ride4acure

Coolah Rodeo Grounds made an excellent camp after the 55km ride from Premer on a very chilly day .  We three crew made an executive decision it was way too cold to strip and have a shower so we opted instead to stay close to the fire!  Joe made a ripper campfire and proceeded to cook garlic bread in the coals followed by sausages and potatoes then straight into our swags in the truck.  Coolah is home to the Black Stump which in the 1800’s became a demarcation line for land thus the term ‘Beyond the Black Stump’.

Hotondo Homes Kempsey have offered to pay $10 into the Hannah Rose Melanoma Research Fund each time we take a photo of the ‘Hugo’ the Hotondo Mascot  bear, and Hotondo Australia Head Office will match it dollar for dollar.  So Joe and I took photos of Hugo at the golden guitar in Tamworth and also on the Bicentennial National Trail crossing the Great Dividing Range, then also at Coolah on the Black Stump. Hugo travels in the front of the truck with Joe and I and he’s become a real part of the ride4acure Crew.  Hugo took a dive off the Black Stump the other day and both Joe and I realised he’d become a fixture with the ride4acure crew when we found ourselves talking to him and making sure he was ok!

After the Premer to Coolah Esther rode 80kms to Gulgong in the freezing cold arriving in Gulgong about 5.30pm.  We camped at the rodeo grounds and a friend I’d met in Sydney at a Cancer Council MP Liaison Training last year Lloyd Coleman and his friend Margie (a school teacher who knew both my brother Joe Luxford and his wife Trish when they lived in Mudgee in the 80’s),  generously came and picked us up and took us out for a counter meal at a local hotel. Lloyd works at Ulan mine just out of Mudgee, a mine my brother Joe had a lot to do with back in the 80’s.   My sister Kate also had a connection with Gulgong having co-owned the ‘Saints and Sinners’ Café in the 80’s.  Esther rode through the main street aptly named ‘Mayne Street’ and  Joe took a few photo’s.

It was hard riding for Esther and Lofty as there was no ‘shoulder’ on the road and very rough rocky ground forcing her to ride on the bitumen from Gulgong out to the 12 Mile Road at Goolma (over 20kms) where she got to ride on dirt for a further 20 odd kms to get to Glenwood where we’re staying with Pip and Norm Smith (SRS Merino Breeders.-soft rolling skin a new breed of merino with less wrinkles than traditional breeds).  It was here at Wellington we came in spring 2010 and the SRS Merino Breeders Ram Sale donated 10% from the sale of the top 8 rams sold on the day to the Hannah Rose Melanoma Research Fund.

Today Sunday 15^th we’re having a catch up day, doing paperwork; sorting photo’s and files etc.  Our truck has been completely repacked, yet again.  It’s amazing how much we don’t need!

I remember at the very beginning of my training I began a post with ‘training day 4…makes 97 seem like a long time!’. Well 14 days have flown by, they have all kind of blurred into one. I am hoping maybe when I get out on the flat time will slow down! The horses have been tracking incredibly. I am surprised everyday with their endurance and durability. Lofty has exceeded my expectations day after day. I have started most of my days on Titan, he just travels along and now after a fortnight on the road has developed a monster lope. He moves slowly but just covers the ground, it is nothing for him to cover 35k’s in just over three hours. Meg is a beaut middle horse, she has a canter that could rock you to sleep. I have had so many people comment on the way my little mare travels, I was loping along a quite dirt road with my music on and both hands in my warm coat pockets on Friday and I stopped and talked to a lady who was blown away with how seamless Meg’s movement was.

Lofty is my afternoon horse, he sets a lope, and can stick to it for 10k’s and pull up barely raising a sweat. On the days where I have underestimated my k’s Lofty has been able to pick up the slack and get me there just on dark.

I have really learnt to listen and trust my horses, the flick of an ear can be the difference between me spotting a B-double 500metres away or knowing they are 100metres away! The first few of the morning fly past and then they get on the radio and are pretty kind to me! They must think I am a little crazy, some of the grain trucks pass me three of four times in a day!

I am feeling fitter and stronger every day, I have had many people ask how the bum is holding up and I am pleased to announce, no pain and its getting smaller!

