Corey's Cruise for a Cure. 10,000km round Australia

[roswellj]

For me to tell you about this ride I have to tell you a story.
It's not very often that you start a story at the end but I have to with this story. Not at the end of this ride but at the end of someone's ride.

Back in 2010 life was good. I had a great job, my Mum was dating a great guy life was great. Mum got some news that noone was expecting. Mum's new partner's son, Corey, had just been diagnosed with Leukaemia. Him and his girlfriend had just given blood and he was told he needed to get to the hospital now. This act of generosity led to his diagnosis. Another act of generosity would ultimately provide his cure.

His treatment involved countless drugs, invasive painful procedures, weekly blood & platelet transfusions, not to mention nausea hair loss, & living in the Alfred Oncology ward for weeks on end. However, this is a normal routine for cancer patients. Corey was meticulous in his treatment & knowledge of what may lay was well beyond his years, but never once did he say "Why Me!”
A genetic flaw dictated that a stem cell transplant would be his ultimate cure. This was given on the 10th December 2010. Finally Corey was to learn he was cancer free although the home stretch was still a long way to go, but nothing stood in his way.
His courage & determination was a testament to the man he was; an inspiration to friends & a true hero to his parents. Corey had such diverse reactions to the continued treatment and with no immune system, he had to be very conscious of his surrounds, but in early June he fell seriously ill with a lung infection and was admitted The Alfred's Intensive care.
Corey lost his brave battle at 7.15 on the evening of June 30th 2011 aged 24. His death is nothing short of a devastating loss to everyone.

Corey's ride through life had finished but ours had just begun.


The hours, days and weeks after this happened were devastating for all of us. We each did different things to keep our minds off it. Personally I had just got a heap of bike parts that I had bought online so I spent days fiddling with the bike and adding new parts to it. It was somewhere in the hours I was spending in the garage that I thought 'we can either continue down this path or we can create something positive from this'. One of the main things I had in common was Corey was a love of motorbikes. We talked about them every time we caught up. I knew that this would be the only way I could pay tribute to Corey. It was in that moment that 'Corey's Cruise for a Cure' was created although it wasn't called this for some months.

I decided this was it. I am going to ride my motorcycle round Australia and raise money for the Leukaemia foundation. I figured I could raise a couple of grand for a charity and spend some time with the road at the same time. I started telling people about it. Mike, Corey's father, loved the idea and said he would back it up 100% and could he come as well. Of course he could come. My mother wanted to come but couldn't ride, could she take the car? My fiance wanted to come in the car too. Mike then went and bought a bike to ride... the owners he bought it off had a 4 year old nephew battling leukaemia at that time. Through this his sister asked to join us too.
What was originally planned as a ride by myself had quickly spiralled out of control into this huge thing that all of the sudden everyone we knew wanted to be involved.
We had to get approval from the Leukaemia Foundation to fundraise for them which was granted very quickly.
We started fundraising locally and raised our first $1000 by December 2011. From there the numbers and milestones for fundraising tumbled. We hit supermarkets every weekend sitting in chairs rattling tins, we ran trivia nights, raffles, pancake nights, bowls days. If someone came up with an idea my Mum found a way of making it happen. This idea I had had slowly turned into it's own beast. We weren't running it anymore, it was running us. It almost seemed as though it was organising itself and all we had to do was show up. The thousands quickly disappeared and as of today we sit at just under $12,000 raised and we still don't leave on the trip for another week.

[roswellj]

So as our prep continued we thought about the route we would take. I had originally planned to take 4 weeks off work and ride a complete lap of Australia averaging 800km/day.
We decided after lots of planning that this was going to be far too long for some of the inexperienced riders amongst us and I was only going to be able to get 3 weeks off work anyway so we condensed it to a half lap. We would go up the east coast, head west to the centre of Australia then head down through Uluru and back across to home.


The first thing I did was set this map up on google maps and thing 'holy crap thats a long way'. I've done plenty of 1000+km day's on a bike before and we were going to have to average 500km/day but I have never done that many long days back to back before.
We had to set out our plans.
We planned to stay off the major highways and take as many well known 'fun' motorcycle roads as possible. Once we get far enough north we can start to play it by ear. We plan to camp in as many free rest areas as possible and avoid major cities.
It is going to be cold and wet in the southern states but if we are prepared enough we should be fine.

