NQ 2 NT Journal Entry
Day 24 D/Day
Adelaide River to Darwin
By: Mark “Sharky” Smoothy
Daily statistics
Road trains sighted: Too many to count.
Distance: 115km’s
Accumulated Distance: 3966 km’s
Average speed: 28.3 kmph
Riding time: 4:03:47
Air Temperature: 36 degrees
Humidity: 82%
Wind direction: North, direct head wind.
Sorry for the delay in getting this out, we actually finished yesterday, Wednesday at around 2pm. Since then we have been busy eating, drinking, celebrating, eating, drinking, making phone calls, eating, drinking, answering emails, eating drinking, attending to media stuff, eating drinking, doing the tourist round of Darwin, and oh by the way, did I mention eating and drinking? Anyway here is an account of our final day, and thank you all for the flood of text messages, phone calls and emails of congratulations. Each message we receive is read out to our select group of four each night. If anyone wishes to contact us please email sharky41@optusnet.com.au or scott@smartdata.com.au
Welcome to my last day report on the NQ to NT charity bike ride. This was it, the final day had arrived. I had dreamed of this day since the first day we left Brisbane 23 long days ago. 4000 kilometres seems an insurmountable distance, and it is if thought of in one large chunk. But each day we were just going for a ride, and then the next day we were going for another ride and so on, one day at a time.
We allowed ourselves a sleep in this morning until 7am. Our planned roll out time of 9am came and went and we finally pushed off for the last time to the cow bells rung by Kevvy at 9:35. We had told Tony Munn in Darwin that we would arrive between one and two o’clock. While on the subject of Tony, I was a little delirious when writing last night’s journal, and I actually wrote that Tony was in Cairns and that he was with the Frontier Motel. The Frontier Motel has a Bottlemart outlet connected to the Motel, and Tony is General Manager of Liquor Marketing Group for the Northern Territory, who runs the Bottlemart brand of stores.
So being the last day of the ride we made the mistake of letting our guard down a little, thinking because it was only a 115km day that it was going to be an easy stroll into Darwin. Well how wrong were we. Three things concerning the weather happened today to let us know that if we intended to get into Darwin at the scheduled time, then we were going to have to work our arses off to get there. Humidity finally hit us, and while not bad by Darwinian standards, it was still a shock to Falcon and I when it peaked out at 81%, wind was in our face the entire way and as per usual it was damn hot. How hot? Damn hot I’m telling you! Because we left late there was no luxurious comfort breaks for morning tea or lunch, stops were strictly for water and snacks to eat on the bike only and the occasional call of nature stops. We fell into the same tried and perfected routine of five minute turns out front. We worked well together but it was awfully quiet out there with very little chatter going on. It took a certain amount of concentration to drink, nibble on snacks, hold a straight line, point out objects on the road, keep an eye on the traffic behind and do all this without coming to grief on the final day. The traffic the remaining 30km’s into Darwin was horrendous; we were on the main road -the only road into Darwin- the Stuart Highway, and after 3940 kilometres of only seeing a few handful of vehicles a day, the senses took a beating seeing hundreds of vehicles in such a short space of time. It dawned on us just how big and busy the city of Darwin is.
Tony Munn had worked hard to organise a nice little reception for us as we rolled right through the Bottlemart drive-through to the awaiting small crowd of about 15 people.
For this next section I have asked Kimmy, Kev and Falcon to put their thoughts down on paper as to how it felt to finish and a sum up of the past 16 days.
Kimmy:
On arriving to the outskirts of Darwin I was immediately overwhelmed by the fast and furious pace of the massive amounts of traffic barrelling down each side of the four lane highway. Kevvy and I got in behind Sharky and Falcon for the last 10km’s to protect them from the endless flow of metal beasts. After coming so far, with so little traffic, I was so worried that something might happen in these final few kilometres. With 10km to go we were feeling eager and excited to reach our destination in one piece. Arriving at the Bottlemart Frontier Motel we quickly alighted from ‘The Beast’ that we had come so far in. We wanted to be standing alongside the small but enthusiastic crowd that had assembled for the boy’s arrival. I was feeling extremely happy and proud as I watched them dismount from their dusty steeds; those steeds that had faithfully stuck by them for 16 long hard days. Our journey has now come to an end but the friendships I have formed are only just beginning. Love to all.