How many different words to describe cold..well Ez, Joe and I are discovering a whole new vocabulary!  It is freezing…today 8 degrees (friend in France laughed when I said this was freezing…politely told me never to go to France then if I thought this was cold!)

Bbrr how cold is Gulgong?

Esther has ridden from Premer to Coolah yesterday 85kms, then today from Coolah to Gulgong another 85 and done it easily. Her and Titan, Meg and Lofty have found their rythym.. Each horse is now so conservative in the way they canter and walk along (Ez basically walks a k then canters a km and the horses are doing that easily.  We think Lofty has massive potential as an endurance horse.  He is a legend and laps the k’s up so easily.  He is by far the most economical of the three.

Joe the horse holder!

Titan has it in his head that he’s the ‘almighty protector’ of Meg and Lofty and winnies and carries on when they ride away.  This is new behaviour for him.  the horses all look magnificent with very tapered guts now.  All still very sound.  Lucked it with a brilliant farrier in Quirindi now need another for Wellington to reshoe Meg and Titan.  Clarke Horseshoes at Wingham have so very generously sponsored us with all our shoeing needs whilst on the trek.  Michael sourced some tungstan ‘plugs’ that have made an enormous difference to the wear side of the shoes.  At this time though they need reshoeing as the nails are loose, and a couple of plugs have fallen out.  We’ll get it sorted.  Am waitiing on a ‘new’ friend I made in Sydney at a Cancer Council Liason training, to come from Mudgee to pick us up to take us out to dinner! Big day tomorrow off to Wellington, two school visits after lunch and pick up horse feed that both Mitavite and Manuka have dropped for us.  The horses are looking magnificent on their feed regime, a mix of Pro Sport (Mitavite),  Performa Oil and also Manuka Horse Silage and  Manuka mixed cereal chaff.   Esther got Joe to hold Lofty while she grabbed something out of the truck..this is what happened?

Lofty in disguise, Joe has done a job on him!

Esther is going fantastically well with the horses.  Covering the distances easily.  We’re daily meeting fantastic people from all walks of life.  sunday Mothers Day saw us go from Kootingal to Werris Creek 93kms.  We  stayed with Tony and Lyn Windsor whom I met and stayed with last year, real salt of the earth people.    We got a good early start from Werris Creek, Esther was riding out on Meg about 6.45am. I took Lofty and Titan into Quirindi (20kms approx) to meet up with John Dillon a farrier who reshod Lofty beside the race track (we had gallopers doing track work and he was pretty cool about it all.)  John has to be the best set up farrier I’ve ever met.  He hot shod Lofty and was able to grind shoes, weld on rods to the toe of the shoes  drill holes all easily.  I was blown away with his set up.  Also did the best job on Lofty and set him up really nicely.  Lofty had worn his rear shoes out in the first week! We’re using tungstan ‘plugs’ in all the other shoes, somehow his plugs fell out of his hinds.  They’re making a big difference to the wear of the shoes.  Last year on my trek I was having to re-shoe every 10-14 days.

Esther and I have a running joke going about being ‘Bogans’- we have a stash of commentary now that goes, “You know your a Bogan when…” well this definately is a winner with you know your a bogan when your both wearing beanies inside its so cold in Armidale!

You know your a bogan when..

Esther has been perfecting ‘videoing’ techniques.  This comes with a warning to ‘not try this at home’.  We’ve developed a new media term called a ‘LoftyCam’. 

It’s easy to sit around talking of an evening as we’re meeting such great people everywhere.

Joe had a crack at some school work today. I got on with planning, repacking stuff in truck, making phone calls etc.

On day 3 we visited the possibly smallest school we’ll go to en route.  The little Chandler school at Woolomombi 45 kms out of Armidale.  Joe has been doing a great job as the ‘media man’.  He took some fabulous shots from the top of the truck of Esther coming up through the gorge country over the Great Dividing Range.  Note-the truck was stopped at the time!

Joe the media man.

