's. We were met at the house by Fr. Anthony. We must thank Fr. Anthony incredibly. He took much time out of his busy schedule to accommodate us on incredibly short notice. We were able to grab a bite to eat and have a shower and get set up in our rooms. Glenelg is a very nice little part of Adelaide. Its got just about everything you need. We went out for supper and a local pizza shop, pretty much just had a pizza with every sort of meat they had on it. It was an awesome pizza.
We slept in this morning, got up had some breakfast. We then had a few hours where we were able to phone home, which was great. I took to letter writing for most of the day and Brendan continued to further contact those ahead in the pilgrimage as to make sure they understood who we are and what we are up to. It seems things are going to go perfectly.We went for a walk around town after, bought some books to read when we get the chance. Then we headed to Holy Mass celebrated by Fr. Bob. Upon entering the church we spotted a young man with a baby. He turned around and wasn't it Matt Fradd. That was terrific. We certainly had not expected to see each other for some time. The Fradd's are flying out of Adelaide back to their home in Ireland tomorrow, so they are staying the night here, and were making sure they got Mass. Turns out Brendan had actually talked to Matt earlier and given him the time for Mass while he was answering the parish phone. Neither of them realized it was the other. Pretty exciting. Brendan altar served and I sat with Matt, Cameron, and Liam. Father introduced Brendan and I to the congregation. The mass was lovely. An awesome turn out. Father Anthony said they will have just as many for the masses tomorrow, so that is nice to hear.
After Mass we said goodbye to the Fradd's and then Father was good enough to take us out for supper. STEAK! and boy was it good! We went to a local steak house, I have never had steak like that, it was awesome. So we had a good visit with Father there.
We've just come back to the house now and are getting ready to sleep and packing up to be ready to leave tomorrow. I have no idea how to spell the name of the place we are headed to tomorrow. They have crazy names in this country. Looks as though it will be about 80kms.
There is another young woman cycling to World Youth Day from Adelaide actually and actually is leaving tomorrow and arriving in the same town. Unfortunately we have been unable to contact her but we would love to meet her. It seems we will have that opportunity tomorrow. Hopefully it all works out. Katherine Burke is her name.
Other than that we are just off to sleep. Again, we cannot thank any off you enough for all your support and sponsorship to us and the rest of the pilgrims. We are most certainly all very grateful for your prayers and generosity. God Bless, and enjoy your Saturday!
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 41
June 23, 2008Hello All!
Not too, too much to update today as we were able to get to a computer within the day. Yesterday we rode from Adelaide to here, Nuriootpa. It was around 80kms. There wasn't much wind at all, we couldn't really tell if it was aiding us or not. About half the day we spent just getting out of the city. Lots of heavy traffic. It wasn't bad though, we didn't have any trouble with motorists.Sometime during the day Brendan's chain broke, not really a big deal, fairly simple to fix. It did take us longer than expected though. We had plenty of time today though, as it was a "short" day. We were not too concerned and were back riding again in due time.
We actually rode by a car that had run out of fuel on the side of the road, we actually have about a liter of petrol on us, but they said it would be alright and that someone was coming to tow them. We were kind of disappointed; it would have made for a great story if we, two cyclists, could have got them to the next petrol station. We are pretty sure we would have too. It’s too bad.
Later on down the road my rear tire wore through. I noticed it time so we were able to save the tube. We whipped out Brendan's handy dandy camp chair and got about fixing it. Took a little while, but again we were in no rush, Brendan got out some food and ate, and we got into a few laugh attacks during the process. It was a good time.
We arrived in Nuriootpa in good time, after just over 5 hours of riding. We stayed at the priest's house here. Father Mark is his name. We had a great visit with Father during the evening, we ordered pizza, it was great, and slept. Katherine Burke, who I've mentioned before is cycling from Adelaide to Sydney as well as a pilgrimage to World Youth Day. She was actually supposed to start yesterday and arrive here the same time as us. Unfortunately she did not get off yesterday and will be leaving today so we haven't got the chance to meet her yet. Brendan has her contact information though, so hopefully we will be talking to her shortly. We are fairly certain our routes are similar but it seems as though we are staying at different places. Hopefully she catches up to us at some point so we can meet her.
