Day  2:                                   Fish Creek turnoff at Yanakie to Mirboo North (242m)

Distance:                             58.9km

Av speed:                            12.8km/h (including rest breaks)

Total Elevation:                 856m

Calories:                               2403 (per person)

Weather:                             Sunny and warm (17*c)

Having been told by numerous locals the night before that the weather was about to ‘change for the worse’... it was a pleasant surprise to wake to clear skies and the joys of verge’s carbo loading breakfast.

Goodbyes were said and the Blokes were on the road to fend for themselves. The first 90 mins were uneventful, with the exception of Jon becoming acquainted with more Aussie wildlife – 2 wombats and an echidna. Unfortunately, all said wildlife was roadkill. His spirit was lightened when he saw some galahs and was able to shout Alf Stewartisms for the next 10 mins.

Our rest break at Meeniyan was shared with the company of Mary, a lovely retired local walking her pooch who donated $20 and suggested we beware of Loves Lane on the road to Mirboo North. Mary was wiser than we gave her credit for.

Loves Lane is pretty much the opposite of anything affectionate, caring or romantic. Its a big twisting 4km ascent and it has seared into our memories how difficult the next two days will be. It was made even worse for Jon... having dropped his water bottle into the middle of the road, he was outraged when a sheila in a banged up 80s Commodore ran over it with a big cheesy grin!!

We’re currently sitting in the sun at the 1^st Tee Motel at Mirboo North (thanks again Stan!) enjoying the weather and attending to chores. Jon doing the manly things like servicing the bikes and trailers, Chris making the coffee and writing the blog.

Tomorrow night we sleep on the side of a really big hill (possibly snow covered), so you might have to wait 48 hours for more literary genius.... if its cold, wet and snowy, the language may be as blue as us.

Day  1:                                   Wilson’s Prom National Park to Fish Creek turnoff at Yanakie

Distance:                             29.2km

Av speed:                            15.2km/h

Total Elevation:                 187m

Calories:                               1097

Weather:                             Cloudy and cool (11*c)

After 12 months of planning (including a lazy 2105 emails between us), today was d-day.

With the stress of packing behind us, it was an early morning drive down to the official starting line.... the viewing platform about 13km into the Wilson’s Prom National Park. As many of you know, Wilson’s Prom is still recovering from flash flooding back in March and the Prom has been closed beyond the viewing platform. This meant that we weren’t able to hike the 21km to “South Point”.... whilst disappointing, it’s not really a big loss in the scheme of a 4500km bike ride! Having seen many of the region’s finest counsel workers at the Exchange Hotel in Foster (UpUnder 2011’s first watering hole), we can understand why the repair works continue some 5 months later! Poor old Mick can’t even keep his eyes open to drink!!

Starting at the viewing platform had another benefit... a crowd of 20+ kangaroos to bid us farewell. A very surreal and ‘Australian’ experience for the adventure to start.  With Verge and Bruiser playing paparazzi, the standard departure shots were taken and we were away.

By the time we’d warmed up, hijacked a boat and got used to riding mountain bikes with 32kg of trailers behind them... we’d reached our cabin and the day’s riding was done! If a ‘prologue’ is good enough for the professionals, a shorter first stage is good enough for us too!!

Tomorrow we have 60km ahead of us as we ride to Mirboo North and commence our crossing of the Great Dividing Range.... one eye will firmly be turned to bom.gov.au in the hope that snow will not be following us in the next few days!!

Still packing... but managed to find the time to drive down to Wilsons Prom.

Less than 12hours till the Grand Depart... nervous sleep awaits!

Packing... still.

36 hours till rollout... 36 hours of more packing.

Porters are severly underated.

Having spent 4 hours packing, which resulted in a trailer which is 20% overweight, I now appreciate the importance of people willing to lug your crap around for you.

For all those people saying 'well dont take as much stuff', it might help you with perspective if i stated for the record that I have only packed one single pair of pants.... surely the people of Tambo wouldnt appreciate any less. With 24 hours left till we depart for the starting line, the benefit of a long range forecast may be the only hope... with Melbourne's fickle weather it might also lead to hypothermia.

Fortunately today didnt only involve stressing about packing, the morning was spent enjoying a lovely ride around the sights of Melbourne. Kew, Richmond, CBD, Southbank, Port Melbourne and St Kilda were all graced by our presence and we're happy to confirm the Malvern Star's rode a treat... which is lucky given our butts will be glued to them for 4500km.

