Monday 26 January 2015

Australia Day Blog

Happy Australia Day!

... and to get you into the mood here's the classic GANGgajang tune "This is Australia" ...



AS I sit here contemplating the coming and going of another Australia Day - this time with a foot in plaster - thoughts of friends and family in far-flung places come to mind. Whether you be in Calgary, Canmore or Comox, Vancouver or Toulouse, Mazomanie or Mexico, Avignon or the United Arab Emirates it would sure be nice to see you here Under Downunder and show you what we're about in our remote outpost in the Land of the Kangaroo.

Six weeks is how long it's been since I ruptured my Achilles tendon. Time passes slowly when you're laid up in the middle of the summer with a cast on and you're under strict instructions not to put any weight on that foot, but I can see the light at the end of the window now. The operation to fix the Achilles didn't happen until nine days after the rupture, so the cast didn't go on until then and it's meant to be on for six weeks. Still, when tomorrow comes around the number of days until the cast comes off will  be in single figures. What a ripper!

To alleviate the boredom of having to have my foot elevated for a good deal of the day, Di indulged my desire for a new flat screen smart TV to replace the old monolithic unit that took up a large amount of our living room. Here's a photo our new source of indoor entertainment, with my foot in the foreground ...

Watching the Australian Open

Yes, that's tennis on the TV. Luckily the Australian Open is on at the moment (we're into the second week) and although I'm not a big tennis fan, watching athletes performing at the top level in just about any sport does tend to suck me in. 

There has also been some entertaining cricket on, but the most entertainment has been provided by cyclists hurtling around the roads around Adelaide and the surrounding hills in the (Santos) Tour Downunder. Unsurprisingly there was no fairytale ending for Cadel Evans. (For non-cycling fans, Evans is the first and, to date, only Aussie to win both - or either - the Tour De France and the World Championships.) However, a young Australian by the name of Rohan Dennis won the race overall thanks to a brilliant attack at the end of stage 3 ...






My favourite for the race was a Tasmanian rider (of course) named Richie Porte, who will lead Team Sky at the Giro d'Italia in May if he maintains form and fitness. The race wasn't quite long enough for him but he almost managed to wrest the top place from Dennis on the hill-top finish of stage 5 with a withering attack. He burned everyone off in his wake but failed to take the overall lead by just two seconds ...




It was the second year in a row that Porte won the Queen stage of the number one race in Australia and he showed clearly that he was once again the best climber.

Today after our friends Kevin and Louise departed Dianne and I entertained ourselves by going to see  Mr Turner ...




... at the State Cinema. Beautiful cinematography and wonderful acting - especially by Timothy Spall in the lead - made for a very enjoyable viewing experience. Di thought it was worth four ½ stars, I'd probably give it four. 

Politics has been exercising me the past couple of days. Heralding Australia Day, as reported here, Bill Shorten made an excellent speech calling on a re-examination of the republican issue in this country. This morning our pathetic Prime Minister Tony Abbott tugged his forelock to our lords and masters in England and named the royal consort Prince Phillip a Knight of Australia. Here's a photo of the worthy gentleman sitting alongside his wife ...

Liz and hubby Sir Prince Phillip

Last year, to great unrest amongst his parliamentary party members specifically and sniggering across the nation generally, our imbecilic Prime Minister unilaterally reintroduced provision for the titles of Knights and Dames. Now this. Where to next? Well, of course Abbott's silliness has also reignited the debate over whether Australia, along with most other former colonies, should finally ditch the Union Jack from our flag. Apparently, our current flag was designed by a fourteen year-old for a competition run by a cigarette company.

Thankfully, random visits from friends have helped alleviate the ennui created by laying about like a sloth so much of the time. Next week I'll get my boot and will be able to hobble about sans crutches. Yippee!


Saturday 3 January 2015

2015: Hopes and Dreams for the Year Ahead

Greetings and Happy New Year 2015! 

My first hope for the year ahead is that the surgical team which performed my Achilles tendon operation on Christmas Eve did as good a job as the folks in this video. Naturally, the second hope is that rehab will go well and I will be back on my feet - literally! - before too much of the year has passed.