Unity has a whole new meaning to me now.  Yesterday Esther rode 100.2 kms from Justin and Kerry Blanches in East Armidale to the Coxheads on Back Kootingal Road. The three horses went exceptionally well.  So did Esther!  they’re a harmonious team, seamless.   Ez rode Lofty out of Armidale for the first 25kms, he was jumping out of his skin, couldn’t keep his feet still.  I have to say at 6am when she rode out  it was below zero, icy cold, foggy, not the best conditions for riding but  start we must!  Esther covers about 10-12 kms an hour average.  Yesterday she rode for 10 hours. The last 15 kms in the dark but with our wonderful ‘light show’ (2 x flashing lights on roof) she could see and be seen),. It was awesome to catch up with the Coxheads again, I stayed here last year on the pack horse trek. After a week on the road together the ride4acure crew i.e. Esther, Joe and I and our horses are daily working out how we can work together better.

Joe bought me the best mothers day present ever a new pocket knife with the big blade engraved with Happy Mothers Day 2011 love J, E and a pic of a rose….. there is a story behind why I needed a new knife…day 3 saw my knife not be returned to me, however I won’t go into that here now!

Wow, I am actually on the road and doing this thing! The departure on Monday was incredible, thank you to all who attended. Leaving Crescent Head and Leaving ‘home’ and friends and family behind makes me realise the enormity of the task at hand. But, taking one day at a time and putting our best foot (hoof) forwards will make it possible. I must make a small public apology to My INCREDIBLE support crew of Mum (Maura) and Joe for being a little tense for the lead up to departure and days following, this trip will not be ‘all beer and skittles’ and learning how to handle tense, difficult, high stress situations with a smile on my face will be priceless.

May 1st we had the Fundraiser at Crescent Head Tavern was a huge success! Thank you to our donors, buyers, auctioneer Laurie Argue from Kempsey Stock and Land, Joe for Presenting Items and all who attended! $7500 were raised from the Fundraiser and the Departure Monday morning.

May 2nd marked Hannah’s 23rd birthday. Everyday without Hannah leaves a empty space that use to be filled but Birthdays are always tough, standing in the wet yards with my horses at 5.30am finding a quite place to be in the moment and be ‘with’ Han grounded me for the day. Getting to Crescent Head and unloading made everything REAL!! The horses coped exceptionally well and walked across the very narrow footbridge. After a beautiful Blessing from Father Chris ‘The Travellers Prayer’ 23 white doves were released. I thought I was holding myself together reasonably well until that point, but that brought me undone! The newspaper even felt it necessary to state the I was ‘visibly emotional’. The ride out of Cresso on Lofty was terrific passing the Crescent Head School. Riding Meg through town with a police escort was pretty cool, even got to run a red light on horse! Titan finished the day off and got me to Willawarrin just on Dark!

May 3rd was the ride from Willawarrin to Smiths Flat. Lofty began my day and motored along, and Meg took me from Bellbrook after talking to the School to our Destination! Staying with Pete and Maryanne, A Hot shower to end my day was terrific!!

May 4th saw me ride from Smiths Flat to Jeogla, Titan did the first leg of 25k’s and just motored along. Lofty did the long drag up the big hill. and still had enough energy to fidget and wiggle at the other end, I though I was being kind giving him a break and all he did was annoy me!! Lucky I love him! Meg finished my day off getting me safe and sound to Jeogla.

I am stoked with how things are panning out and looking forward to arriving in Armidale tonight!!

Happy Trails! Xx Es

It’s 4 am ,freezing, dark. I’m curled up in my swag typing this on my phone. Have had practically no reception since Bellbrook. Thanks to all the incredible people who made ‘getting on the road possible’. This ride is a massive community effort. Esther and horses have made it over the great dividing range and last night pulled up with the Frizells at Jeogla. Into Armidale today. 3 school visits tomorrow then onto Tamworth Saturday. Passed a group of mountain bikers coming over the ‘goat track’ yesterdayriding from Coffs. Very narrow gorge mountain pass one vehicle width- me praying Esther’s Titan didn’t meet them in the same place. So Narrow with a 100 m drop over a cliff down to the river! Emily the rat travelling well- stress free. Was a little ‘bug eyed’ the first day- dreaming about her ‘old quiet rat-life on the verandah at Sherwood eating, sleeping and playing. Now new rat- stuff happening all day. Will add photos tonight when on computer and more than one bar! Thanks for all the great messages of support.

