Team are now in Esperance enjoying a well deserved day off havng flown 6 hours from Albany via Bremer Bay & Hopetoun. Thanks to John Lewis & friends for their hospitality at Albany. The first leg was flown in UK-like conditions with a cloudbase of 1000ft not what were were expecting! The second leg was over what is known here as “tiger country”- even from 7000ft there appeared to be few landing opportunities.

John and Keith posing... Hi All , Jim and John had a dawn flight from Augusta to Albany this morning, early take off because the winds get very strong after about 10am. keith stayed in Walpole last night and has linked up with us again today. More soon, Jim. Comment by Rachel (2002-01-28 11:10:43) John & Co. So you’ve really begun. What’s it feel like to fly in Oz?

Three Heroes! The adventure is finally underway. The team set off from Bunbury at dawn. Jim & John are now at Augusta, the very South West tip of Australia. From here we head East but unfortunately a 20kt headwind has stopped play for the day. This is likely to be a feature for the next few days so we are anticipating plenty more early starts. Keith was last heard of heading for Albany which would have been our destination today with kinder winds.

Bunbury and the Leschenault Factory It’s been an eventful few days. Tuesday saw the container unloaded. All its contents, to everyones relief were in one piece, testimony to the hard work put in on that cold day in December when the container was loaded. The quarantine inspection and the inspection and licensing of the Suzuki went smoothly, and soon we were officially in Oz. The trikes, together with Jim and John went straight down to Bunbury with the star man Brendan Watts.

The team travelled to Bunbury yesterday to introduce ourselves to Brendan Watts of SouthWest Microlights. Brendan has been helping us plan the trip whilst we were in the UK & is providing a base prior to our departure. Within 20 minutes of arriving we were upside down downunder in a couple of immaculate Vans RV6’s. Thanks Mark & Brian - top blokes ! On a more down to earth note, the team have purchased supplies for the coming weeks including maps, (43 one mil charts each for the whole country!

Latest news is that we have all arrived in Australia & are enjoying our first beer in our temporary home - a luxury beach front appartment in Rockingham curtesy of Clive Hughes. Bax inform us that the ship with our container has docked & are optomistic for us getting our vehicles on Monday. John Comment by John (2002-01-19 05:12:15) Yep were are in-country & hoping for planes by Tues. Then the fun starts ;-) Its been mostly running round till now which is hard work in 30 deg temps !

Tuesday 15th January 2002I’ve just finished loading the car, and am ready to take the first steps in what is going to prove to be a memorable three and a half months. The skies are clear and the temperature’s hovering just above freezing. Shan’t be feeling this cold for a while.Our fundraising efforts are bearing fruit, with the total donated so far very nearly one thousand pounds. Before I go I’d just like to thank everyone who has helped this cause.

Hi All, Not long to go now, departure wednesday morning. Not much to report really other than the fact that the group are running around trying to get last minute bits and pieces complete. The main reason for this entry being that Steve (cheers mate, just think we saved you a hangover this morning!!) has just finished organising the diary so that we can autoupdate it wherever we may be, so this is just a test.

Hi All, Thanks for the many good will messages we’ve recently received. It’s getting very close to the departure date now and our minds are certainly becoming focused.Our lightweight flying suits from Ozee arrived today and they look absolutely superb and mine fits perfectly, thank-you very much Rob, no doubt we’ll be seen sporting them in many photographs. Since the last diary entry team members have been busy NOT watching world weather forecasts just in case they should worry a little about that precious cargo on the way to Oz, we gather the vessel is keeping to time and should still be there a few days before us.

At 1700 yesterday the 3 of us stood on a cold dark airfield in Hampshire and watched as both planes and the 4WD were driven away loaded into a container. It was the culmination of an extremely long & stressful weekend of hard work and a much, much longer period of preparation. So now, instead of worrying about the shipping deadline, we just have to worry about how well we packed the container.