Anyway, that's about all for now. We are just having breakfast here and are about to head out.
We'll email again as soon as we get the chance! All the best everyone, keep us in your prayers!<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 43
June 25, 2008Hello All!
We are now safely residing in Mildura. We left Father Mark's in good time, and began cycling to Waikerie. I can't say that really anything eventful went on at all during the ride. The weather was great, we had no troubles at all. We arrived in Waikerie in good time as well and we were just stopped outside the Post Office when a woman came up and asked "Are you the boys from Western Australia?" We were slightly confused, but said that we had come from there. She turned out to be one of our contacts for the area. Her name was Colleen. It was some time after before Colleen discovered we were actually from Canada. She took us to the church where we left our bikes for the night and then drove us to her place. We were met excitedly by her border coli, Foster. We got shown our rooms and showered up. Colleen fed us very well. We spend the rest of the night visiting with her, reading and planning ahead. We had a wonderful time and got well rested. In the morning, after breakfast, Colleen drove us back into town where we got on our bikes and we were on our way.
We headed to Renmark, about 80kms or so. The wind must have been with us, because we were traveling pretty good. We hardly stopped at all. We made one stop at a town roughly halfway. We were going to stop to eat, but most of the shops seemed to be closed. We phoned our contact, Mick, for Renmark. He happened to be driving by the highway just as we called him, so he came into town to say hello and meet us. We had a quick visit with him there, and actually got a few pictures. He had some things he had to get done, and we still had to make our way to Renmark, so we went our separate ways for the time being.
Brendan and I were both feeling strong enough so we didn't really have a lunch at all and just continued on to Renmark. We planned to meet Mick again at the local elementary school. We arrived there around one. Mick was not there yet, but we sat in with the teachers during their lunch break, chatted with them, ate some biscuits and drank some juice. Mick did arrive and the paper as well. We had a quick interview with them as well as had our pictures taken.
Our arrival had been a bit of a surprise to Mick so we hadn't had a place to stay upon our arrival. After some asking around we were welcomed into the home of the Spanish teacher. Carol was her name. She took us to her place after school. Again we were taken care of most amazingly. One of her daughters is still living at home, Claire, so we met her as well.
After getting our stuff in our room and showering we sat down to a great spaghetti supper with Carol and Claire. I think they were quite amazed with how much Brendan can eat. It was rather funny. After supper we played some guitar and watched movies before heading to bed.
This morning we awoke, headed off to the school with Carol after some pictures. We were able to leave the bikes at the school for the night, which was perfect. We said goodbye to the staff members who were there, thanked Carol and were on our way yet again. We planned for our longest day yet, 154kms, and... WE MADE IT!WOW! What a day it was. The wind was very strong, but mostly from our side, it definitely aided us more than it hindered us. It was a long haul. We are both absolutely exhausted and need some sleep. It was a good ride though, no bike troubles and the shoulder of the road was quite wide for most of the trek. We are tired though. We arrived here in Mildura around 5:30pm. We located the church and have met Father Tom.
Father Tom showed us to our room, we were able to get cleaned up. We said evening prayer with him and then he took us to a family's house for supper. Antoinette is one of the daughter’s names; she has been our contact for Mildura so we wanted to meet her. Her father, Mario, her mother, Josephine, her sister Agatha joined us for supper as well as family friend, Jerry. It was a fantastic pasta meal, with lots of bread and butter. We had pie and cream for dessert. It was very, very good. Compliments to the cooks! We had a wonderful visit, tons and tons of laughter. It was an absolute blast.
We have just come back to the house now and are all headed to bed, after catching up on emails and what not. Both Brendan and I are quite tired and need some sleep, so it will be a good sleep tonight. A huge thank you to all those who have taken care of us over the past few days as well as the entire trip.
Brendan and I have only 11 more days of cycling before we reach Sydney at this rate! Wild eh? That is quite exciting for us! Another huge thank you to all of you who have supported us and all of the Peterborough Pilgrims.
Goodnight All, God Bless!
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 44
June 26, 2008Hello All!
Brendan and I are currently safe and sound in Robinvale! Slowly, but surely making our way across the last quarter of this vast continent!
