Woy Woy Bay residents raise $5000 for cerebral palsy
Woy Woy Bay residents Paul Lepora and Susan Douglas have raised nearly $5000 for Cerebral Palsy by riding their motorbikes across Australia in December.
The motorbikes were transported by road to Perth and Mr Lepora and Ms Douglas flew out to collect them on December 16.
In their ride, they covered about 5000km and arrived home on Christmas Eve.
Their route covered Perth to Esperance (780km), Esperance to Madura (750km), Madura to Ceduna (760km), Ceduna to Port Augusta (600km) and then home via Broken Hill.
"We left Perth's King's Park at 5:30am on December 18," Paul recorded in his diary.
He described the first day as "an awesome experience" that included cracking tropical eucalyptus forest, golden rolling hills, semi-outback red sand, stumped gum trees and, eventually waist-high scrub.
"A beautiful land this is; on the way back south down to Esperance the trees came back and the sand went from red to yellow to white.
"Esperance is a paradise. I have never seen such white sand and blue sea."
On day two of their journey Paul and Susan crossed the Nullarbor, stopping half way to make the 1400km crossing a bit more manageable.
Their Nallarbor crossing was described as "500km on a straight road with just two or three petrol stations to break it up" and night two was spent in Madura "a petrol station with a motel".
Day three was marked by battling high cross-winds on the way to Ceduna which caused fuel consumption to go up: "Got to Ceduna this evening with just 12km range left," said Paul.
"But we crossed the Nallarbor and what an experience; it's tough, arid, bleak but stunningly beautiful at the same time, a true unspoilt wilderness; a real privilege to have ahd the opportunity," he said.
On day four, the travelers were still battling wind and low-grade petrol but: "We found a sign saying half way across Australia; cool but a bit worrying. It is still a very long way to go."
Sue and Paul left Port Augusta on day five and travelled up and over the Flinders Ranges.
"We stopped in a lovely little town called Peterborough for breakfast then headed north towards Broken Hill," he said.
Broken Hill went on Paul's bucket list for future trips and day six saw the duo press on through Nyngan, Wilcannia, Cobar and an extra push to Dubbo.
"It is a bit hard to fathom exactly how big this country is and just how unbelievably empty it is.
"What an experience," Paul remarked in his final diary entry before setting out from Dubbo to make it home to the Bays in time for Christmas.
"It was well planned and researched, the bikes were 100 per cent, the weather was fabulous - a truly great crossing.
"The only rain we ended up experiencing the whole journey was when we turned into Kariong," he said.
Further donations may be made at https://tsc-diy.everydayhero.com/au/annie.
Newsletter, 20 Jan 2016
Bob Puffett, Bays Community Group Inc