Blind Courage

After a 30-minute sleep-in in the cool climes of the Southern Highlands township of Moss Vale, the cyclists enjoyed a well-earned although accidental extra bit of rest. Their alarms were set for every day apart from Sunday, so being the day before the big arrival in Sydney, a Sunday ride was in order. They needed to get as close to Sydney as possible so tomorrow’s ride would be a short and relatively easy one, after their 4000km trek across the continent. John woke up to discover that their tandem had a flat front tyre so changing this also slowed their departure.

The best part of the morning was riding two abreast on good country roads with the Wollongong tandem cyclists enjoying a chat. Their pace was pretty reasonable too although they couldn’t keep up with the big Cannondale road tandems on the downhills. Thankfully the police weren’t out that early on a Sunday morning as the boys rolled at 65 and 70 km/h respectively through a 50 zone.

Not long after getting back on the Hume Highway Lorin and John got their fifth puncture. A quick wheel change and they were off again. They then enjoyed a long, long downhill cruising at over 50km/h for 15 to 20 kilometres. Here they again lost the Wollongong tandems. Lorin and John tested their newly-honed downhill aerodynamic position (all tucked in with backsides off the back of the seat, also known as the downhill skier position) and rolled out to a maximum of 84.7 without pedalling at all. Dean and Grant pedalled like mad and only managed 84.5. Close boys but no cigar. Big boys always go faster downhills!

As the boys climbed their first hill after this gorgeous descent Lorin said: “Who turned off the fun?” Mark eventually caught up and they enjoyed the remainder of the ride into Campbelltown where they stopped at Café de Nicholson and Mitch’s diner for a well earned bacon and egg brekky. Beats Maccas any day. The Wollongong tandem cyclists eventually found us ALL in an industrial area off the main road.

From there on they braved the Sydney Sunday morning Anzac day traffic from Campbelltown to Bass Hill Tourist Park. On another down hill the boys on their Cannondale steeds again rolled away from the Wollongong pack who called out: “slow down”, to which John replied: “Braking on a downhill is against my religion.” Grant then chipped in with: “Brakes weren’t an optional extra on these bikes” which gave them all a hearty laugh.

On the way in to town, every motorist bar one was courteous and mindful of the cyclists. One rather ignorant man forgot he had a brake pedal next to his accelerator. He obviously got a new horn for Christmas because he never took his hand off it except to wave it angrily at them after he also found his steering wheel worked and changed lanes.

After four weeks on the road it was nice to go to church and thank God for our safe arrival.

Dinner tonight was a real treat. John Murray, chairman of the Bankstown Sports Club, and board member Alex Fulcher, hosted the Blind Courage crew and families in the carriage room of this massive club. If you haven’t been there before it’s such an experience. It’s what all clubs would aspire to be. The wait staff lead by Linda were speedy, efficient and delightful as they processed our drink requests, meal order, drink requests and more drink requests. Riding 4000km is thirsty work. At John’s request Lorin and Dean gave a short summary of the reasons for the Blind Courage expedition. Alex, being Mr Cycling Australia, and John were both curious to know the reasons for the journey and highlights of the trip. Immediately following the boys presentation John announced that on top of the club’s $3000 donation he would personally donate $1000. Not only that, John placed a call to the 2IC of the police department, a personal friend, and facilitated a police escort for the boys on their final leg of this journey. John Eder was absolutely rapt to catch up with Alex Fulcher and listen to his stories. We all reluctantly took our leave as we had a big day ahead us. Finally, not a big day on the bike, but a fair dinkum short ride at last… 25km.

Stats: Distance 107km 3 hours 23 minutes, average speed 32km/h; max speed 84.5km/h; Grant burnt 1909. Minimum temp 12.2 degrees; max temp 36.3 degrees; uphill climbing 650 metres; maximum altitude 743 metres above sea level. Distance 18.66km of climbing. Average incline 3 per cent; max incline 8 per cent; downhill descending 1286 metres; 51.24km of descending (way too much fun – and it was legal, well, most of it anyway). Total time going downhill 1 hour 10 minutes of descending. Average speed of descending 43.9km/h; average descent 2 per cent; max descent 10 per cent. Hey for those who are following these stats closely, you’ll notice they saved the best til last.