This morning was quite a busy one. We slept in a little bit. Antoinette arranged some media stuff for us. Unfortunately it was quite last minute for her, as she was not expecting us until a day later so although she said it was no problem, I'm sure we gave her a busy morning. The local news came and filmed us and got a little interview from us, we were on the news tonight. Two other local newspapers also got our story.
We stopped at the local bike store to buy a spare tire, as we used ours up when my tire wore out the other day. While we were in the store Brendan's bike took a spill and the rack that holds his front pannier on, broke. The bike store was able to help us out and get it fixed. A big thanks to them. So, after all that in the morning we didn't actually get on the road 'til almost 11am. We have both agreed it’s nicer to start early.
The road seemed to snake its way across the land today. We experienced headwinds, tailwinds, side winds, no winds, just about everything. While on the road we came across a handful of other cyclists. They are doing a charity ride for The Queen Elizabeth Hospital Research Foundation. They were just stopped having lunch and invited us over and were kind enough to give us some lunch as well. We had a great visit with them, and shared stories about our rides. It was an absolute pleasure meeting them. If you are interested in following their story, their site is www.tourdeheart.com.au.
We eventually made our way to Robinvale, without any problems. It was a good ride, somewhere around 80kms. We are currently staying at the church house with Father Bill. We just got back from dinner with him. It was at a local place where a number of the primary school staff we having a dinner to celebrate the end of the semester, so we joined them.
Both Brendan and I are quite tired again tonight, looking forward to a good rest. It seems the schedule is down to 10 days to go until Sydney. It’s amazing really! We've come such a long way. It has been an incredible pilgrimage, and its still got so much left to offer. We've continued to say morning and night prayer, and share our experiences with most anybody we can. It’s wonderful to be able to meet so many priests along the way. Meeting them and staying with them is an awesome way to retain the pilgrimage spirit. It has been a faith building experience without a doubt. Having our faith has made the journey noticeably easier and more enjoyable even when the situation wasn't so glorious. Having Christ, the communities, our friends and family to fall back on is amazing. It is truly amazing to be Catholic. We've traveled across the greater percentage of this continent taken care of and aided joyfully and willingly by so many "spirit filled and fired up" persons. Whether they were Catholic or not, the fellowship and the amazing spiritual benefits that come along with a real pilgrimage cannot be avoided by those you come in contact with. What a beautiful trip it has been.
Tomorrow we plan to cycle yet another 80kms or so to Ballarad. The forecast seems as though it will be in our favour. Only time will tell. Until then, thank you all once again, God Bless you!
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 45
June 27, 2008Hello All
I made a mistake in the last update, I messed up the name of where we were headed. We headed for Balranald and that is where we are now. We took today pretty easy. We woke up this morning and had breakfast with Father Bill. We then went into the church and said morning prayers, and then started cycling. The weather was beautiful today, just gorgeous! Sun shining bright, hardly any breeze at all, just made for a nice day riding. The terrain was pretty much flat the entire day. We rode just under 20kms/h not because we had to, but because we were content to. Our ride was 80kms long today. We arrived here in Balranald just after 1pm.
Along the road we spotted two lambs that had gotten on the wrong side of the fence and we decided to catch them, but by the time we made the decision we were slightly out of our tactical position so it was rather hopeless in the vast space, so we have agreed to not be caught on unawares the next time we come upon a stray sheep! It will be a glorious chase I assure you!
We went to the local primary school where our contact, Cristy, teaches. While there, we met Father Pat, with whom we are staying. Father Pat took us back to his house where we gobbled up much of his food supplies with many thanks before returning to the school to chat with the kids.
It was their sports day, so just at the end of it we sat down for quite some time and answered their never ending questions, it was awesome. They were great, they asked all the right questions, it’s incredible. If they were to get together as a class they likely wouldn't miss a thing if they were asked to plan a trip. It was a joy speaking with them. Afterwards we had a quick visit with Cristy before heading into town to grab a few needed items, then we came back to Father Pat's. Once here we made plans for tomorrow, caught up on emails and read.
We are both extremely exhausted for whatever reason. We will both need an early sleep tonight. We are making for another long day tomorrow, 130kms. If the weather is anything like today we should be alright, it'll be a long ride, but we've got it in us.