Until tomorrow,

Chris and Jon

CPR, RICE, DRSABCD'E'... you name an acronym and today we had a crack at it during a fast-tracked first aid course.

Whilst it's pleasing to know we should be able to cope with all manner of ailments that may befall us - snake bite (Aus has 8 of top 10 most venomous snakes), spider bite, jellyfish sting, fractured limbs, broken ribs, impalements, inner ear insects and hypothermia to name a few - its slightly concerning that 9/10 times CPR aint gonna get the job done... unless you're carrying in your back pocked a 3kg $500+ defibrilator shock machine.

Unfortunately, our little BOB Yak Trailers arent that big. But its important for our Aussie fans to note that the apparently the MCG is the safest place in the world to have a heart attack... they're loaded and have a defib and vollie everywhere you're likely to turn; meaning they save people at a rate of 90% plus.

For those wondering what the 'E' stands for in DRSABCD'E'... well that's E for Epirb. When all else fails we're hailing the cavalry.

Tomorrow we'll be taking the Malvern Stars on a tour of Melbourne for a final training/preparation ride... stay tuned for photos.

Cheers

Chris and Jon

After 15 months of planning... it finally comes down to four final days of preparations!

We're happy to report Jon arrived in Melbourne safe and sound, but whingeing about the lack of food and beverages on offer on the 'Had. Within 12 hours he was claiming that jetlag was a myth and people should toughen up. Within 24 hours he was dead to the world and walking around like a zombie!!

Since Jon's arrived we've been busy tricking out our Malvern Stars.... 6 hours and 80 cable ties later the steeds are rocking air horns, Garmin Edge 800s, standard cyclecomputers and Exposure Lights.

Weve also been busy buying up big, compiling all the cycling tools and spares which well need to carry in our trailers, as well as your standard camping and touring attire.

We're up early for a first aid course tomorrow... could be vital with all the creepy crawlers and nasty reptiles which we'll have to fight off!

Cheers

Chris and Jon

22 February 2011

Well a lots happened in the last 45 days!!!
Firstly, we're proud and lucky to announce two critical partners - Malvern Star and Champion Systems!
Malvern Star, the original Aussie icon, will be providing the bikes for UpUnder 2011, so we'll be ridin' it old skool up Australia just
like Hubert Opperman did! Thanks must go to Mauricio and Emma from PacBrands for having faith two crazy kids can make it all the way to
the top. With trusty steeds like the Malvern Star's between our legs we wont let them down!
We've also found a perfect match for our apparel sponsor and give a big thanks and shout out to Chris and Jeremy from Champion Systems
(www.champ-sys.com.au)!! They'll be designing and manufacturing all the apparel which we'll be wearing throughout the ride and we're
pumped to start designing some awesome eye-catching kit! We're about to start designing and will upload the concept sketches when they're
complete.
We've also now announced our 'Champion System's Ride with the Blokes' and invite anyone who's interested in joining us on the road for a few
kms, a few hours or a day or two! Check out the Route section of the webpage to learn when we'll be in your area and send us an email at
upunder2011@hotmail.com to make arrangements for us to meet up on the day.
We're also harnessing the power of the people and can be found on twitter @UpUnder2011. We're such a big deal that Allan Davis (Aus Road
Cyclist - 2010 Commonwealth Gold, 3rd 2010 World Champs) and Ben Swift (Double stage winner and 3rd overall 2011 Tour Down Under) have
already tweeted us some love!
Jon has also made it into his local rag, the Chester Chronicle. Check out the full article in the Media section of the webpage. Stay tuned,
further stories are in the pipelines and we'll let you know when our mugs will next be in the news.
Later alligators (Jon has his fingered crossed there'll be no crocodiles)
Chris and Jon