We leave on the 1st of July. The reason why I have set this thread up before we go is I want to give an insight into the preparation and I want to share the reasons why we are doing this ride before we actually do it. Our perceptions on why may actually change once we get on the road and get back.
I plan on updating this thread every day or two while we are away with a couple of photos and a report of the days riding. I haven't done a ride report for a long time so if it is unpolished or boring reading I'm sorry but I can tell you know updating it each night I'm going to be telling it how it is.

[roswellj]

So it comes to the point where I introduce the riders and the crew. We have at least 5 people riding and 6 people will be travelling in cars. The advantage of this is that we don't have to worry about packing light as the people in the cars will have plenty of room for our gear (it also means I can bring a tent I can actually stand up in).
Well lets start with me.

My Name is Rory. I've been riding all my life. My fiance has often said that if I had an addiction it would be motorbikes. I spend half my life either riding, thinking about bikes or browsing ADV for ideas on what the next farkle is going to be. I'm the one that does crazy things. I have a tendency to do stupid things and then think about what I'm doing later.
I'll be riding a Yamaha Tenere xt660z


Mike.

Mike Read is Corey's Father. Mike was a motorcycle rider when he was younger and despite a lenghty period of time out of the saddle he is looking forward to riding his new bike. He is an awesome guy to just hang out with and adds a good calming dynamic to the whole team.

Stu

Stu is an avid motorcyclist who will be joining us in NSW and joining us on our travels through to Carins. He has completed many trips similar to ours and his travel notes and advise have been essential in planning the ride.
Stu will be riding a Triumph Sprint GT 1050

Dave

David will be riding his 2003 Suzuki SV1000 on the cruise. He'll ride from the Seaford starting point to somewhere between Rockhampton and Townsville before returning southbound. Dave's wife Chris will join the cruise for the first two days - in the support vehicles and/or on the back of the SV...weather permitting! Dave is very good value and he'll be a lot of fun when we're camping.

Sue

Sue is my Mum. Sue has worked tirelessly for the last 12 months planning and organising fundraising activities. Without Sue we would have struggled to reach $100 let alone $10,000. Sue will be driving one of the support vehicles that will be driving ahead to each planned stop to set up camp and allow the riders time to recover each night (drink).

Cayla
\
Cayla came into our small group late but what a powerhouse she is. Cayla's younger brother, Aiden, has been fighting (and winning) the battle with Leukaemia and despite having to give up everything to look after her family while her parents are in Melbourne with Aiden, she still manages to be at every fundraising event, every raffle, every tin rattle being the first to help set it up and the last to leave when it's all done. Cayla takes on all the fundraising work we have and then comes back asking for more. Cayla will be travelling the entire route with us in the support vehicles.

[roswellj]

So I'm sitting here, the night before we leave with a mixture of nervousness and excitement.
It's looking as though it will probably rain and possibly hail on us for the first 2 days of the trip. Tomorrow is also the first anniversary of Corey's death so it has been pretty emotional all round.

The bike is prepared, chain lubed, oil changed, geared up and ready to go. It's going to be a massive adventure for me.

As far as the fundraising goes we've raised over $15,000 now which was a psychological target I had set myself so I can now focus on enjoying the ride knowing I've already achieved the hard part.

Wish us luck! I'll be trying to update every night or two with some pics of our progress so far.

Heres a few pics I took of the bike outside work today while I was bored. I have had the bike set up out the front with balloons and a poster asking people to come into the store to donate. To my surprise it actually worked.






I have, however, had one minor hiccup. Today when leaving work I got the bike off the edge of the gutter then stalled it on full lock while I was still moving which made the bike spit me off. Was barely moving but still hurt my pride. Luckily noone was there to witness it but when I lifted the bike I seem to have pulled a muscle in my shoulder. Hopefully it's just tweaked so it doesn't interfere with my riding.

[roswellj]

So whilst today was not officially the first day we did have to do a 200km spurt down the highway to Melbourne for the official start line tomorrow. It was cold and wet but it beat the hell outta working. Nothing much to say about today. Guy in a cage tried to kill me then tried to kill mike in front of me but we survived.
We did get a write up in the local paper today too.
http://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/...e/2608596.aspx

[ADV SAARI]

Great cause...safe travels!