So that's about all for now. We are down to 9 days of riding left, there may be one more opportunity to catch up our one last missing day so we might be down to 8 more to ride. It’s so hard to believe. Tomorrow we cross the Hay plains. They are said to be even worse than the Nullabor, but God took care of us there, we have no worries for tomorrow. We should end up in the town of Hay and then have a few more days of mostly flat landscape before venturing across the Blue Mountains. What a tale we are in! We graciously thank the part you have all taken up in this grand story. We are pleased to find you in its pages.
God Bless you all, and Goodnight!
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 46
June 28, 2008Hello All!
Today was quite a day! We biked 130kms from Balranald to Hay. After having breakfast with Fr. Pat we said Morning Prayer in the church and then set out on our way at 8:30am. The terrain was basically flat for the entire ride, but just to even things out we had a horrible headwind the entire day. We didn't arrive in Hay until about 5:50pm and Mass started at 6. It was dark when we arrived. Not ideal. Still, nevertheless, here we are. We did have a few interesting occurrences today.
First we came upon an injured kangaroo alongside the road. It wasn't too big but had clearly been maimed somehow. It didn't seem to be in much distress but it wasn't able to stand. Unfortunately there was nothing we could do, we had to leave it.
It’s a tough stretch of highway for the kangaroos. Both sides are lined with fences to keep the livestock in the farmers’ fields from straying. The fences are merely tensioned wire run along steel posts, the top wire most often being barbed. Unfortunately the fences are just low enough that a kangaroo can bounce over if they have the will to do so, but it is not a safe procedure. There are a number of skeletons or carcasses hanging from the top barbed wire by their leg, snared in the risky leap to their intended destination. Some, of course do manage the great leap, only to have to cross the highway. Those that can navigate the lanes without meeting their peril only come upon yet another fence on the other side. Likely they tripped over the first fence and are not eager to attempt the next one. They are left with few options and none of them are ideal. Either leap the new found fence or decided to brave the highway once again and make a leap from whence they came, or journey along the fence line for great distances in the open in search of a weakness in the barrier that they might be able to overcome its flaw. The result is many a kangaroo discovering its bain.
We startled a massive male kangaroo who was resting along the roadside, likely at a loss of which of the few options to choose. The roo was easily taller than Brendan and I. It was an amazing sight. We are pleased it decided to keep its distance, not all that far mind you. It ran along the fence in the direction we were headed about the same speed we were. Through the pressing fear of us, it hastened its decision and clearly planned to make a leap over the fence. Brendan and I both wanted to call out to it to not bother attempting it with the images of the other tangled animals along the way in our minds. Of course we didn't, because it was a kangaroo, and we resorted to watching. It gave a few practice pumps and then looked back at us once more and then went for it, as we looked on. The big roo certainly did not commit to the move and managed only one leg over, the other catching, sending it thundering to the ground, slowing its impact first with its face. Slightly comical, but both of us feared we would have to go release the hooked leg, and neither Brendan nor myself we eager to approach the large fellow. Luckily for us, a few good kicks from the prisoner forced the barbs to release their capture. The Kangaroo seemed alright, it was on two feet and bounding away well, it followed us only our way for a few minutes in the distance before we lost sight of it. An interesting time it was.
Other than that, the day brought little surprises. Two Emu were spotted far of in a field, and other than the odd bird no wildlife was seen after that. Brendan's crank, or pedal arm, came loose at one point, but that was an easy fix, not stopping us more than a minute or two.
The sunset this evening was something else. It was full of all sorts of shades of red, but interestingly enough, did not limit itself to the western edge of the world. Red was about the horizon in every direction. It was a beautiful sight.
Mass tonight was wonderful, celebrated by the most reverend Bishop Chris. Father Jim, also was there. Afterwards two of the parishioners, who are also going to World Youth Day, took Brendan and I to a place not far away, where the local students who are just back from university were gathering to say hi to everyone. We were able to grab a bite to eat there. Much thanks to them.
We have now come back to Father Jim's and are getting ready to sleep. The day has absolutely exhausted us. We are looking at just over 100kms tomorrow. We pray the wind lets up. Only time will tell. It is late now though, so I should find myself heading to sleep shortly.
