The Alcoa Great Australian Cycle Expedition

'Linking Communities through Sustainability Education'

As Red Lines go this one is a monster. 25,000km through the whole Australian continent. That's twice as long as the Trans-Siberian in 1993, and the weird thing is that Kate Leeming, who endured the Russian experience, is the brains behind this trip and got back in the saddle on May 10th 2004 knowing that for the next 10 months her life would consist of pushing the pedals and coping with some of the harshest conditions anywhere on the planet. Mind you, she is Australian so she's got no excuse for not knowing all this before setting off. The equally daft thing is that I went along as well. Mind you, I 'only' covered the first five months from Canberra in the south-east to Wiluna, in the middle of Western Australia, then had five months back in the UK before returning to Australia to complete the last stage with Kate from Melbourne to Canberra. My part of the expedition came to 8000 miles.

There was a lot more to this journey than simply wishing to explore one of the World's most amazing countries. 2005 - 2014 is the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, and our journey was an offical event on the UN's programme.
For full details, please visit our website: www.gracexpedition.org

Map key:

______ Greg and Kate, May 10th to Sept. 21st 2004.

______ Kate riding solo, Sept. 22nd '04 to 28th Feb 05. 2005. (Greg joined Kate again for the last section from Melbourne to Canberra, through the Snowy Mountains).

Expedition sponsors:

Alcoa World Alumina Australia
UNESCO
Australia Post
Giant Bicycles
The Green People Co. Ltd
Fujifilm UK
SRAM
Leatherman Tool Group
Mountain Designs
Wilderness Wear
Red Mist UK
Jax Presentation Concepts
Hewlett Packard
Going Solar
Jacaranda Atlases
Earth Systems
Schwalbe tyres

Kate's book about the trip, called 'Out There and Back', has now been published (July 07). Go to www.gracexpedition.org to visit the expedition website, review the book and order a copy. With 300 colour photos from the journey it gives a fantastic feel of what it's like to undertake such an adventure.

Adventure - Expeditions - Inspiration