Ride Bikes, Not Elephants. An Emotional Start.

On the road, Melbourne to Cairns, solo on my push bike. 4000km to go! I wonder how long it will take?



I'm sitting here in Glenrowan watching the final of Masterchef eating couscous with cashews, pumpkin seeds, spinach and a spicy pepper sauce. Nice! Now that I'm 5 days into the ride I thought I'd write about the last week which has been an emotional time.

Well really it's only been 4 days of riding and I'm just over 250km up the road, only 3750km to go! To understand why it's only been 4 days of riding I'll rewind to Wednesday 18th July. Chantelle and I were lucky enough to hold an event in Federation Square in Melbourne, which is an award winning tourist destination in the city of Melbourne. So we arrived at Fed Square on Wednesday morning and were immediately confronted with our movie on the big screen, it was amazing to see our photographs and video up on the big screen accompanied with music from our great friend Dylan Hammond. 

Lilly up on the big screen in Fed Square

As we were setting up our information stall in the square I received a phone call from my brother who informed me that our grandmother had passed away. So after going from this amazing high, I was now on a bit of a low. I phoned up my Mum who had been with Oma for the last 2 weeks, she told me that her funeral would be on Tuesday 24th down in Geelong. So as lousy as the mornings news was, I held my head high and looked up into the morning sky to bid farewell my beautiful grandmother who has been there for my whole life. I now know she will be with me for my whole ride north, always looking down from the clouds, rest in peace Oma.

It was kind of a blessing that Wednesday was a cold and windy day down in Melbourne as I wasn't really in the mood to talk to tourists. However, we did manage to raise over $300 and lots of interested people stopped by our stall. Thursday was a much better day, the sun was now shining and many friends stopped by to say hello. We also managed to raise another $300.

Jungle Boy up on screen as the sun sets over Melbourne

Chantelle and Stampy at our stall in Fed Square

Ride Bikes, Not Elephants. Schools kids watching the short film

On Friday, Chantelle and I had a day in the city and we had decided to visit Melbourne Zoo and the 7 elephants who live there. One thing I can say that was a positive is that the ticket lady only charged us $20 instead of $52 to enter the zoo. That was where the positives ended. As we walked towards the elephant enclosures, there were many displays of elephant riding, mahouts with bull-hooks and elephant paintings. So we were a bit apprehensive about what Melbourne Zoo is trying to put across. We first saw the elephants in 'The Barn' which is where they are kept while the staff clean up their outdoor enclosures. The indoor enclosure wasn't bad but what really set Chantelle and I off was the fact that the elephant carers are still using the hook to control these elephants. I couldn't really understand why on earth they need to use this method of fear to scare the elephants to move back outside, surely after 150 years they would have developed a more animal friendly method. It actually made me realise how far our journey with the elephants has to go. Here we are fundraising to rescue an elephant controlled by fear in Thailand, and yet there are 7 elephants here in my own country being controlled in an educational zoo via pain and fear. Those poor elephants don't even have any grass to walk on outside in their enclosures, and the rattle of the local tram can be felt through the concrete that we were walking on, so surely the elephants would be feeling that too. After visiting the elephants I was left with a sinking feeling about the plight of the Asian elephant not only in Asia, but worldwide. How can we be treating these majestic animals, who are revered as godly creatures with such disrespect. 

Elephant banner at the Zoo. Mahout with Hook?

Elephant Paintings on display, and No elephants are not artists here.

They are captive elephants in the city

Why promote these activities in the zoo?

Zoo staff with hook.

Just before the elephants are herded back into their outdoor pens, this shutter is closed so tourists cannot see the hook in use.

A lonely elephant in the city

Saturday was however an uplifting day. 
Day 1
I was surrounded by great friends who had all come down to Fed Square to wish me farewell on my 4000km solo bike ride for the Asian elephants. After finally getting everything organised and packed, I set off at 11:30am, my Dad had kindly offered to ride for the first 2 days with me for a bit of company which was really nice. We made good time through the city which was really enjoyable. Riding through the old streets of Melbourne, smelling all the great restaurants and coffee, we had to stop for one coffee ;-)

The first coffee of many I'm sure

After an hour we hit the Craigieburn bike path which guided us safely out of the city, after that we were left with the option of the Hume Highway or an inland route which was 6km longer and didn't really offer as much of a verge on the road, so after climbing up Ridley hill we took to the freeway for a scary hour. After passing the Northern Highway turnoff the traffic was greatly reduced and the road was better too with much less junk on the surface. We rode all the way out to the small town of Kilmore. 82km in 4 hours with an average speed of 20.2km/h. A fairly good start. There were a few people who asked us about the ride along the way, the best was a couple of children who were fascinated with the bike and amazed that I would be riding all that way! I got a massive wave and "BYE" off them. Chantelle and Mum met us at Kilmore caravan park and had booked a cabin for the first night which was really nice, I'm hauling a tent, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, cooking stove and pots and 4kg of food so staying in a cabin in a bed is luxury.