Unfortunately, climbing will be on the back burner for most of the year. I had hoped to celebrate my 60th birthday in March by climbing The Last Rites, a stonkingly good route at Mt Rosea in the Grampians. The description of that climb on thecrag.com opens with this line: "Fantastic climbing from start to finish." It is meant to be one of the great mid-grade Grampians classics and perhaps one of the best multi-pitch climbs of its grade in Australia. How can one not be attracted? Here is a photo I found on the Net of a couple of climbers at the first belay, with someone on another climb to the left ...


We actually went to do it several years ago but there was someone already en route, so we climbed the wonderful Heretic, a five-pitch route nearby, instead. The description says, "Climbs don't come any better than this." I'd agree. It's steep all the way and quite varied. Here's a photo of Di abut two-thirds of the way up the first pitch ...


... another of her approaching the first belay ...



... and leading on through ...


But that's all ancient history now. Time to start looking ahead.

I've got a six week period of having to wear a cast and avoid putting any weight on my left foot. That will be followed by a six week period in a boot, which will be gradually adjusted to stretch my Achilles tendon. So I won't be very mobile for about three months.

In light of the situation, we've decided to re-jig the year. We had booked the ferry for a five week climbing trip to Western Victoria - including the aforementioned Grampians and Mt Arapiles - from the beginning of March, then intended to have a long trip to Canada and some of the northwestern states in USA during the middle of the year, with a possible side trip for some hiking with friends in France. Hopes and dreams ...

It is clear that I won't be able to climb for most of the year, so those hopes have been discarded. There's no point in going to the Grampians and Arapiles if you can't climb, and we aren't interested in driving around Canada sight-seeing; we want to be active in the environment, climbing, hiking and cycling.

So as not to lose a significant amount of our fares, the ferry trip has been rearranged for October/November. Springtime at Arapiles doing lots of easy classics to get back in the groove. Sound wonderful. Maybe if things go well enough we might even be able to go to Rosea, but I'm not going to even think about that for the moment. North America has been put on the back burner for another year.

Strenuous hiking - especially up hills - is also likely to be delayed at least well into the second half of the year. A dismal prospect. However, an email from an old friend got us thinking that a long cycling trip could be a possibility. Dianne and I had already started thinking that much of our early physical activity would probably be bike-based, as I should be able to at least pedal on reasonably flat ground once I'm out of the boot. I will probably be able to get on a bike at the gym and start to rehab the muscles in my left leg and foot before I get out of the boot.

After my accident I got an email from my friend Steph Todd. Steph and her partner Peter have signed on for a long, supported ride along the south coast of Western Australia and on through the Nullarbor Plain, on to the coast again in South Australia and finishing in Gawler just outside Adelaide. It's a journey of about 3.400 kilometres and almost all through country that Dianne and I have talked about visiting but have not yet done so. (Dedicated cyclists, Steph and Pete are always off on their bikes doing interesting trips in interesting places.)

Steph wondered if we might be interested in such an undertaking. When we started investigating, we thought it would be just about perfect for our situation. We'd been thinking for a while we'd like to do another long cycle tour but weren't sure how we'd fit it in, especially the training that is required for this sort of event.

Further investigation led us to dream even bigger. We now hope to ride with cycleacrossoz.com all the way from Perth to Melbourne. The total distance will be about 4925 kilometres. Here's an image of our island continent with the route roughly sketched in using Google Maps (the total distance and route shown are not quite accurate as Google Maps will only allow a limited number of points to be entered) ...


... and a close-up of the southern half of the continent (you can zoom click on either of these images to get a better look) ...



Maybe you are interested??? If so, here's a detailed itinerary of the route. You might need to get in quick though. We've paid our deposit, and Collis says that this is proving to be the most popular of their legs in the big loop for 2015.

Di has already started her training so she'll be some way ahead of me when I am able to get back in the saddle. Please wish us luck: we might need it! WI'll keep you posted on how our training is going.

In the meantime, cheers for now ...

Doug