[The Nailer]

Well done Rory & your team to get to $15,000 . Great way to honor a mate! and a great cause.

[roswellj]

Sorry I haven't been updating as I go. The days have been very long so I'm wanting to go to sleep as soon as I get to each destination. Have lots of stories of the road rain injury and a hell of a good time to share though so as soon as I can ill get on it.

[roswellj]

Well I've now been back for 2 weeks, got offered a new job the day I got home and started pretty much straight away so sorry for not putting this up sooner but here it is.....

[roswellj]

Today was the day before we actually left for the trip. The official start of the trip was in Seaford, Melbourne and we are actually based in Castlemaine, about 170km north of Seaford.
I couldn't sleep the night before today. I tossed and turned all night. I hadn't been this excited in a long time. The last 12 months of work had come down to tomorrow.
I was up and about early, I still had a lot to do. Still had to pack my clothes as I'd been washing the night before. Had to fuel the bike and do a couple of last minute maintenance things. All the boring stuff you know?
Well after all that was done we had decided to meet up at about 1:00pm at my place. Sue, my sister Bron, My fiance Andie and Cayla were all driving down and Mike and myself were riding down.
Sue rocks up with the car and we chuck everything in it and start waiting for Mike. 5-10 mins go by and still no Mike.
"nah sure he is fine"
few more minutes later and he comes round the corner. Says he tried to start the bike and it had a flat battery, he had to pushstart the thing.
We sat around chatting for a bit before we decided to leave.
Mum took off with the car and I waited around for Mike to finish his smoke. He jumped on the bike and sure enough still flat. So after giving him a push and working up a massive sweat (it was the only warm day so far in the winter and here I am pushing a bike in all my gear) we managed to get it started.
From here the next 100km was relatively uneventful. The road to Melbourne is just straight highway. Not a lot to do, not a lot to see. There is a nice 10km twisty section coming out of Castlemaine but after that it's just boring highway roads.
We pulled up at a big service station/McDonalds on the way into Melbourne to stretch the legs, have a smoke and a drink. It was an absolutely perfect day.... now.



Mike looking happy to be on the road



Bron enjoying a coffee



Andie and I soaking up the sun



From here it was an easy 70km to Seaford... or so we thought.

As we got into Melbourne the skies started to get darker. I could see in the distance that rain was coming down hard. We turned off the Highway and onto a second highway and all of the sudden the heavens opened up. It was that really drenching rain and worst of all it was COLD. My heated grips were doing nothing to stop the cold. I thought of mike who didn't have heated grips or handguards thinking how cold he must be.
It was on this highway that a car decided suddenly that it wanted to kill me. It tried to merge into me but without indicating and very quickly. I managed to swerve and get on the horn at the same time, I didn't realise however that another motorcyclist had come up beside me. Sue said later that it was only due to the other motorcyclists reaction time that I didn't go straight into him even though I only just moved into the other lane. He was a nice guy, talked to him at the next lights, said it was all I could do to move over, there was nowhere else I could have gone. After this we took it pretty easy the rest of the way.

The last 10 km or so the rain eased up a lot. It was still very overcast though.



We arrived at Rhonda, Stu and Rachel's place and set about rearranging the cars to fit Rhonda's stuff in as she would be travelling right around with us. Stu would be meeting us in Alice Springs and Rachel would be organising our home coming.
Today wasn't just the day before we left. It was also a year ago today that Corey passed away. Rhonda and Rachel had organised for us all to go down to the river and release some lanterns. It was a chance for all of us to remember Corey and reflect on the last 12 months as we all watched them float slowly down the river.
For me personally it was a very calming experience. It reminded me exactly why we were doing this. Something I would need reminding of many times in the next three weeks.







After this it was time for Dinner at the local club, then back home for a sleep in the last real bed for a while before the big adventure tomorrow. Early night for all... maybe.

[roswellj]

Day 1.
Seaford- Holbrook 419km

Day 1 was an early start. I had gone to bed at about 8pm the night before. When I got up I quickly realised I must have been alone on that one. There were about 6 empty wine bottles in the kitchen that were full when I went to bed.
Thankfully everyone was up and about and looking not too hung over. The plan was to meet just around the corner at the local sports reserve.
Packed up and ready to go



We were meeting up with Dave and Chris, Scott and Helen and Dave's brother (whose name I have forgotten).
Dave and his brother had already arrived when I got there. Mike wasn't far behind me

Snapped as Mike was riding in


This was taken of all of us together just before we left. From left to right: Andie, Bron, Cayla, Sue, Chris, Myself, Helen, Scott, Dave, Dave's brother and Mike.