Please keep Brendan and I, as well as all the Peterborough Pilgrims ever in your prayers. We need them, and appreciate them greatly. Your aid to us all has not been taken lightly. Our deepest thanks to everyone!Goodnight once more from the Land Down Under!
God Bless, Mary Keep!
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 50
July 2, 2008Hello All
Another friendly update from Brendan and myself. We are currently in West Waylong. Last you would have heard we were in the Star's home just outside of Goolgowi. The following morning Mr. Star, Greg, drove us the 30 some odd kilometres back east along the highway to the point of our break down. There he took a few pictures and then we got on our way. It was extremely windy, but fortunately for us the wind had flipped from the previous days. It wasn't a perfect tailwind but sometimes as the road wound its way through the plains we would catch it at just the right angle that we would really fly for a while. Other than that it aided us more than not, so we were pleased. Now, it seemed Brendan's fix up job at the Star's didn't quite do the trick, and only 5 kms into the days ride we were on the side of the road with the bike belly up trying to get things working right. We had a hard time of it and without the correct tools we could never fix it 100%. For the better part of the morning we were stopping every five kilometres, taking off the crank arms, and trying to fiddle with the fickle piece. It was quite frustrating, but fortunately we were moving along fast enough that we happened to be still making fairly good time.At one point we found ourselves fixing the bike right at the intersection of the Star's road. That had been the third time we had seen that particular intersection on our pilgrimage. While there, Fr. Jim, from Hay, actually was driving to see a fellow priest who was sick in the hospital and noticed us and pulled over to check on us. Really, there wasn't much he could help us with, all we could do was continue to do what we had been doing the entire time. Anyway slowly, but surely we seemed to be getting better at it, the actually piece was definitely looking a little beat up but it seemed to hold for a few more kilometres.
We stopped in a small, small town, which I cannot recall the name of at this moment for lunch and convinently we found some Lock-tight in their General Store. With the aid of some vice grips we borrowed off them, we managed to secure the piece. By the end of the day even the Lock-tight couldn't hold up to the challenge. We were frustrated to say the least. It started to rain on us as well. It was more or less miserable.
Sometime in there Brendan asked me if there was anything else I would rather be doing. Of course, there were many things I would love to have been doing at that time, but I had to honestly answer "no". Both of us, as misserable as it was, were completely content and joyful with the situation. We were frustrated and wet, tired, and sore but joyful none the less. I suppose that's exactly what a pilgrimage is. Always being joyful, not neccessarily enjoying yourself, but being joyful. We were.
Not long after that, a little yellow camper van pulled off the road ahead of us. Turn out to be a wonderful Dutch couple, who were tourning around Australia, and they asked us to join them for a little tea and hot chocolate. We accepted, of course. So we spent a few minutes visiting with them, sharing stories of our adventures and travels. It was a wonderful time. Of course we had to keep going at some point, and so we went on our way. It was a lovely time with them though. We are both quite happy they came along. Our thanks to them.
So we ended up camping last night, about 5kms from Rankin Springs, our destination. That was fine though, because we had no contact for the town so no one was expecting us and there also was no priest in the area. We set up camp at one of the roadside truck parking areas. This was the first time we've had to camp in a while, so we couldn' t complain. It wasn't bad. Quite windy and showered just a little, but the tent repelled the rain well.
This morning we woke ate a fairly rushed breakfast, said morning prayer and headed on our way. We passed right through Rankin Springs and kept flying along the road. Today didn't feel as though there was a tailwind, but there must have been because we were motoring all morning. It was great.
About 40kms in we stopped at a small town, and had an early lunch at their general store. While there Brendan dismatled his bike, hopefully for the last time, and absolutely covered it in Lock-tight. We are now in West Waylong and it hasn't moved. We pray it will hold until Sydney.
Of note, we are now out of the Hay plains and riding amidst the foothills of the Blue Mountains. We had a number of hills today, nothing huge, but hills none the less.
West Waylong is quite a large town, everything you could ask for and you certainly cannot see the other end as soon as you enter it. We got directions to the local Catholic Church where we ended up meeting Fr. Troy. Fr. Troy had no knowledge of our coming or who we are, and we knew that, but he has been most generous to us. Our thanks to him. He is doing tons of preparation for WYD pilgrims himself and he said "I thought something like this would happen sooner or later". So we are sleeping in room in the school just next door. His Mom and Dad, June and Bob, are here for a few days visiting, so we all sat down to dinner to night along with Sister Margaret. June cooked it for us, and both Brendan and I said "excellent" numerous times throughout the meal, if that gives you any idea to its taste. It was perfect.
