Day 8
Blackall to Longreach
216km
As we rose for the final day of RideWest 2024, we can’t quite believe that our journey will soon be coming to an end. Today was a day filled with the relief of making it, a little sadness that it is over, but an overwhelming sense of joy that we did it together!
It is hard to beat the sunrise we witnessed as we left Aughathella yesterday, but the glow of oranges and pinks creeping over the horizon this morning, was simply breathtaking. We can’t wait to see the drone footage of our peloton riding alongside the sunrise, courtesy of Dakota our videographer. We look forward to sharing this amazing work once we are back in Brisbane – stay tuned!
At our morning tea stop today we celebrated the beautiful Ella Sendall’s 23rd birthday. Now when Ella first started training for RideWest she didn’t have a pair of ‘cycling sunglasses’ so she used to turn up to training rides with her very fashionable white flower sunglasses – for which she would receive a ribbing. So today on her birthday, as a special treat arranged by her parents, everyone in the support crew and all cyclists were gifted with some replica white flower glasses in honour of her birthday. So as we gathered to sing Happy Birthday and blow out the candles on her cake – all 50 of us revealed our hidden glasses. She laughed, she cried, she was blown away. A delightful surprise from her parents to add to this special day.
Today is also International Pilot’s Day – so it was a real treat to have a fly by this morning from the Chandler family. The light plane looped passed the peloton giving our team a much-needed buzz when they were so tired and pushing so hard to complete on this last day of gruelling cycling under the hot sun.
The next leg was a ‘quick’ 40km into Barcaldine, where we were welcomed into town by the Chandler family. After a quick photo stop at the Tree of Knowledge Memorial and it was then on to the Rob Chandler park for lunch. The Chandler family have been long-time supporters of RideWest and it was special to have Rob Chandler, Mayor of Barcaldine, to welcome us officially to his town and have the family cater a wonderful lunch for us. Our team enjoyed the few moments of bliss, in the shade under the trees, before we got to be a part of a special presentation to the Chandler family. On behalf of the RideWest team, we presented a gift for Ben Chandler who was involved in a serious accident 12 months ago. From RideWest to you Ben – wishing you all the best with your recovery, sending you lots of love.
By 1pm we were back on the road and into the blazing sun. There is barely a cloud in the sky, so our poor cyclists were feeling the sting. And it is a long, slow gradual up hill slog towards Illfracombe – the incentive to push through this leg was just to get to the iconic Wellshot Hotel for a quick 7oz beer. At the Wellshot, we really started to see the crowd build, this year more than ever, with over 70 people gathered. Families, colleagues, friends, neighbours and locals lined the he front porch to welcome our riders on arrival. The celebration, the hugs and the reunions between family members brought happy tears from all those who witnessed it. Just a taste of what was to come upon our final leg into Longreach.
And as our riders hopped on their bikes for one last leg, the last 30km out of a total of 1311km, a party was being set up in the Edkins Memorial Park in Longreach. Local school kids lined the street with their posters. Families gathered and mingled, champagne and beer were put on ice ready to toast the celebratory arrival. The anticipation of the crowd at the park reached a peak as the first spotter vehicle rounded the corner and came down the main street of Longreach, followed by a police escort and then the exciting moment when the big RideWest truck came into sight followed by our 36 cyclists. The elation spilled over as our cyclists realised that they had finally arrived!! Family and friends squeezed all their love into their special people – grateful to have them safely arrive at their destination. Tears flowed, hugs were plentiful and embraces shared.
The pure joy of this moment can not be bottled, but it will remain in our hearts forever, and that is the magic of RideWest.
As we head out tonight to celebrate these achievements with our loved ones and the local community in Longreach, we never lose sight of our objective and why we are all here doing this ride. We are spreading the message that it is important to normalise mental health, we are encouraging conversations, and working on better solutions. We need to continue raising funds to get more support services out to regional and remote areas.
We can’t wait to meet the Royal Flying Doctors Service in the coming months and present a cheque to enable them to continue the invaluable work of providing mental health support to regional Queensland.
Please stay tuned over the next couple of weeks as we continue to update you with more images, videos and of course our final fundraising tally.
Thank you to those back home for following our journey and for your support while our team have been out on the road this week. All your messages of love and support have been shared, and have kept the spirits of our team high – motivated to keep pedalling and get to Longreach!
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