It was cold and looking like it was about to rain so we decided to take off, everyone had already arrived so we didn't need to wait for anyone.
I jumped on my bike, started her up and went to take off when my foot slipped. Somehow I managed to stay upright after swerving all over the carpark a bit. I remember Dave shouting "I'm either staying behind you or well in front". Great. 10metres into the trip and I'm already the clumsy one.
Finally we were off!





Finally being on the road was awesome. On the way out I was riding behind the support car that had our signage on it. It was actually quite emotional looking back behind me and seeing the line of bikes and cars that were following us out on the first day.
We decided not to go straight up the guts on the highway as that was far too boring. Instead we would go via Yea and meet up with the freeway at Benalla. The road to Yarra Glen was slow. Lots of traffic. By the time we got there we all needed a coffee so we hopped off the bikes for a while to get some caffeine.
Scott was only able to come for the first day with us. He met Corey while he was having treatment. Unfortunately Scott was not too well that week so he had to leave his beautiful Ducati Monster at home and take the car... we would get to see the monster later in the trip though.



My Aunt and Uncle Trish and Phil had also made the Journey to Yarra Glen with us. Unfortunately they had commitments in Melbourne that afternoon so that was as far as they came but they did meet us at the other end for the final part of the Journey.



There was a nice little park where we pulled up to rest.



Then it was time to hit the road.



Next stop was the town of Yea. It was a fantastic ride. The road sweeps through the forrest with lots of high speed sweeping corners. There was a lot of traffic though so lots of overtaking.
We pulled up at yea as the rain started. It was about lunch time and the girls did a great job at getting some lunch and coffee organised for us on the bikes.
I realised at this point that I had ridden this whole time without any music. I know people debate about whether to ride with headphones or not. For me music is a highly emotive thing. I will listen to a different record depending on the weather, my mood etc. Since I've been back I have listened to songs that have taken me straight back to being on the bike and it always makes me smile.
Us Gearing up to get back out on the road.



As we left Yea it started raining. We decided after a little while that we should go straight to Euroa as it was the quickest way to the freeway and if it kept like this we wanted to get as far north as quickly as possible.
The road to Euroa is a very twisty road and for a few km there are very tight corners with lots of leaf litter and moss on the road. Add this to the rain and it was actually quite dangerous. Even going around corners very slowly my back tyre was trying to step out. At least twice I thought I had lost it. Dave was behind me and with Chris riding pillion he was feeling it just as bad.Thankfully we made it through and soon we were on the highway blasting out way up to Holbrook.
Once we were on the highway we just but our heads down and blasted on through. We got to Holbrook by about 4pm and quickly found where we were staying. A local couple from the Rotary club had offered to put us up for the night. Kerry had contacted me a few months earlier offering us her shed to sleep in. We quickly took her up on that. Our first challenge when we got there was getting up her driveway. The past few days rain had turned it into a mud pit. I got up fine on the Tenere but Mike and Dave both struggled on their road bikes. At one point dave went clean off the driveway and onto the grass, somehow he stayed upright and managed to get back onto the driveway. By the time they got up they were wet, sweaty and covered in mud.
Kerry had everything sorted though. She had coffees ready for us, dinner was on the go and they had created a massive fire. We quickly learnt that standing by the fire was a great way of drying our bike gear.
They had invented a new pool game called rabbit pool. Basically try not to hit the rabbit or you give your opponent two shots.



This is Kerry. Did I mention it was her birthday too? We gave her a T-Shirt and a bottle of Red to say thank you for putting us up. It would have been miserable in tents tonight.



The fire was enormous



Mike found an old golf club he turned into a glove dryer



Dave stood a bit too close to the fire in his brand new waterproof pants.



I told him it would have been cheaper to just buy arseless chaps in the first place.

The spread they put on was amazing







Sleeping in a dry shed was luxury tonight!



We had a late night after too much booze. Early start tomorrow, we have a long day.