Day 2
Sleep in, why not, I don't have to pack up the tent :-) The Tour de France had also been decided overnight with Britans first winner of the race Bradley Wiggans. Not unsurprising, but a little sad for Cadel Evans who ended up 7th overall. Next year, ooh wait, Olympics soon too... So Dad and I got on the road to Seymour at around 10am. We road on wet roads for the first hour until stopping for coffee at Broadford, another interesting conversation with an older keen road cyclist who promised to follow my progress online. We criss crossed the highway and rode on some beautiful roads with green fields either side and also had our first foray onto dirt roads. Good friends Bernie and Joan waved us down from the side of the road and it was great to catch up with them on the side of Australia's busiest road. We stopped for lunch only 8 minutes before arriving in Seymour. Ha! 
42km in 1hour 50minutes with an average speed of 23km/h giving me a total distance of 124km.

The old stone bridge at Avenal

Day 3
It was my first day riding solo as Mum and Dad headed back down to Geelong to organise a few things for Oma's funeral. It was a cold start but I soon warmed up after climbing up out of Seymour. It was a nice day of riding with only 6km total on the highway. I don't really mind the highway that much, it's just the constant noise of traffic. The back roads are much nicer, I can hear nature, the birds, frogs and other critters as well as feel the nice country air instead of the car fumes. Chantelles toy elephant Stampy had accompanied me for the first few days but had to travel back to Mt Beauty with her so she bought me a new toy elephant called Stompy. She has flowers in her hair like some of the elephants at ENP which was a nice little touch, she will be my travelling companion from now on.
Seymour-Euroa 57.6km in 2 hrs 38min with an average speed of 21.7km/h. I had to cut the days ride short so Chantelle and I could travel to Geelong to attend my Grandfathers birthday and my Grandmothers funeral the next day. Oh best coffee of the trip so far in Euroa.

Stampy getting excited about the sheep

Day 4
Well, what can one say about Maria 'Mitzi' Jurzic, my Grandmother. She was always concerned about others and made sure everyone had everything they needed before even thinking about herself. She enjoyed the outdoors and amazingly at 70 years old climbed Mount Bogong (one of Australia's highest mountains), fell over twice and never complained. Such a strong willed and beautiful soul, I'll never forget her cheeky wink that she would give out only rarely and her beautiful smile when the family was all together when she was truly happy. The funeral service was really beautiful with over 100 people coming to say farewell. One song which was played will always remind me of her is 'A Time For Us' by Andre Rieu. I know she is up there encouraging me to keep riding and striving to make a difference.

Oma when she was around 30 years old

Day 5
Well, as you can imagine it was difficult leaving my Opa and the rest of my family to go off on this silly bike ride, but they are the most encouraging people, always cheering me on which really makes a huge difference when I'm out there on the road by myself (oops sorry with Stompy). So Dad drove us back to Euroa and then he drove up to Glenrowan and started riding back towards me so we could ride the last stretch together. Wouldn't you know it was a stupid head wind all day and I struggled to get up to 20km/h. A little bit frustrating but I'm sure I'll have worse moments along the way, I think I was just feeling a little sad about Oma and struggled to keep the pedals turning over. I caught up with my Uncle and Auntie at Benalla where we had a coffee together (well I don't know if you could call it coffee) before the final slog of 25kg to Glenrowan, the famous town of Ned Kelly the bush ranger (more on him tomorrow). Dad pretty much towed me all the way there which was nice, we got the average speed up to 22.2km/hr for the day. So it was probably the hardest day yet, but nothing really to complain about, hey I even got to stay in a cabin again, for Half Price thanks to the awesome guys at Glenrowan caravan park, Thanks Gary and Jill :-) And It just started raining and Andy just won Master Chef 2012. Yay!!! Euroa - Glenrowan: 70.7km in 3 hours 11 minutes

Total distance: 252.3km
Total ride time: 11 hours 54 minutes.

So, the journey has only just begun. I'm anticipating the whole trip to take around 3-4 months so I'm sure there will be some more interesting stories along the way. I'm heading into Wangaratta tomorrow where it may be possible to see Australia's last circus elephant (retired apparently). I'm hopeful I can visit Saigon the elephant who resides on a property just outside Wang, fingers crossed. Then It's north to Albury and the state of NSW. I hope to see you along the way. only 3750km to go. Woo Hoo!!!