Media release 20.4.10 – for immediate release

Look out Sydney Opera House – here comes Blind Courage!

Blind brothers Lorin and Dean Nicholson are now less than 1000km from the finish line on their epic Perth to Sydney tandem bike ride.  Together with pilot riders John Eder and Grant Williams, the brothers had by this morning (April 20) pedalled 3183km in 123 hours and 32 minutes’ riding time since leaving Perth on Monday, March 29. They have ridden across the Nullarbor through rain, dust, heat, cold, wind and unmentionable liquids coming from sheep and cattle trucks, but nothing has deterred them, day in, day out.

Their quest is threefold: to become the first blind people to ride tandem bikes more than 4000km across Australia; to raise $300,000 for Vision Australia, the country’s largest provider of services to the blind and those with low vision; and to inspire a nation. They don’t only want to inspire other blind people to follow their dreams. These young men wish to inspire all Australians and in the process, change the public perception of what a blind person can actually achieve.

Lorin and Dean Nicholson were born with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic eye condition that left them with just 10 per cent sight. Over the years, their vision has deteriorated to less than 5 per cent, but that hasn’t stopped them from leading productive lives. Both are successful in their careers – Lorin is a professional musician and sought after motivational speaker with his own business, See Sharp (seesharp.com.au) – and Dean is an environmental scientist with one of Australia’s leading surveying, planning and engineering firms, Bowdens Group. Born in Wollongong, raised in Tamworth and now based in Brisbane, both brothers are happily married, each with four children, all of whom have perfect vision. Their pilot riders, John Eder and Grant Williams, are based in Warwick and Brisbane respectively.

“My brother and I consider ourselves very lucky,” Lorin said. “We may not be able to see, but it doesn’t stop us achieving what we set out to do. Sadly, there are 300,000 blind and vision impaired people in Australia today – and of those blind people who want to work, 63 per cent cannot gain employment. This is due largely to the poor public perception of their capabilities. Just because someone uses a white cane or has a guide dog, does not mean they cannot be useful and productive in a work situation.”

Dean agrees, and says he believes people who are blind or vision impaired may make better employees than those with perfect sight. “Someone with low vision is a loyal and dedicated employee and does not take for granted the fact that they have a job. They know only too well how difficult it is to be given a fair go,” Dean said.

Over the past three weeks, these four young men, aged 32 to 41, have crossed some of this country’s roughest terrain, riding six days out of seven and hopping back on their bikes, day after day without complaint. Apart from aching muscles, sore backsides and legs that could do with a decent rest, they are in peak condition and are all lean, mean, bike riding machines. Having left Balranald this morning (Tuesday, April 20), they will ride to Hay today, Narrandera tomorrow, Wagga Wagga Thursday, Canberra Friday, Goulburn by lunchtime Saturday and then on to Mittagong that afternoon. While Sunday is usually a rest day, they will complete a short ride (100km) and position themselves to leave Bass Hill velodrome, in Sydney’s western suburbs, at 6.30am on Monday, April 26, to ride in to the Sydney Opera House by 8am – and into the Australian record books.

This amazing bike adventure would not have been possible without the support of sponsors Clubs Australia, Virgin Blue, Optus, Cannondale Cycles, Bowdens Group, Water & Carbon, KEA Campers and ISP Media.

“The donations so far have not come close to our goal, so it would be fantastic if corporate Australia could show their true blue colours and back us in this venture,” Lorin said. “We have been amazed by people’s generosity in remote outback locations right across Australia. Now we are so close to the finish line, it would be great if our efforts on the bikes were matched by the donation tally to Vision Australia.”

You can also donate by phoning the Vision Australia hotline on 1300 84 74 66.

 Release created 20.4.10 for Blind Courage by Anna Rose Media Solutions 

 For further information or to arrange an interview or media opportunity with the cyclists, phone Anna Rose on 0409 514 933. 