I’m feeling the razor sharp reality of having 50 hours to go until ‘this boat sails’!

I have a ‘mud map’ in front of me  on a huge poster size peice of paper that has aproximately 100 tasks under 15 different headings  on it with blessedly 90% of those things now have a big fat green line through them!  A few last minute preparations and we’re good to go.

Today Friday the horses are getting reshod, final checking of all equipment lists for horses, humans, dogs and truck.

Clarke Horseshoes have generously donated our shoes and nails again for this trek.  This time we’re trialling tungstan studs in the shoes to help prolong life of horse shoes.  Last year on my trek I was reshoeing the horses each fortnight!  Hopefully this will slow things down a little!

I’m doing two presentations about ride4acure and the trek,  at two local schools Kinchela Primary and also St Joseph’s Primary Kempsey this morning.  Kinchela Public will be following ride4acure and using our trek as part of their cirriculum for Geography and PDHD (physical and human development?) the Principal at Kinchela was Hannah’s teacher for a couple of her earliest years at school and made a deep impression in Hannah’s heart and held ‘best teacher in the whole wide world’ status!

Joe has his final day at school today for the term and is ‘pumped’ about what’s happening and ahead.  His rat Emily is coming and has her name painted on the side of the truck as ‘Emily the Adventurous Rodent’!  My question is what would this big adventure be like from a Rats perspective? Hmm.

“Prior and proper preparation prevents p*ss poor performance” has been a guiding principal for me for many years.  I’ve taken it into my working life, family, horsemanship and most definitely into project planning for each of the three ride4acure ventures.  Every day I prepare myself and methodically work through tasks that need to happen to keep taking us toward the bigger picture.  It’s the small things that add up to be a big things-achieving an awesome outcome relies on the daily focus on small details, often mundane, hard, difficult, sometimes stretching the realms of possibility but relying always on the ‘it will come’ philosophy.  So far so good.  I definitely don’t sweat the ‘small stuff’, things either work out or they don’t…fortunately mostly they do!

I am on the pointy end of the planning and organising for this trek and it’s been a whopper.  I realised this morning that the idea of packing my house up in the next week to put into storage seems like a small thing compared to the other work I’m doing!  (That says it all to those who know about moving house!)

I picked our truck up from Venture Smash Repairs in Kempsey yesterday

Isuzu Makeover Stage 1!

with it’s fantastic ‘makeover’, it’s now  painted pink, white & grey and is off at Mavins Trucks now for a service, then it’s signage at Kempsey Signs where Brian and Brent Stringer have some gobbsmackingly awesome work to do on it that will make it stand out as we travel across the country. Then off to Fosters Southside Tyres for an upgrade, and back to neXgen Engineering for James Findlay to finish off some internal metal work.  It’s all coming together.

I woke up at 3am this morning (not unusual-my mind is a little ‘busy’ at the moment, and I practice a little meditation to slow things down).  I like working very early in the morning so I’m just going with it.  I turned on the ABC radio and the Overnights show was talking about the Nullabor, so I rang up and ended up having a ripper interview straight after the 4am news.

Esther continues to train the horses daily, they (horses & Esther!) are reaching peak fitness, looking fantastic thanks to the wonderful sponsorship we have from Manuka,  Mitavite and Clarke Horseshoes.

Keep your social calender free for Sunday May 1st our Eve of Trek Fundraiser at Crescent Head Tavern 3-6pm where we have live music and an auction. We have some fabulous items for auction including 4 intro flying lessons with Mid Coast Flying, B & B accommodation, $200 car service, Jann Kesby ceramics (local legend and world famous ceramics artist!)  and much much more.  And of course the next day 2nd May 9am departure from Crescent Head Day 1 of 97 days crossing Coast2Coast!

In the USA the first Monday in May is called Melanoma Monday and it just happens to be the day we’re kicking off the coast2coast horse trek 2011! And Hannah’s 23rd Birthday….there is a move to make this International Melanoma Day.  Not sure of the logistics of creating that kind of thing but I second the idea!