Westpac Helicopter Mountain Bike Bash 2011

On Monday I arrived home after spending time in Australia participating in an eight-day mountain bike ride supporting the Westpac Rescue Helicopter.  This year was special as the ride was held in memory of my father-in-law, Brian Birchall, who was a board member and huge supporter of the service as well as a driver of one of the support vehicles for the past 8 years.

I got off the plane Thursday night in Tamworth, NSW after 36 hours of travel, had dinner with my mother-in-law and was on a bus heading to Rylstone, NSW the next morning.  On Saturday morning we set out on our 8 day ride over dirt, gravel, some technical single-track, a little tar and a bunch of hills.

 My borrowed bike and me on the first day of riding in Rylstone, NSW

Views of a typical dirt road near Rylstone

Stopped for a rest on a section of fireroad 

 Dunn's Swamp where we had lunch on Day 1

 An Echidna.  

Saw this little guy crossing the road and had to stop for a crappy cell phone picture.

Lunch stop on the way from Rylstone to Mudgee

 Cath and Scott

Steve "Deadrock" Livingstone and Andy Dowe

 Barry "Baz","Bazzaaaa" Walton, our fearless leader.

Deadrock cools off

Starting out on our wine-tasting tour of Mudgee

 Pieter van Gent Winery & Vinyard

 A toast to Brian. "To Birchy!"

 Bush vine Zinfandel at Lowe Wines

 Lowe Wines

USA vs. Australia

More wine tasting

 Yet another vinyard

Lawson Park Hotel in Mudgee

Between Mudgee and Gulgong.

 Deadrock's dinner in Gulgong

Gulgong

 Rest stop between Gulgong and Dunedoo (I am NOT making up the names)

A few more riders

Dunedoo

 Bikes!

Between Dunedoo and Coolah

Coolah, and yeat another Pub/Hotel

Exchanging of the jerseys ceremony

Day 7 Between Coolah and Quirindi (our 128km day)

 Start of Pandora's Pass

 Coming up near the top of Pandora's Pass

Me at the top with my new jersey

Breakfast at the other side of Pandora's Pass

 A causeway. Notice the stick on the left indicating water depth. 

It's what passes for a bridge in most of Australia

Morning tea stop in Werris Creek on the last day between Quirindi and Tamworth

 The stock route on the way to Tamworth

An iconic Aussie windmill

After 8 days of riding it's best not to ask

Sadly, I don't have any pictures from the awards ceremony held on Saturday night in Tamworth.

Before and After

Puppy Part 2

Meet "Sanorka's Buckley's Chance" aka: "Buckley," the latest addition to our family. Buckley is a Samoyed and we've had him for about 2 weeks now. He's 11 weeks old now and growing fast.

In this series of photos, shot over two weeks, you can see how fast he's growing by looking at his ears. The first day we had him, his ears were quite floppy but sometimes pricked up. And when he ran they flapped like a butterfly's wings. Now they are permanently erect and hardly move at all when he runs and jumps.