Well the whole team is almost here – Rev Mark Bateman who will be driving the awesome Chaplaincy Australia transporter will be joining us on Sunday – however the transporter is here.The team spent yesterday (Thursday) afternoon and night in the transporter, working out the best sleeping arrangements and storage arrangements. The transporter was parked in the yard of Meckering Transport Services who were truly awesome. They allowed us to use their shower and toilet and even the high pressure truck wash facilities to get the bikes and Ray’s van nice and clean again, after the drive over. THANKS to Ian Fortune the General Manager of Meckering Transport Services.
This evening (Friday) we will be spending the evening in two wonderful cabins at the Perth International Tourist Park. The facilities here are great and it will be a good relaxed night together before the big ride. The team went for a “little” ride this afternoon, just to get the legs working and to get any ‘bugs’ out of the system. I must say they looked like an awesome team, all decked out in their Lend Lease cycling gear – A huge thanks to Lend Lease for providing these.
Also in terms of preparation, there are plenty of carbohydrates going into the bodies and this does have some windy side effects!!! We demolished 6 large pizzas this afternoon (between 7 of us) as well a fair bit of coca cola and lemonade. The official weigh in was this morning – they even made Johann (who is only going to drive and manage logistics) weigh in. The weights are here we will compare these to the end of the ride. By the way the weigh in was before the pizzas :-)
Damian – 71.6 Kg
Greg – 73.4 Kg
Rob – 71.6 Kg
Rob – 71.6 Kg
Mitch – 86.8 Kg
Johann – 97.6 Kg
Johann – 97.6 Kg
Dave – 87.6 Kg
Ray – 82.0 Kg
On Friday evening the team spent some time relaxing and of course eating and “carbing-up”. 
Damian also shared the first entry of his journal with the team – this is a journal that he started around 20 weeks ago when he had decided to attempt the Race Across Australia again. It was quite a moving entry that certainly set the scene for what would be commenced the next day. We also got a glimpse of Damian’s Mr Men characters that kept him going last year during the many hours on the road. So here goes some revelations – Mr Cool was our dear departed friend Gerry. Miss Giggle was lovely Mrs Lynn and Miss Sunshine was the name given to Damian’s dear wife Debbie. 
Damian has also found a little model of Miss Sunshine in the supermarket and he will be carrying this in his pocket throughout this year’s attempt. It will be a constant reminder of the real Miss Sunshine who will be waiting for him at the other end.
Ray – 82.0 Kg
On Friday evening the team spent some time relaxing and of course eating and “carbing-up”. 
Damian also shared the first entry of his journal with the team – this is a journal that he started around 20 weeks ago when he had decided to attempt the Race Across Australia again. It was quite a moving entry that certainly set the scene for what would be commenced the next day. We also got a glimpse of Damian’s Mr Men characters that kept him going last year during the many hours on the road. So here goes some revelations – Mr Cool was our dear departed friend Gerry. Miss Giggle was lovely Mrs Lynn and Miss Sunshine was the name given to Damian’s dear wife Debbie. 
Damian has also found a little model of Miss Sunshine in the supermarket and he will be carrying this in his pocket throughout this year’s attempt. It will be a constant reminder of the real Miss Sunshine who will be waiting for him at the other end.The team will leave Perth GPO on Saturday morning at 9.00am Perth time (12 noon Melbourne time). We will by joined by our good friend Mark Eden from Apollo Bikes who will ride with us some of the way out of Perth.