Saturday was another big day. After parting ways temporarily at the airport Friday night, Anna and Jordan headed out to Craigie, to stay with Shirley Peterson – Anna’s adopted sister. Shirley made Anna and Jordan more than welcome in her lovely home.
After catching up on all the latest family news, and having a nice cup of tea, we trudged wearily off to bed about midnight or thereabouts. Now, remember, Perth is three hours behind the eastern states so it was roughly 3am. We’d been up almost 24 hours. No wonder we were yawning!
Lorin, Dean, John, Grant, John and Mitch were met at the airport by their good friend, Martin Olney. The boys stayed with Martin and his wife Thea and their family.
In order to get the 244kg of the boys’ luggage, plus John and Mitch’s bags, they hired a mini van, which was anything but mini! It was monstrous, but it had to be to accommodate all their gear.
John and Mitch met up with Anna and Jordan at the airport again on Saturday morning to return the mini-van – or should that be maxi?
Apparently, it had also been another late night at the Olney residence, with everyone catching up on all the news and discussing the exciting venture ahead.
John, Mitch, Jordan and Anna then caught a cab to KEA Campers. Making conversation with the friendly cabbie, we discovered he had a 31-year-old son with retinitis pigmentosa. His son is a university graduate and extremely successful in his career.
He was quite interested to hear what we were doing and our reasons behind it. Coincidentally, this bloke was a keen cyclist and is now considering buying a tandem to get his son into the sport he’s so keen on. Of course, we told him Cannondale were the best!

After spending some time completing the necessary paperwork, we were shown through the KEA motor homes that would be our new homes on wheels for the next four weeks.
Talk about luxury. There is not one bit of space that’s not accounted for in these compact, luxurious motor homes. They have everything that opens and shuts and you don’t need to take a thing with you – all linen is provided. All you need is your own luggage and toiletries and off you go.
Bridget expertly explained the finer details of each function of the motor home. When we had that “information overload” look on our faces, she smiled and said: “Don’t worry. It’s all written down for you. I’m just showing you this to familiarise yourself with it.”
What a relief. There’s so much to take in about operating such a groovy home on wheels. Thanks so much to KEA Campers for giving the Blind Courage expedition a generous discount on the price of hiring three motor homes for our across Australia adventure.
Next we headed to the Olney residence, and thanks to our trusty inbuilt GPS, we found the place with no trouble. Mitch did take a little diversion, but we think he might have just wanted to have a scenic tour of Perth without us! Then we had to tick off the next box on our list – shopping for groceries. This was quite an adventure and it would be any grocer’s dream to see the eight of us wander in, with Martin and his youngest son Max, and grab a trolley each.
With seven over-loaded push along trolleys and one flat loaded trolley, and a bill of close to $1900, we then had the task of packing our supplies into the motor home. That was fun, finding all the little hidey holes where you could stow stuff!
On our return to the Olneys’ home, we then distributed the groceries between the three motor homes.
Shopping sure takes it out of you. While the men pored over maps on the kitchen table with Martin, Thea cooked tea for the tribe, and Anna and Jordan grabbed a quick snack in the motor home and headed to bed early (about 8pm Perth time). As I said, it was a BIG day…
Lorin had a date at 10.45pm Perth time to discuss the ride with ABC Radio Saturday Night Country’s new host, Felicity Urquhart. They had a great chat and I’m sure Felicity will give us another call along the road to see how the ride is progressing. Thanks to Felicity for her interest in the Blind Courage expedition.

The Blind Courage crew arrived safely in Perth on Friday night. Virgin Blue looked after us like royalty. If you’ve got to fly anywhere, do yourself a favour and fly with these incredibly hospitable people.  More on that later…

This afternoon we will attend the Whitford Lions Club annual fair at MacDonald Park, Padbury, in Perth. We hope to arrive about 1pm and will be there for a couple of hours. The W1 Lions district governor Pamela Baird will welcome the Blind Courage crew to the fair and we hope to spend some time saying hello to those in attendance.

Look for us near the Duncraig Lions Club stand, bay 4 and 5… you won’t miss all the yellow Lions shirts!

The boys will bring along one of the new Cannondale tandem road bikes for everyone to check out. So come along and have a look at this super sleek machines.

Who knows? Lorin might even take out his trusty Cort guitar and play a few tunes  – but he doesn’t come cheap. He will expect a donation or two to Vision Australia. We will have the donation buckets handy. Hope to see you there.