Kimster
Cheeky Captain Kev:
It is very hard to describe my feelings at finishing in Darwin this year. Having reached the tip of Cape York last year I realised that I had helped mark achieve the first part of his dream to ride around Australia. At the very tip of North Qld is a pool just large enough to fit four bodies in it, Smoothy, Cam, Shane and myself. This pool was so close to the edge of the ocean that waves would come crashing over and land on our heads. There was none of that in Darwin so it was a completely different finish.
I have been fortunate that Sharky has asked me to look after him on this remarkable journey to raise money and promote awareness to hopefully one day find a cure for cancer.
In Darwin, our Bottlemart host, Tony Munn had arranged some media coverage and a dozen or so of his patrons were outside the Frontier Motel to welcome the riders to Darwin. We enjoyed a couple of glasses of ice water before heading inside to share a couple of celebratory drinks.
When we finally reached the destination all the tough bits both the road crew and the riders had been through seemingly disappeared and were replaced with a feeling of quiet achievement.
We are already planning the next leg from Darwin to Broome.
Kevvy
Scotty Falcon
As I started out riding on the last day of our 24 days I barely had a thought about what it would be like to finish this journey only hours later. It seemed like “just another day”. There is no “just another day” on this journey of course, every day has been so unique and unexpected so I suppose I just expected another day of the unexpected. The day was quite a short day’s ride compared to others so I expected we would just roll into Darwin easily and then celebrate but as it turned out that wasn’t the case, it was another unexpected day... We knew we would have humidity for the first time since Innisfail - I actually had sweat dripping from me, reminding me of summer rides back home. We had a head wind all day too. But the biggest shock was reaching traffic! After so many days of such very quiet roads the sudden appearance of traffic, easily as bad as back home, was a huge surprise.
So I suppose I was a little shell-shocked as we rolled up to the Frontier Hotel (our wonderful Bottlemart hosts) and a crowd of people cheering us in. We stopped, shook hands with all these people, drank cold water for the first time in a long time, and chatted - to these people who seemed very pleased with us. But I wasn’t sure how I felt. We had a couple of media things to do straight after we stopped so we were still busy for a time but then we found ourselves at a table in the bar just letting ourselves relax, having our obligatory beer and chips “to put back what the ride takes out”. I think then it finally hit me that this is the last time we’ll sit down to this daily ritual. Our other daily rituals, like the morning packing of the truck, sorting out the bikes and whatnot won’t be happening either. The daily ritual “find that spot that doesn’t hurt my bottom” in the morning I’m actually happy has ended. Really. But to be honest my feelings are still not clear. I’m full of good feelings – people here have heard what we’re doing from the local media and are being very supportive which is great. We (Smoothy, Kevvy, Kimmy, Shanno, Gordo and I) have shared a unique adventure together, and I feel like the journal readers, my family and friends have been a great part of that too and that’s a great feeling. But now I’m in tourist mode which is so different to “road warrior” mode or whatever that mode was before. To make matters worse, being in tourist mode in Darwin and the NT generally which has such a great relaxed atmosphere it would be easy to think “Let’s just keep this going”. But that’s not to be.
But as usual, the Smiddy adventure finds such wonderfully generous and warm people it’s impossible to feel anything but joy.
Falcon
Sharky
It is hard to explain how I felt when I finished but I will try. Firstly, I was so exhausted that it was pure relief just to stop pushing on those damn pedals.
Secondly, I was suddenly very cold, why was I cold? Was I getting sick again? Was there a sudden cold snap in the space of the last five seconds? Well actually it was none of the above; it was the Cheeky one up to his usual tricks pouring ice cold water over me. I said to Kevvy, “Don’t waste the water!” I had heard him say those exact words to me for the past three weeks only about 52 times.
Thirdly, I heard my bum speak to me in my head and this is what it said; “Smoothy if you ever do anything like that to me again I am retiring and moving to another body”, or something along those lines.