Now we are just getting ready to sleep. The other Peterborough Pilgrims are currently in the air on their way to Korea, which is pretty exciting. We are most excited to see them! Only 5 more days for us until we reach Syndey! Unbelieveable! Just a few more after that and the others will be arriving at the airport. It seems strange that the cycling is over already, but its already been 45 days of riding! I am most certainly excited to be done, but I wouldn't trade these last few days. We still have quite the adventures ahead of us. Hopefully the wind aids us towards the end, we pray Brendan's bike will hold out, mine as well. We have yet to cross the Blue Mountains themselves. Should make for some great stories.
That's about all for now. I do hope you are all enjoying the updates. I've only heard good reports when I've phoned home. I'm glad. I've had tremendous fun writing them. I thank you all for your patronage and support to World Youth Day and all that goes along with.
Keep us in your prayers!
God Bless,
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 51
July 3, 2008Hello All!
Four days to go! Absolutely wild.
Today's ride was very nice, a beautiful ride altogether. We had breakfast by ourselves this morning. We sure did not want to get up, we were quite comfortable sleeping, but our excitement for the last few days iswesome. We said goodbye to Fr. Troy. He and Bob saw us off. We stopped at the local petrol station where we got our tires topped up. Air doesn't cost anything here, not like home. We like that. We have to utilize that service quite regularly.The wind wasn't all that bad today. You could feel it, but it didn't seem to slow us down so we can't complain. The ride was beautiful as I said before, we are just getting into the foothills of the mountains now. I believe we gained about 400 metres over the course of the day, so it was all a slight upgrade, not that we really noticed. The land clearly gets more rain in this area, fields are green again, although all creeks and streams have no water in them. We still can't really see the mountains. They aren't anything like the Rockies. Still, our road will be getting quite hilly over the next few days.
Our bikes held together wonderfully today, we only stopped for a brief second to tighten a bolt on Brendan's but it was no big deal. All went well. Our big disappointment was lunch, or the lack there of. We planned on getting lunch in a small town on route. The town turned out to be little more than a ghost town. Nothing at all was open, so we had to keep cycling. Brendan was very hungry. Fortunately we still made it to Grenfell by about 2:30pm, so we were moving well. The last 6kms before the town was pretty much all uphill, but that was okay, it got us all that much more prepared for lunch.
Fr. Troy phoned ahead for us and contacted Fr. Alan. Fr. Alan actually met us as we were coming into town, he was just on his way out but noticed us on our bikes and presumed it was the two Canadians. He gave us directions to the house.
First we rode into town and got something to eat then did a little grocery shopping, to be sure we get lunch tomorrow. Then we rode to the house and just sat on the porch for a few hours and talked as we waited for Father. Once he arrived he showed us our rooms and we were able to have a shower. We've just had some supper with him, and are now just emailing back and preparing for tomorrow's ride.
Tomorrow we ride just over 100kms. It will be fairly hilly as we start to venture further towards and into the mountains. We'll be alright though. Where there's and up there's a down. We are looking forward to it. Only four more days left. Its unreal. Feels as though Sydney is within our grasp. Its wonderful.
We were watching the local weather tonight and it seems as though the weather will be nice and sunny at least until Sunday so we are alright for the next couple days anyway. The wind may or may not be in our favour, we'll have to see. I'm sure we'll be alright.
Fr. Nelson, from way back in Coolgardie, actually gave us a call tonight. It was a pleasure to hear from him. He was just checking in on us, seeing on how we are doing. Its been a month or more since we were in his parish. Its great to have all the contacts across the continent and all the support still following us. Anyway it seems that's about all I can think to say about us.
To my understanding the other pilgrims were actually in San Francisco the past while and are only now on their flight to Korea. I'm sure they are having a wonderful time, and I am as sure that they will be exhausted when they finally catch up with us. Should be good. The Korean diocese they are staying in has tons and tons planned for them, not a moment to blink by the sounds of things. It will be a good start to their World Youth Day journey.
