As many of you know, I recently set off on an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the ‘Fastest time to cycle trans-Australia from Perth to Sydney (male)’. The attempt was raising money and awareness for the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
When I say cycle, I do mean on a bike with no motor, but in this instance I do wish I had paddles. Reason? During the eight days of the scheduled attempt, which started August 29, we had 180mm of rain fall on us with it raining every day. This is despite the weather forecast when we left saying “chance of showers”.
While we pushed through the showers/rain on the first two days, which saw 5 and 9 mm fall respectively, the rain intensified on the third day with a staggering 39.8mm in Eucla. The monthly average for September is half that (21.6mm).
The rain didn’t deter us during the day, although it did make it incredibly difficult to stay dry even with wet weather clothing and multiple clothes changes, which doesn’t help with chafing.
What did cause us problems, and ultimately resulted in the attempt being stopped, was the lack of visibility once it turned night time. As we rolled into Madura in the evening, not only was it raining heavy but it was also foggy. Visibility went down to around just 50 meters.
While I had a much needed food break in Madura, with warm food (I had just cycled about 14 hours in the rain), my support crew met to discuss the situation. While it would have been a tough decision for them to make, it was also a fairly logical one too. The attempt had to be stopped on the grounds of safety; no record was worth someone being injured or killed by a truck that couldn’t see you until it was literally on top of you.
Perhaps tougher, given that I had spent around 1,500 hours of training and planning for the attempt, was the person, my brother, that had to tell me what the crew had decided. I was gutted but knew deep down inside me that it was the right decision.
At about that point I hit the pillow and slept.
Some of the numbers up until that point were:
- Had cycled around 1,250km in a bit over 60 hours
- Had just 3 hours and 11 minutes sleep in total
- Was, before the heavy rain hit, about 6 hours ahead of world record time at the ¼ mark (1,000km)
- Had eaten around 2.5 weeks worth of food, and had still lost around 3kg (not fluid loss)
- Had zero tire punctures
When I woke, the rain was still falling and the realization this attempt had passed sunk in. While I was obviously disappointed (as you can see from my post below) I had to take comfort in the fact that, as farmers know all too well, the weather is the one thing out of our control, and that the attempt had been successful in every other regard.

In terms of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, I had raised some $15,000 and spoken to literally thousands of people about what the RFDS does; I am the fastest person ever to cycle from Perth to the point where I stopped; not only had I stretched my own limits, but those of my crew and many other people touched by the attempt; and I had a once in a life time experience.
At some stage I will need to make the decision as to whether I will attempt the record again. Whilst I would obviously love to, I have to decide whether I can commit another year of my life to training and planning, along with the funds that go with such an attempt. I figure that before I make this decision, I’ll allow my body to recover from this attempt (with the help of Perth Integrated Health Clinic, it looks like it will take around 6 weeks), let the memories of the physical pain of being on a bike for so long subside, and most importantly, get married on the family farm next weekend.
In concluding, I would like to thank everyone who offered their support over my journey and made donations to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. I would also like to acknowledge my support crew Glen Marris, Harry McNally, Richard Patenall, Ashley Bennett, Scott Sutton, Holly Walton, and Chris and Linda Pearson, and sponsors Eyres – www.safetyoptics.com, Perth Integrated Health Clinic, Garland Cycleworks, Ravensdown, Kott Gunning Lawyers, Wheatbelt Office and Business Machines, Telstra Country Wide, WAFarmers, Giant, 2XU, Leisurelife Centre, Cannington Motorcycles, EmbroidMe Perth CBD, Super Advice and Sign-a-rama Burswood, for giving me the chance at the record.
PS: Perhaps I should go for a ride through the wheatbelt to see if I can bring about some more of that rain which is much needed for our farmers.