Fourthly, I felt extremely content and proud of what I personally had achieved and what we had accomplished as a group.
Fifthly, I felt a tinge of regret that it was all over, but already my head was ticking over thoughts of next year’s leg to Broome. Apparently there is an awesome 4WD track of 600km’s of dirt that we can throw in along the route through the Kimberley’s!
Sixthly, I was overwhelmed that Kevvy, Kimmy, Shane and Gordon felt strong enough in their friendship to support me in the second stage of my journey to travel around Australia. Having a road crew travel around with you opens up so many awesome opportunities to meet people and experience human nature at its very best. To do it solo, without support, is not my way. For one month of each year I get to hang out with some incredible mates and they get to share a journey and see parts of Australia that they would not have done otherwise.
And last but not least, I thought of all the people out there who had donated, read these journals, sent us messages of support, sponsored us, believed in us and I of course thought of my great mate Adam Smiddy, who was by my side the entire way. I thought of the awesome friendship and working relationship I have with Rowan Foster in putting together the Smiddy ride each year. Bring on 2010 mate and the fifth anniversary of Smiling for Smiddy, and Row don’t we do an awful lot of that...Smiling? To the Smiddy committee in Falcon, Brett, Lesley, Schindler and Liza, I can’t thank you guys enough for what you have done over the past couple of years.
I thought of the great loses that so many of my friends have suffered this year. The following five mates are all current or past Smiddy riders; I thought of my mate Mick Young losing his father, I thought of my mate John Butz losing his mother during the Smiddy ride this year, I thought of my great friend Brendan Camilleri losing two of his mate’s in the space of a year, I thought of another awesome friend Brenton Cope losing his mate this year, I thought of Leonie Bradford losing both parents this year, I of course, think of Maria and David Smiddy every single day, I thought of Louis Russell losing his friend this year, I thought of my great buddies Diane and Lex Frazer, Diane’s Mother is fighting her battle with cancer as we speak, and I thought of my parents Ossie and Daphne Smoothy, both fighting their own battles at this very moment in their bid to stay on this earth as long as possible. Both my parents are not well and I want to publically express my unspeakable love for them, my admiration for bringing up seven children on the one wage and their unwavering love for all of us through good times and bad. I have always said if in my life I can achieve the lofty heights of being half as good as my parents, then I will go to my grave a happy man. Mum and Dad I love you.
All these mates of mine have suffered and will continue to suffer for a long time to come. But they are surrounded by awesome family and friends standing by their side and ready to help at a moment’s notice. If what I do with regards to the Smiddy ride, the extended ride and my journals help to bring a little joy into people’s life then I am on my way to being that half a person I spoke of before. The Smiddy Challenge has gone from strength to strength each year and this year was no different. Our goal to raise over a half million dollars looks like becoming a real possibility, and we will be sure to let you all know after the big celebratory dinner to announce the final total in early November. How good does it make YOU feel that this amazing total has happened because of people like you, the readers of these journals, who care enough to donate or to do their bit? No matter how big or small a part you played in this journey, collectively we are all responsible for this amazing Smiddy ride and I for one could not be more proud.
Please follow these links if you wish to donate.
Mark "Sharky" Smoothy and Scott "Falcon" May
I would like to finish with an email I received from Maria Smiddy the other day and I have added an excerpt here. It is how I feel about life and people so it was nice to hear it come from Maria as well.
Although most of us do not know the affect we have on other people, we need to let them know the affect they have on us. So remember to let those around you know how much you love them, admire them, how proud you are of them, what great friends they are or anything else you want to say. Those closest to us know we love them, but we still need to tell them. Maria.
Thank you Maria and beautiful words for sure.
We have had a lot of great feedback about these journals, we really appreciate that no-one has unsubscribed. Scotty tells me that the mail out list has even grown since the Smiddy ride first began this year on September 5th. If you will allow me I will send out one more after this in the next couple of days as a bit of a wrap up on the past 16 days. Maybe I will even tell you the story about our bus driver today as we did the touristy thing around Darwin.
Until then take care everyone.
Sharky.