Now, it is off to bed for us. The evening is only just getting started and we are both perfectly ready for sleep. Our contact for the next three and final nights does know we are coming, which is fantastic, so we will be well taken care of. The last few days look very promising for some good tales. I will be sure to share them with you all.
God Bless everyone! Thanks once more.
Goodnight!
<>< BRENDAN AND FRANK
Day 52
July 4, 2008Hello All!
Well and interesting day today to say the least! We are currently located in Cowra. We did not plan to stop here, although that is what the Google Map says. We planned to cycled about 100kms or so to Carcoar. We never made it. We only squeezed our a small 55kms today. That's okay though because tomorrow was only going to be a 60+ km day to Bathurst from Carcoar, so we will just add our missed kilometers to that tomorrow. We should still arrive in Bathurst tomorrow night. So why did we only get here today you ask?Well, first of all we left a little late, but that was okay. Fr. Alan got some pictures of us before we left this morning. It was 9am before we left. The weather was beautiful again today, there was quite a nasty headwind though and its getting quite hilly now, still, that those factors didn't prove all that difficult. Only a few kilometers out of town my rear tire popped so we had to fix that. It took way, way too long. For whatever reason, we couldn't get the tire off to replace the tube. We eventually did of course and got things working, but that took a huge chunk of time away and we were running considerably late. Actually, there was a pebble in my tire, shaped like a pyramid. It had gone right through the tire and into the tube, leaving a fair sized hole in each.
Brendan agree wholeheartedly that our difficulties today are only some of the battle strategies Satan has come up with by means of spiritual warfare on this pilgrimage, and a pilgrimage this is. Satan is not to be taken lightly. As sure as you believe in God, you must believe in Satan, and as sure as you believe in angels, you must believe in demons. We are a good target in this particular journey. C.S. Lewis once wrote something along the lines of, humans are silly enough to believe that their physical lives do not interact with their spiritual. And he is quite right. Brendan and I, however, have not forgotten that. Just yesterday I said to Brendan "he's (Satan) got 4 more days to mess around with us before we have completed this pilgrimage, we are in for in. Brendan agreed. Surely we were correct.
Not long after my bike was working again Brendan's went absolutely haywire. His gears were switching, grinding, not finding themselves, just plain not working. On top of that we were facing some mighty good hills and he wasn't able to find correct gears to tackle them with. Slowly but surely we made it to Cowra, and found the bike shop there. It was only open from around 3pm to 5pm. It was about 1pm when we arrived and we still had a long way to go, so we couldn't wait. We found a park and started fixing it ourselves, to no avail. Things just weren't working. We put a new chain on his bike, but even getting that on wasn't working, and its not such a difficult thing, and all and all it became 3pm and still things weren't working. We decided we weren't going to make it to Carcoar and that we would work out things here. We certainly had not given up the fight though.
We went back to the bike store, got the man to give his best at it. We changed the gear cable and the housing and got the gears switching right, so that was all well and good, but when Brendan took it out for a test drive it hadn't improved at all. Turns out the actually piece the rear gears spin on and are attached to, was more or less done in. That piece spins freely backwards, enabling you to pedal backwards with no results, but will catch going forwards, resulting in the wheel moving, this propelling you forward. The piece was not catching any longer and was just spinning in either direction, so Brendan was going absolutely nowhere.
The bike store, did not have any wheels to fit the bike correctly or the amount of gears we have, so we were out of luck there. There was nothing we could do. In the meantime, I had phoned our contact for the diocese and explained the situation. She, Gabrielle, was good enough to help us seek out a place to stay here and so we no reside in the church house, hosted by Fr. Owen. It was actually just up the street from the bike shop, not far at all. Brendan's bike worked on and off, catching sometimes and not others, so we tried to ride here. By the time we made it to the lane way, it was altogether not working. Still we had not given up the fight.
The bike store wouldn't be able to get the parts for 4 or 5 days. We certainly, do not have that amount of time, but we are resourceful young fellows so we got to work. The nearest bike shop is in Bathurst, about 100kms away. Our guide book gives us the numbers of all the bike shops in across our route, so we started to phone them. The first did not have what we needed and the second had gone out of business, and that was all. After some sitting around Bren