Well today was an emotional day and no mistake.

We started the morning with breakfast at Yamba YHA and a lady came up to us holding a $50 note. She had heard about our ride and wanted to give us a donation.

She also said “Who is Bade Stapleton?”

This is Bade Stapleton:

 

Bade is our ride leader and I took this photo of him this morning at Yamba Public School as the mural behind him couldn’t be more apt (Respect – Earn It. Show It).

The lady at breakfast then continued to tell us that she knew of Bade because she follows him on Facebook for the work that he does supporting children with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

She then held back tears and told us that her son has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Unfortunately Duchenne is a disease that is diagnosed during childhood and sufferers ultimately die from this condition, but this lady just wanted to say thanks for what Bade does.

And so do I. Thank you and Respect Bade!

Once we got on our bikes, and after we visited Yamba Public School to see a playground built following donations from Variety, we followed the main road north and stopped at a beautiful village called Woodburn with a very impressive bridge.

 

We were then treated to rolling hills and a 4km climb (11% in parts) as we made our way to Alstonville for a magnificent lunch with more burger ring sandwiches!!

After a few more hours of riding we arrived in Byron Bay, clocking 135km for the day. A few of us even managed a short 8km ride to loosen the legs to the top of the hill to see the breathtaking views from Byron Bay lighthouse (or was the climb what took my breath? – probably both!)

I’ve met some great people on this ride so far and tomorrow we will say farewell to Vijay, Frenchy and Will, (all pictured above), as well as Patrick, Daniel, Victor, Mohan and Steve (small).  They have all been tremendous companions on the ride and will be sorely missed by the bunch.

This evening I was checking out Strava and noticed a few things. Firstly at the time of writing this blog I am 24th in the world (out of 194,122 riders for distance ridden in April!!)

Secondly you’ll also notice Bade up there in 9th place (Respect again!) and thirdly Christopher Mapp – the founder of the Variety Cycle in 2nd place!!  There will be more about him another day.

In the meantime please don’t forget that the reason why we are doing all of this is to raise funds for very worthwhile causes.

If you have donated, thank you on behalf of everyone we are raising money for, and please feel free to forward a link to my blog to your friends as there is still time to donate:

Link to the donation page for The Variety Club – helping children who are sick, disadvantaged or who have special needs 

Link to the donation page for Vinnies – helping homeless people rebuild their lives. 

Link to the donation page for Chris O’Brien Lifehouse – helping people living with cancer, and funding cancer research 

Thanks again for reading the blog. I hope you find it interesting and I really do appreciate your support.