12 April 2011

Forgive the Blokes for the late update… they’ve been busy… very busy!
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia have made a sizeable donation to the PCFA on and will be a major UpUnder 2011 partner!!! Thanks to all involved!
The Blokes are also proud to announce that Gemini Bicycles have come on board and will be supplying them with the BOB Yak Trailers which they’ll need to lug all their gear
behind them. SRAM have also helped out by providing spare parts and components in case the Blokes find themselves stuck in the outback and miles from a bike shop.
The Blokes have also been blown away by the generosity of the communities they’ll be riding through. Initially hoping for nothing more than a piece of grass to pitch their
tent on, the Blokes have been offered beds, cabins, caravans and huts to help them recover in each evening. Thanks to all involved, check out the places to stay along
the route in the Grass Givers section of the Sponsors page.
The media onslaught has also continued. Jon has been in the paper again, Chris has completed a photo shoot for an upcoming newspaper article and you can listen
to Chris’ recent interview on SEN 1116AM via the link in the Media Section. Stay tuned, the marketing blitz wont be slowing down anytime soon!
Until next time,
Chris and Jon

18 May 2011

Well there’s less than 100 days to go and the Blokes are busy finalising preparations for the departure.
Access to South Point in Wilson’s Promonotary remains closed since the summer flooding but the Blokes have their fingers crossed that a minor miracle may eventuate and the track will be reopened by 30 July. If not, the Blokes will start riding from Tidal River, being the southernmost town in mainland Australia.... so don’t fear their achievement will still be EPIC... just a 21km bushwalk short (which they could always complete upon returning to Melbourne anyway).
We encourage you to check out our Sponsors section and thank everyone for their continued support. If youre ever visiting a town along our route, please consider staying with our sponsors as we thoroughly recommend their customer service and support of our cause!
With so little time till departure, the Blokes are ramping up their training. Chris recently completed the Busselton Half-Ironman and will focus his efforts on riding from hereonin. Jon has come up with the following program to give everyone a bit of an idea about the training distances involved:

As well as riding, the Blokes will also do cross training in the form of swimming, weights and running.

Stay tuned, more updates to come including an exciting UpUnder 2011 promo video!!!

26 May 2011

It's been a busy week over in the UK. Mecca Chester have held a Smurf Night fundraiser to allow Jon to tell the 600 players about Prostate Cancer, going on to
raise £488 for the Prostate Cancer Charity.

Our new lights arrived from ExposureLights and we can quite honestly say we've not seen ANYTHING like them before. They're sturdy, light weight,
waterproof, rechargable, but most of all they're simply the brightest lights we've ever seen - add to this the 6 hour battery life and the blokes
think they're giving themselves the best chance of being safe at night with these. Massive thanks to John Cookson and all the guys at http://www.exposurelights.com/
for their support!
Finally, thank you too to Andrew Arditti who has worked tirelessly and for free to produce new press releases, photo's and audio clips for the news.
The first of his pieces can be seen at http://www.bikeright.co.uk/news-events/Latest-Events/upunder/
Thanks to the guys there at http://www.bikeright.co.uk/ for helping us publicise our event.
BikeRight! have a commitment to make cycling viable, safer and better for everyone  They provide National Standards cycle training,
mountain biking skills tuition, maintenance training and cycling related events and consultancy services.

25 September 2010

Well, in the space of a couple of months we’ve managed to cobble together a route, slick logo and a website.
We’re also proud to announce the support of Dandy’s Top Soil, HWL Ebsworth Lawyers, Garmin, Label Concepts and Visual Response who have pledged
donations and/or assistance.
Over the next couple of months we’ll continue to approach companies interested in partnering with upunder²⁰¹¹. We’ll keep you updated on our progress, if you have
any suggestions or want to jump aboard the fight against prostate cancer, please contact us.
Until next time.
Chris and Jon

4 January 2011

The clock's finally ticked over and there's less than 7 months until upunder²⁰¹¹ rolls off the from the South Point, Victoria.
Over the next couple of months the Blokes will be ramping things up and finalising our all important bike and apparel partners, as well as locking down major
corporate sponsors. if you have any ideas or your company would like to partner with us and help us fight prostate cancer...what are you waiting for?
Hurry up and email us!
Since our last entry, we've locked in Infinit Nutrition and Blackmores as our nutrition sponsors. Thanks guys for your support!! There'll be no excuses for us not
staying fit, healthy and strong!
By the end of January we'll also have rolled out our 'Ride with the Blokes' and 'BBQ with the Blokes' events. If you'd like to attend either of them when we roll
through your town, look out for the press releases we'll be sending out shortly, or, contact us for further information.
As the excitement builds and July 30 draws near, we'll keep you updated with the progress of our plans. If you havent' already done so, please also join our
facebook and twitter accounts as per the links above.
Catchya
Chris and Jon